Women’s History Month: Serving and Protecting since the Nations Inception

It’s understandable that since the beginning of time, women have been sheltered and protected. Without them, the human race would cease to exist. But we aren’t cave people anymore. Women have proven to be strong, independent, capable and worthy of equal rights and opportunities that extend beyond being vessels for the continuity of the human race.

Women became “citizens” of the United States and given the right to vote in 1920. Yet they served in the military LONG before they were even allowed an opinion regarding their commander in chief.

During the Revolutionary war, many women dressed as men and fought alongside their husbands in combat. Some served as spies. Rumor has it that over 1,000 women dressed as men and fought in the Civil War. Another 20,000 women served their country as nurses for both the Union and Confederate armies. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, obtained an exceptional “military pass” allowing her to enter battlefields to treat wounded soldiers.

WWI marked women’s official entry into the military ranks. Eleven thousand women joined the Navy as yeomen serving in stateside roles such as clerics, radio and telegraph operators and torpedo assemblers. WWII saw the enlistment of women across all military branches; 350,000 female soldiers served in non-combat roles but with increasing responsibility: test-flying aircraft, training male counterparts in air combat strategy and still serving the front lines as nurses. Colonel Ruby Bradley of the US Army Nurse Corps was held captive for over three years in an internment camp in the Philippines and still managed to perform 230 major surgeries and deliver 13 babies as a POW.

Women were given the permanent opportunity to serve in the military in 1948. They fought in the Korean War. They were promoted to Generals during Vietnam and allowed to command units that included men, an opportunity that did not exist before 1972. Retired Captain Rosemary Mariner of the US Navy was the first woman to earn her pilot's wings (1972), first to fly a tactical fighter jet (1975) and first to command a naval aviation squadron (1990). In 2005, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester was the first woman awarded a Silver Star for direct combat action in Iraq.

It wasn’t until just seven years ago that the ban on women in combat was officially lifted. Over 50 women have since graduated from the US Army Ranger School. In 2020, the first woman was assigned to a Green Beret team after successfully completing the Army Special Forces Qualification Course. Only one other woman ever completed the training, then Captain Kathleen Wilder in 1980. After completing the course, she was denied the right to graduate which she fought with a sex discrimination complaint. She won and was officially graduated and permitted to wear the prestigious tab when it was created in 1983. However, she was never assigned to a team since there was a ban on women in combat.

It wasn’t until 2016 that the first woman was granted the prestige of being the highest ranking woman in the US military. General Lori Robinson of the US Air Force was given command of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and NORTHCOM (US Northern Command). Last year, on International Women’s Day (March 8th), President Biden nominated the only active-duty female to hold the rank of four-star General to head the US Army Transportation Command. General Jacqueline Van Ovost currently serves as the Commander for USTRANSCOM. That same day, Biden also nominated General Laura J. Richardson to be Commander of the US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) who was then given her fourth star and is currently serving that role.

It’s taken hundreds of years for women to be recognized as the brave, capable and honorable soldiers they have always been. Share your stories about courageous women you know in the military below. They deserve the recognition and women’s history month is just the excuse we need to call out their exemplary service.