Revolutionary War• DEBORAH SAMSON**

• In October of 1778 Deborah Samson of Plympton, Massachusetts disguised herself as a young man and presented herself to the American army as a willing volunter to oppose the common enemy. She enlisted for the whole term of the war as Robert Shirtliffe

• For three years she served in various duties and was wounded twice

• Deborah Samson married Benjamin Gannett of Sharon and they had three children. During George Washington's presidency she received a letter inviting Robert Shirtliffe, or rather Mrs. Gannett, to visit Washington. During her stay at the capital a bill was passed granting her a pension, in addition to certain lands, which she was to receive as an acknowledgment for her services to the country in a military capacity as a Revolutionary Soldier

Disguised as a man Frances Clalin served many months in Missouri

artillery and cavalry units.

(By courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library)

• Both the Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of women. Women soldiers of the Civil War therefore assumed masculine names, disguised themselves as men, and hid the fact they were female.

• it is impossible to know with any certainty how many women soldiers served in the Civil War. Estimates place as many as 250 women in the ranks of the Confederate army

• Writing in 1888, Mary Livermore of the U.S. Sanitary Commission remembered that: Some one has stated the number of women soldiers known to the service as little less than four hundred

In the post–Civil War era

• Frank Moore's Women of the War, published in 1866, devoted an entire chapter to the military heroines of the North.

• Loreta Velazquez published her memoirs in 1876. She served the Confederacy as Lt. Harry Buford, a self-financed soldier not officially attached to any regiment.

• The press seemed unconcerned about the women's actual military exploits. Rather, the fascination lay in the simple fact that they had been in the army.

• The army itself, however, held no regard for women soldiers, Union or Confederate. Indeed, despite recorded evidence to the contrary, the U.S. Army tried to deny that women played a military role

Discharge document for a soldier with "Sextual incompatibility." (NARA, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917, RG 94)

• Sarah Edmonds Seelye served two years in the Second Michigan Infantry as Franklin Thompson (right). In 1886, she received a military pension. (Courtesy of the State Archives of Michigan)

She participated in approximately forty battles and skirmishes

Much of the information available on female Civil War soldiers is found in their obituaries. (NARA, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's–1917, RG 94)

• The women soldiers of the Civil War engaged in combat, were wounded and taken prisoner, and were killed in action. They went to war strictly by choice, knowing the risks involved. Their reasons for doing so varied greatly. Some, like Budwin and Hook, wished to be by the sides of their loved ones. Perhaps others viewed war as excitement and travel. Working class and poor women were probably enticed by the bounties and the promise of a regular paycheck. And of course, patriotism was a primary motive. Sarah Edmonds wrote in 1865, "I could only thank God that I was free and could go forward and work, and I was not obliged to stay at home and weep."(25) Obviously, other soldier-women did not wish to stay at home weeping, either.

The pattern of women disguising themselves as “men” to serve continued through the next several wars.

Mexican War

Spanish American

War for the Philippines

• WWIThirty Thousand Women Were There

• 1901 and 1908 the establishment of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps opened the door for women in the military but ever so slightly

• These were the first women in the U.S to be admitted to some military rank and status.

• Nurses were wounded, and l died overseas and are buried in military cemeteries far from home

Lettie Gavin's "American Women in World War I - They Also Served", 1997, University Press of Colorado.

WWII• Congresswoman Rogers introduced a bill on May 28 th,

1941, to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps for service with the Army of the United States. By virtue of its being an auxiliary corps there was no hint of full military status for women

• The bill was dissected, bisected, stalled, lost, amended, sandbagged, and all but trashed until General George C. Marshall took an interest

• the Bureau of the Budget continued to stall • General Marshall literally ordered the War Department

to create a womens corps. • However an event was to make the creation of a

women’s corp a necessity.

Pearl Harbor Changed the view

• Military nurses were very much involved at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941

• Eighty-two Army nurses were serving at three Army Medical Facilities in Hawaii that infamous December morning. Hundreds of casualties suffering from burns and shock were treated by Army and Navy nurses

• The Chief Nurse at Hickam Field, 1st Lt. Annie G. Fox, was the first of many Army nurses to receive a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

• Four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Bureau of the Budget stopped objecting, planners began to plan and a director, a training center and the appropriate equipment was gathered.

• Finally on May 14th 1942 the bill to "Establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps" became law

• Womens Naval Reserve and the Marine Corps Womens reserve.

• the first WAAC contingent was serving at the Allied Forces Headquarters in Algiers, North Africa

• By January of 1944 the first WACs arrived in the Pacific and in July of 1944 ,WACs landed on the beach at Normandy

• There were over one hundred thousand women in uniform at this point in time (non nurses)

Nurses• Two days after the bombing of Pearl

Harbor, 5 Navy nurses on Guam were taken prisoner

• They were repatriated in August of 1942. • Nurses received 1,619 medals, citations,

and commendations during the war, reflecting the courage and dedication of all who served. Sixteen medals were awarded posthumously to nurses who died as a result of enemy fire. Thirteen flight nurses died in aircraft crashes while on duty.

• Countless women served in all branches of the service and yet were denied full miltary status.

• When the flag waving stopped and Johnny came marching home, G.I. Jane was out in left field without a ball game, and millions of civilian women were literally kicked out of jobs and sent back to the kitchen. The war was over and there was no place for women in the military in the minds and hearts of many. The buzz word was demobilization and out- processing

• Eleanor Roosevelt had much to do with pushing the regularization of women in the military.

             

Poetic irony digression: When Eleanor Roosevelt taught at the Todhunter School years ago, one of her mottos, posted on the wall , was "Be All That You Can Be!"

• General Eisenhower strongly recommending that women become a part of the U.S. military.

• On the 12th of June, then President Harry Truman signed Public Law 625, The Women's Armed Services Act of 1948 in to effect.

• A law that was vague and full of loopholes. But it opened the door for dedicated women to serve their country in peace time. One thing it did not do, that is often misinterpreted, is create separate women's branches, corps or forces. The only unit to retain that distinction was the WAC. The rest of the women in the other branches of service were, for all intents, but not every purpose, fully integrated

• It just didn't happen that way.

KOREAN WAR (police action)

• When General MacArthur landed at Inchon, Army Nurse Corps officers also came ashore on the very same day of invasion. The 13 Army nurses of the 1st MASH and those of the 4th Field Hospital made the landing and by the end of 1950 over two hundred Army Nurse Corps officers were in Korea

• During the Korean era over 120, 000 women were on active duty. In addition to the nurses actually in Korea, many women served at support units nearby, in Japan and other far eastern countries

• By 1950's, almost a million women had worn the uniform of the United States Armed Forces. They had been prisoners of war; they had been wounded; they flew planes, planned strategies, nursed the casualties, and died for this country.

Viet NamOver five hundred WACs were stationed in Vietnam.

Women Marines were in Vietnam.

Over six hundred Women in the Air Force were there.

Army, Navy and Air Force Nurses and Medical Specialists numbered over six thousand.

Untold numbers of Red Cross, Special Services, Civil Service and countless other women were there.

Accurate records on how many women were there, what decorations they earned, where they served - and most important - what after effects they have suffered - and continue to suffer - are nonexistent.

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/

MANY OF THE FOLLOWING SLIDES ARE FROM SANDI CLAUSON

Numbers of Female Veterans

• There are about 1.4 million women vets

• From the American Revolution to Panama, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, women have served in every conflict

• 33,000 women served in WW I

• 500,000 served in WWII

• 120,000 served in Korean War

• 10,000 women deployed during Vietnam

Military Women Today

• Constitute almost 15% of active duty forces; 5% all vets are women.

• About 216,000 women are on active duty today with another 150,000 in the reserves and National Guard

• Their roles have changed to include more involvement in combat zones

WOMENS ROLES PAST AND PRESENT400 women generals and admirals on

active dutyNURSES

STAFF SUPPORT

MASH UNITS / HOSPITALS

CREW ON MEDICAL EVACUATIONS

INTELLIGENCE POSITIONS

OPERATIONS GROUPS

INFORMATION OFFICERS

CLERICAL

Naval Pilots Commanders of Naval Ships

Policy Changes In spite of a presidential commission advising

against lifting the female exclusion, it was lifted.

1992: The Defense Authorization Act repealed combat exclusion law for women pilots in the Navy and Air Force

1993: President Clinton signed the military bill ending combat exclusion for women on combatant ships

1994: Defense Sec. Aspin approved a new gen’l policy to allow Army women to serve with some ground combat units during fighting.

And, the USS Eisenhower, a Naval combat aircraft carrier received its first 60 women.

Policy Changes• Female officers can serve in all of the Navy’s

officer communities except submarines and with SEALS, and that is under review.

• Women can occupy 93% of the officer billets in the Navy and are eligible to serve in 97% of career fields; 10 women now command ships.

• 238 female Naval officers serve as Pilots and Naval Flight Officers; 54 women have reported to combat aviation squadrons.

Military Positions Closed• Army: infantry, armor, cannon field artillery,

short range defense artillery• Navy: submarine warfare, seals, fire control

techs, missile techs, sonar techs in submarine component.

• Marine Corps: infantry, armor, field artillery, security force guard protecting nuclear material, amphibious, assault units, and fleet anti-terrorism security teams

• Air Force: combat control, special forces, rotary aircraft, weather assignments with infantry/spec.

Except all coast guard occupations are open

Studies of PTSD involving women soldiers

• The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment study (NVVRS) is the only national study of Vietnam vets that included women.

• Of the 1,632 Vietnam vets in study, 432 were women, most were RNs and over ½ had served for 4 yrs.

• Study found that 27% suffered from PTSD during their post war lives

• PTSD affects more than 5 million Americans during the course of a year and 30% are women vets who are at twice the risk to develop PTSD than men.

Other Study Findings R/T Sexual Trauma

• A Dept. of Defense study in 1996 found that 69% of women experienced some form of sexual harassment while on duty.

• Often they do not report the crime due to issues of loyalty to their service, betrayal, role identification-soldier/victim.

• They may be medically boarded or given bad discharges, effecting their careers, and future.