Women in the military face increasing opportunity and risk

When the U.S. Army's 507th Maintenance Company took a wrong turn in Nasiriyah and wound up as prisoners of war, their fate became one of the biggest stories to come out of the war in Iraq. The fact that there were three women among their ranks - Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa of Tuba City, Ariz., Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch of Palestine, W.Va., and Spec. Shoshana Nyrce Johnson of El Paso, Texas - has brought attention to the expanding role of women in the military.

Piestewa, 23, a Hopi Indian and mother of two, was the first U.S. servicewoman killed in Iraq; Lynch, 19, was rescued from an Iraqi hospital; and Johnson, a 30-year-old single mother, was rescued along with six other American POWs near Samarra.

Women are serving in greater numbers and are also closer to the frontlines of combat than they have been in previous wars. Women were restricted from participating in direct combat in the first Gulf War in 1991. But since 1994, more than 90 percent of service positions, which includes most combat assignments, have been open to women.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, there are about 140,000 women serving as officers and enlisted personnel in the U.S. military. Women represent 16 percent of the enlisted population in the Army, 14 percent in the Navy, 19 percent in the Air Force and 6 percent in the Marines. Black women represent 41.7 percent of enlisted women in the Army - the largest percentage of any other group.

"The Army is a great place for women, [particularly] African American women, to serve their country. Regardless of its warts, the Army has done a Herculean job to ensure that people are advanced on merit, not gender or race," says Brig. Gen. Velma Richardson, who has served nearly 30 years in the Army, where she is the highest-ranking African American woman.

Since the American Revolution (1775-1783) women have served in the military in traditional roles as nurses and performing domestic duties, but also as spies. During the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, it is believed that some women disguised themselves as male soldiers to fight on the frontlines. There is no documentation of Black women's military service in the Revolutionary War, but according to officials from the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, they may have served alongside Black men. Records do show that free Black women served during the Civil War as nurses, laundresses and cooks. Although they served in traditional roles, women found themselves in harm's way early on.

During World War II, 88 nurses were held as POWs. "There were also over 200 women killed by hostile fire in World War II," says Lory Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.

According to Manning the Iraq war has been a victory for women. "Thousands of women are over there and every one of them has gone above and beyond the call of duty - they've done their jobs, they've done them as well as the men, and the three women who were in 507 Maintenance handled themselves very bravely."

But Elaine Donnelly, a former member of the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces and president of the conservative Center for Military Readiness in Michigan, finds it disturbing that women, particularly mothers separated for long periods from their children, are serving at far greater risk. "The fact that three of our women were captured .. .to me it is not a step forward for women it is a step backwards for civilization," says Donnelly.

Manning, a retired Navy captain, disagrees. "We should be very proud of them and give them our greatest respect and try not to rip down their achievements."

The women's memorial in Arlington is finally providing a venue to pay tribute to women who have served in every branch of the military. The memorial is the nation's first major national tribute to military women and it wasn't dedicated until 1997.

For more than two centuries there have been many achievements for women in the military. And yet, Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, president of the memorial, says many women still don't see how they fit into military history. "It takes a while for them to realize what they did is important. It's a wonderful story of service, sacrifice and pride that is just now bubbling forth to the top."

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated May/Jun 2003
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