Women Change Face of Military

Though their roles have significantly changed, women have helped defend U.S. soil since the birth of our nation.
Taken from the Veterans of Foreign Wars magazine.

By Janie Blankenship
Women may make up 15% of today's active-duty forces, but there was a time when females had to don men's clothing to serve their country.

In 1778 during the Revolutionary War, there was Deborah Samson, alias, Robert Shurtliff, who served with the 4th Massachusetts Regiment for three years until her femininity was discovered when a brain fever put her in the hospital. Later, in the Civil War, Jennie Hodgers served with the 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry as Albert Cashier. Her identity wasn't revealed until 1913.

Not all women served in disguise, though. Dr. Mary Walker was a contract employee with the Army during the Civil War and was taken prisoner in Richmond, Va., for five months in 1864. President Andrew Johnson awarded her the Medal of Honor, but it was later rescinded during a comprehensive congressional review. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored the honor.

One female veteran of great historical significance to VFW is Theresa Erickson. The first regular Army nurse to set foot on the Philippines in 1898, Erickson stayed there for three years.

She later did duty along the Mexican border in 1916 before heading to France in WWI. After serving her country in three wars, Erickson returned to Minnesota and joined Post 7 in Minneapolis during the '20s.

Erickson was VFW's first female member and considered the organization to be one of great importance. "It is the comradeship that counts," she once said. "The Veterans of Foreign Wars seems to be the only organization which perpetuates that bond. I have enjoyed every minute I have given to the Veterans of Foreign Wars' work, and I feel that I have benefited by it."

Oddly enough, however, membership was closed to women in 1944. It wasn't until 1978 the ranks were once again opened to women vets.

'I Thought They Needed a Woman'
In WWII, women joined the military to see the world and also because patriotism was at an all-time high. Opportunity was knocking, and the women knew how to answer. They were much like the women of today, except times have given way to many changes.
Prior to the start of WWII, women in both the Army and Navy Nurse Corps were enjoying military life. Those seeking adventure sailed off to the Philippines where they would work during the day and plan their evening activities, which included taking in a movie, bowling or having a few drinks.

The lure of the world captured the imagination of many young women, like Helen Cassiani, who volunteered for service in the Philippines in early 1941. When she told her mother good-bye before shipping out, it would be their last words to each other, since her mother later died. "Cassie" as she was known, later became one of the Army nurses held by the Japanese on Corregidor.

Jackie Voelkl of Tustin, Calif., can relate. Her father died while she was stationed in Paris during the war. "I had a chance to go home and see him when he was dying, but I didn't," said Voelkl, commander of Post 6024 in Mission Viejo. "He wouldn't have wanted me to because he was a military man and would understand."

Although she admits to being patriotic, Voelkl said she signed up for the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in December 1942 because she was 21 and could. It wasn't until March 1944 that she volunteered to go overseas and headed to England where she served as a secretary for a commander of a base.

"In December, seven of us girls had orders to head to France," she said. "So we got to London and were fogged in. Of course, this was during the Battle of the Bulge, which we didn't know was going on."

Voelkl and her fellow WACs hung out in London and "went pubbing" and had a grand time. On Christmas Eve, the fog lifted, and the women were put on a plane and flown across the channel to Versailles, France. They arrived in time for midnight Mass there.
Voelkl recalled a humorous incident after she arrived for duty in Paris. She and the other WACs were put up in a VIP hotel. "Well, it was just embarrassing to be in that fancy place, because you know what they all thought we were," she said, laughing. "We'd come in twirling our keys so they could tell we were really guests there."

Voelkl, who worked for Gen. Robert McClure, head of the Army's psychological-warfare office, said in spite of the times, women were very much accepted into military life. "I hear about the harassment in the military today, and it makes me sick," she said. "We were treated with nothing but respect. I believe the men have changed more over the years, not the women."

Korean War vet Viola Rieck of Algona, Iowa, agrees. An Army finance officer stationed in both Korea and Japan, Rieck's fellow soldiers counted her as totally dependable.
"When officers would choose someone to go with them to deliver payroll to Korea, it would be me," she said. "They knew how I felt. I didn't want some man with little children dying when I could have."

Today, she vividly remembers the time she bumped into her brother, a Marine on leave in Yokahama. Rieck, who hadn't seen him in two years, screamed, causing quite a scene. "I'll never forget that moment," said Rieck, a life member of Post 1623 in Waterloo, Iowa. "We were very close, and as children during WWII, we'd play Army," she said.

In her off time, Rieck spent hours at the hospital writing letters for the wounded or bathing them. It was for those opportunities, Rieck said, that she joined the Army in the first place.

A childhood friend had been killed in Korea, and Rieck enlisted as a patriotic gesture. "I thought they needed a woman in there [the hospital] to kind of take over and help do things men can't do," she said. "Like sympathize with them. Some of the guys in the hospital would say to me: "How can I go back to a girlfriend with an arm missing?' I'd say, 'You've got a whole lot more left to you than one arm.'"

Nurses serving in Vietnam saw their fair share of wounded, as well. In her book American Daughter Gone to War, former Army nurse Winnie Smith recounts the smell of phosphorous burning through layer upon layer of flesh and the sight of blood pulsating from a young soldier's chest after being hit by shrapnel. And she remembers the dying. In one instance, she actually recalls a sense of relief following a death.

"The doors bang open again. Despair clutches at my throat. We can't handle any more," she wrote. "I see Luke there alone. The last burn [victim] must have bitten the dust. I realize I'm grateful he's dead. I've traded my soul for one less soldier to worry about."
Not all women in Vietnam served with the Army Nurse Corps. (A memorial to women who served in Vietnam was dedicated near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1993.) Stationed at Long Binh from 1968-69, Cathy Brock was a WAC secretary assigned to the Force Development Division, U.S. Army, Vietnam. She wound up making the Army a career, retiring in 1985.

"For young women, the military is probably the best equal opportunity employer in the United States," said Brock, a member of Post 3274 in Hobbs, N.M. "Do the best you can do at everything, and you will advance based on your abilities, man or woman."
Having served at Camp Bondsteel in the Balkans in 2001, former Reservist Cherie Davis-Keeter found this to be true. "The worst treatment--believe it or not--was from fellow women soldiers who had something to prove," Keeter said. "I would take a male drill instructor over a female nine out of 10 times."

Keeter, who was a chaplain's assistant with the 399th Combat Support Hospital, said she would encourage other women to consider joining the military. Still, she thinks doing a tour in the Reserves or National Guard is the way to start.

Women Make Strides in Military Roles
Women have come a long way in their roles in the armed forces. Lt. Sarah Fritts, for instance, is one of only two female pilots with the 3rd Sqdn., 7th Cav, 3rd Inf. Div. A platoon leader, Fritts discovered her attitude toward fighting in Iraq last spring was different from that of her male comrades.

"Everyone was like, 'Yeah, get them,' and I was having trouble with that really aggressive attitude," Fritts told the Christian Science Monitor. "I was saying, 'There's no reason to go level 50 homes.'"

Then there's Capt. Jennifer Wilson, a B-2 pilot with the 393rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron. Last April, she became the first female B-2 pilot to fly a combat mission. Formerly a B-1 Lancer pilot, Wilson also flew in Operation Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999.

"I wasn't scared," Wilson said after the mission in Iraq. "We've all trained quite a bit leading up to this operation. I knew I was going to be able to come through and get the job done."

Army Capt. Kimberly Hampton of Easley, S.C., epitomized the strides women have made in the military before dying Jan. 2 in a helicopter crash in Iraq. She was an 82nd Airborne Division commander of a company-sized unit of eight Kiowa helicopters and about 80 soldiers.

According to Brig. Gen. Richard Rowe, the 82nd's assistant commander for operations, Hampton was typical of the men and women in today's military. He told The State newspaper (S.C.) that it's sad the American public is learning about today's soldiers only after they die in combat. Hampton was 27 and had wanted to fly since third grade.
"She was doing what she enjoyed," her mother, Ann, told the Associated Press. "She was trained well, and she felt it an honor to serve her country."

Further Reading:
Bruer, William. War and American Controversy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1997.
Cornum, Rhonda and Copeland, Peter. She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story., Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1992.
Holm, Jeanne. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1992.
Norman, Elizabeth. We Band of Angels. N.Y.: Random House, 1999.
Smith, Winnie. American Daughter Gone to War. N.Y.: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1992.

Women as Prisoners of War
Long before the days of $1 million book deals and made-for-television movies, women were taken prisoners of war. Though their physical abuse was minimal in comparison to their male counterparts, the malnourishment and psychological torment were equally punishing.

In fact, the 88 Army and 12 Navy nurses imprisoned on Corregidor in WWII continued to care for the sick and wounded even though they, too, were in a weakened state.

In Elizabeth Norman's We Band of Angels, Army nurse Helen Cassiani recalled hobbling around. "We lived on the second floor of the main building. It got to the point where you had all you could do to make the first set of stairs when you'd discover you have to sit down."

These mothers, wives, sisters and daughters found themselves trying to survive under horrific conditions. When the nurses couldn't figure out how to operate the foreign toilets, the Japanese captors sprayed the "contents" onto them.
Josie Nesbit noted the drastic changes in her fellow nurses: "Their eyes gradually sank deeper into hollowed cheekbones. Their gait slowed down more and more as their strength grew less."

Fast-forward 60 years to the Iraq War when Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch joined the POW ranks. The nation seemed stunned, as if this were the first time female POWs were held in Iraq.

True, the experiences of Lynch and Johnson were traumatic, but not new. In 1991, Maj. Rhonda Cornum, a doctor with the 2nd Bn., 229th Attack Helicopter Regt., 101st Abn. Div., was taken prisoner after Iraqis shot down her Black Hawk helicopter.

Among other injuries, she suffered two broken arms, making her imprisonment even more painful. In her book She Went to War, Cornum chronicles her experiences, including assault by her captors. Even with broken limbs, Cornum was sexually abused, something she said she had always expected would happen if captured.

"I had promised myself I wouldn't scream unless I was in life-threatening danger or something was so painful I couldn't stand it," she wrote. "But when he [her Iraqi captor] tried to yank the flight suit down over my shoulder, it was like a jolt of electricity had shocked me to the bone. My scream made him stop for a second."

Cornum survived her time as a POW, pursuing a successful military career. She is now the commander of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany--the first female commander since the hospital's opening in 1953.