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By Janie Blankenship and Shannon Hanson
A significant number of females are undergoing the rigors of war in
Afghanistan and Iraq. And when they return home their need for VA
services is increasing.
Making up 15% of active-duty forces, service women of today are
changing the way society has traditionally viewed females in war.
Women may not be allowed in infantry units, special operations or on
submarines, but that doesn’t mean their role in the war zone is any
less important.
But let’s hear it from those who were down range, and how it has
affected them.
Army Reserve Sgt. April Pashley became the first woman to earn the
Combat Action Badge (CAB) for her role in Iraq. Serving with the
404th Civil Affairs Battalion, Pashley stood her ground while
guarding the rooftop of a besieged building, which housed coalition
forces.
“This was the job I chose to do, and I do so with pride,” Pashley
said after receiving the CAB in 2005. “Seeing the changes in the
Iraqi people during my 15-month deployment was really something.”
Pashley’s story is just one of many illustrating that the current
wars have no distinct frontlines, and the enemy lurks behind every
corner. This is one explanation as to why the number of women killed
and wounded continues to rise. As of Jan. 20, 2007, 75 female
service members had died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (see chart
below).
As is often the case, a re-supply mission can turn deadly in a split
second due to roadside bombs. Female military police also put their
lives on the line when called to search Iraqi women at checkpoints,
where it is not unheard of for the Iraqis to be armed.
“You get up in the morning, you say your prayers and you hope to God
that you come back that night,” Spc. Ashley Pullen, who was with the
Kentucky National Guard’s 617th Military Police Company, told the
Associated Press while serving in Iraq. (Pullen is now a member of
Post 6281 in Edmonton, Ky.)
Some 28 women have been killed in roadside and suicide bomb attacks
in Iraq, while eight have been killed by indirect fire there,
according to Pentagon casualty reports.
While the number of female dead is small in comparison to their male
counterparts, it still is far greater than the total number of women
killed in the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars combined.
“My guess is that one of the results of this conflict is that there
will be a redefinition of women’s roles,” David Segal, director of
the Center for Research on Military Organizations at the University
of Maryland, told the Christian Science Monitor.
Socializing in the War Zone
While they hope to be regarded as equals with their male
counterparts, some female troops do try to stay in touch with their
feminine side. Others interact with “the guys” when time permits.
Spc. Melissa Petzholdt, for instance, saw her overseas tour as an
opportunity to make international friends. She befriended three
Italian soldiers whose unit was based at Tallil Air Base. They
played basketball together and talked a lot about life back home.
The guys talked endlessly to Petzholdt about their girlfriends. And
when Petzholdt went home to southern Missouri, her new friends came
for a brief visit.
“It was really great to have friends like that,” said Petzholdt, who
served with C Co., 1140th Combat Eng. Bn., Missouri National Guard,
in Iraq at Tallil from 2004-2005. “I’m still in touch with them
quite a bit.”
Staff Sgt. Tracy Lisenby spent 16 months in Iraq with the Wisconsin
National Guard. She told the Christian Science Monitor that she
tried to do “girl things” with other women when she had a day off.
They would wear makeup and dye each other’s hair.
1st Lt. Crystal Lauver ordered “Sex and the City” DVDs to watch in
her spare time while serving with the Army Reserve’s 458th Eng. Bn.,
attached to the 1st Cav Div., in Baghdad in 2004.
“I was the only female officer in the battalion,” Lauver said, “so
there weren’t many soldiers I was able to ‘hang out’ with outside of
work-related projects.”
1st Lt. LaShell Lentz said she tried to be more aware of her actions
when she was in the company of men while serving overseas.
She said that the men in her own platoon showed her nothing but
respect. Other men on base, however, took any sign of friendliness
from female troops as an invitation to make advances.
“All they see all day long is other men,” Lentz told The Daily Page
(Madison, Wis.). “So every woman is attractive to them. Some days,
it’s very flattering. On other days, you just want to punch them.”
Lentz spent a year in Kuwait driving trucks in convoys into Iraq
with Wisconsin’s 1158th Transportation Company.
It was important to Lentz to bond with other women during her
overseas service. She met fellow Guard soldiers Sarah Pelikan and
Tifany Gorges, with whom she grew close.
“To find someone who is like you is very difficult,” remarked Lentz.
“If I didn’t have them, it would have made life more difficult.”
VA Reaches Out to Women
Once women return home from a deployment, they have a new
designation: veteran. Some have found that all veterans are received
equally by society. “I was treated no differently than my male
peers,” Petzholdt said.
But others are greeted with surprise when they reveal they served in
war. “People tell me, ‘You’re not a veteran. You’re young, you’re a
girl,’” Spc. Jennet Posey, a mechanic in Iraq for nine months, told
the Christian Science Monitor. “We’re out there risking our lives,
but people don’t see it. Women veterans do not get the recognition
they deserve.”
Posey says she finds comfort in making connections with other women
vets. “When I come across a female veteran, it’s like a sisterhood,”
she says. “Especially if you were in Iraq, you know how I feel.”
She joined a group called National Women Veterans United and works
to spread the message about women vets.
Meanwhile, VA is doing its part to reach out to female vets as well.
In 1994, it created the Center for Women Veterans, with a mission to
make sure that:
• Women vets have access to VA benefits and services on par with
male vets.
• VA programs are responsive to gender-specific needs of women.
• There is outreach to improve women vets’ awareness of services,
benefits and eligibility criteria.
• Women vets are treated with dignity and respect.
Then, in 1996, the Women Veterans Health Program was established,
which today offers mental health counseling, medical services and
claims assistance. Mental health services include sexual trauma
counseling, substance abuse treatment, PTSD evaluation and
treatment, plus programs for the homeless, domestic violence victims
and vocational rehabilitation.
Relevant medical services offered by VA include gynecological
visits, reproductive health care, osteoporosis evaluation and
treatment, a maternity care benefit and infertility evaluation.
Eight Women Veterans Comprehensive Health Centers across the country
serve as prototypes for women’s health care centers. They develop
new and enhanced programs focused on the unique health care needs of
female vets.
In addition, every VA medical center has a Woman Veterans Program
manager on staff to assist female vets with any concerns they may
have.
Carole L. Turner, national director for the Women Veterans Health
Program and a former Air Force nurse, says much of VA’s success in
treating women veterans is owed to these managers. “They’re there to
help women veterans navigate the system,” she said. “They try to
ensure that the types of issues and concerns women might have or the
care they receive are being addressed by staff and facility leaders
who are sensitive to those needs.”
VA has come a long way in making sure women vets feel comfortable at
VA medical centers. “We’re seeing a dramatic increase in the number
of women veterans turning to VA for health care,” Turner says. “And
the satisfaction they’re expressing about the health care they
receive is improving tremendously.”
Additionally, all VA regional offices employ a women veterans
coordinator trained to assist in handling claims for female
conditions and those based on sexual trauma.
“VA offers one-stop care for the majority of biological,
psychological and social health care problems women might be
experiencing,” Turner said.
VFW is doing its part to ensure female veterans are educated about
their VA entitlements. For five years now, VFW’s National Veterans
Service has sponsored the Women’s Veterans Forum at the
organization’s annual national convention. At the 2007 convention in
Kansas City, Mo., women will have the opportunity to learn more
about health issues and VA benefits specific to them.
Last year in Reno, Nev., VFW members passed Res. 608, which calls on
Congress to sufficiently fund VA so that appropriate health care
services are available to female veterans.
VFW also produces and distributes a brochure, Women Veterans & VA
Benefits. It highlights VA services.
In 2008, VA will sponsor its fourth National Summit on Women
Veterans Issues in Washington, D.C. The event is scheduled for June
20-22 of that year.
Statistics About Today’s Military Women
As of Jan. 20, 2007
• Women vets today: 1.7 million 6.8% of total
• Percentage of women making up active-duty troops: 15%.
• Number of women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2002:
155,000.
• Killed: Afghanistan–10; 3 hostile and 7 non-hostile. Iraq–65; 41
hostile and 24 non-hostile.
• Wounded: Afghanistan–9; Iraq–453
Sources: VA and DOD
E-mail magazine@vfw.org
Editor’s Note: For the experiences of women in the military, read
Women at War: Iraq, Afghanistan and Other Conflicts by James E.
Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron, Naval Institute Press, 2006.
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