Mary Marshall and Mary Allen served as nurses aboard the USS United States at the request of Commodore Stephen Decatur during the War of 1812.

During the Mexican War, 1846–1848, Elizabeth Newcom enlisted in the Missouri Volunteer Infantry as Bill Newcom and marched 600 miles to winter camp in Colorado before being discovered and discharged.

During the American Civil War, 1861–1865, women served as matrons (administrators) of hospitals as well as nurses and cooks in both the Union and Confederate battlefield hospitals. Wealthy women helped fund permanent hospitals. Dr. Mary Walker became the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor. Women served as spies and some, disguised as men, served as soldiers as well.

During the Spanish-American War, 1898, 1,500 civilian women served as nurses assigned to Army hospitals in the U.S. Hundreds more served as support staff, spies, and a few disguised themselves as men to serve in the military.

Women joined the military during last two years, 1917-1918, of World War I. 33,000 women served as nurses and support staff officially in the military and more than 400 nurses died in the line of duty.

Opha Mae Johnson was the first of 305 women to be accepted for duty in the Marine Corps Reserve on 13 August 1918. Most women filled clerical billets at Headquarters Marine Corps during World War I to release male Marines qualified for active field service to fight in France. Other women filled jobs at recruiting stations throughout the United States. On 30 July 1919, after the war was over, orders were issued for separation of all women from the Corps.

Women were back to “free a Marine to fight” twenty-five years later when the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve was established in February 1943. 23,145 officer and enlisted women reservists served in the Marine Corps by the end of World War II. Women Marines in World War II performed over 200 military assignments including clerical work, parachute rigging, mechanics, radio operators, map makers, motor transport support, and welders. Women reservists made up 85 percent of the enlisted personnel on duty at Headquarters, Marine Corps by June 1944. Two-thirds of the female personnel manned major posts and stations in the United States and Hawaii. Following the surrender of Japan, demobilization of the Women’s Reserve proceeded rapidly, but some returned to service as regulars under the 1948 Act.

During World War II, 1941–1945, more than 400,000 women served at home and abroad as mechanics, ambulance drivers, pilots, administrators, nurses and in other non-combat roles. Eighty-eight women were captured and held as POWs.

Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act in 1948, granting women permanent status in the military subject to military authority and regulations and were entitled to veteran’s benefits.

More than 50,000 women served at home and abroad during the Korean War from 1950-1953. 500 Army nurses served in combat zones and many Navy nurses served on hospital ships.

7,000 women volunteers served, mostly as nurses in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard during the Vietnam War from 1962–1972.

In 1973, the military draft (only for males) ended and an all-volunteer military was formed to create opportunities for women.

In 1976, the first females are admitted to the U.S. Military Academy, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.

Navy and Marine women served on non-combat ships as technicians, nurses, and officers in 1978. During the Persian Gulf War, 1991–1992, more than 41,000 women were deployed to the combat zone. Two were taken captive. And in 1991, Congress authorized women to fly in combat missions followed in 1993 when they were authorized to serve on combat ships; and then in 1998 Navy and Marine women fighter pilots flew combat missions off aircraft carriers in Operation Desert Fox in Iraq.

Ladies. Thank you for your service. Our grateful nation owes every one of you a debt that can never be repaid. 

God Bless us all and God Save our female American Heroes. Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our American Flag, our culture, our country, our civilization, our currency, our children, our liberty, our safety and our future need you now more than ever.