Heroines: Women in Military Service
No, not their age, most women I know are ageless. I am referring to their service to our republic. It began during the Revolutionary War, from 1775–1783. Women followed their husbands to war out of necessity. Many served in military camps as laundresses, cooks, and nurses. Some even disguised themselves as men to join in the battles.
Deborah Sampson served for more than a year in General Washington’s army disguised as a man. Her gender was discovered after she was wounded. She was honorably discharged and received a military pension from the Continental Congress.
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 S
panish-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.
Captain Kathleen McGrath became the first woman to command a U.S. Navy warship in 2000. The vessel was assigned to the Persian Gulf. In 2003, three Army women become prisoners of war in 1991–1992.
Colonel Linda McTague became the first woman commander of an Air Force fighter squadron in 2004. In 2005 Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester becomes the first woman awarded the Silver Star for combat action. And in 2008, 16,000 women served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Germany, Japan, and other related areas.
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Spiritus meus es tu. Ego semper fidelis. (35.3-12.4)
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