Adjutant Mike - June News
Women Veterans Day, also referred to as Women Veterans Recognition Day and Women Veterans Appreciation Day, is observed on June 12th, a date chosen to mark the anniversary of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act. Not yet recognized nationally. There are many states that have passed legislation or a proclamation.
Even though women have been serving since the Revolutionary War, President Harry S. Truman on June 12, 1948, signed into law the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, it enabled women to serve as permanent, regular members of not only the Army but also the Navy, Marine corps, and the recently formed Air Force. Prior to then, only women nurses could serve in the regular and reserve forces during peacetime.
Women in Texas led the charge with Governor Greg Abbot signing Women Veterans Day into law on June 9, 2017. Many states have followed. Veterans, active members of the military, and civilians are all encouraged to reach out to their state's Veterans .Administration to urge lawmakers to recognize this important date.
· 1115 Women serve in George Washington's spy ring during Revolutionary War
· 1182 Deborah Sampson, disguised to serve in Continental Army
· 1865 Mary Edwards Walker, 1st Female Medal of Honor Recipient
· 1866 Cathay Williams, First African American Woman to Enlist
· 1948 Congress Passes Women's Armed Services Integration Act
· 1912 Elizabeth Barrett, was the first fem ale to hold operational command in a combat zone.
· 1980 The first women to graduate from the service academies
· 1992 Wendy B. Lawrence, the first Navy Woman selected as an .Astronaut by NASA
· 1994 The Center for Women Veterans was established by Congress
· 1995 Martha McSally, the First Female fighter pilot to fly on a mission in Iraq
· 2008 Army General Ann Dunwoody, the first female to achieve a four-star officer rank
· 2015 All military positions officially opened to qualifying individuals regardless of gender
· 2016 Army Capt. Kristen Griest, the first female infantry officer in American History
This legislation was radical for its time, and yet it placed limitations on women's service that seem astonishing today. Under the law's provisions and implementing policies women could:
1. Constitute no more than two percent of the total force and the number of women officers could not exceed ten percent of that total.
2. Promotions for women officers were capped above paygrade 03 (Army, Air Force and Marine Corps Captain and Navy Lieutenant) Only a limited number of women could serve above that paygrade, and they could not serve permanently as Navy Captains or Colonels in the other services.
3. They were barred altogether from Flag and General Officer ranks. The Coast Guard was not included in the legislation.
4 Woman were banned from serving aboard Navy ships except for transports and hospital ships and aboard any aircraft that could have a combat mission. Ground Combat was excluded from this legal ban because Congress considered the idea of women in ground combat as too ridiculous to warrant inclusion.
5. Women were denied spousal benefits unless their spouses were verified as unavoidably dependent on their wives for at least fifty percent of their support.
6. Women were also excluded by policy from exercising Court Martial or Non-Judicial Punishment authority over men which made them ineligible to command any units that were not all-female.
7 Any woman who became pregnant, became the guardian of a child under 18 or married a man with a child under 18 who spent more than 30 days per year in the household was discharged from service.
Reference: https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/truman-and-womens-rights
