Background and Graphics by Debby Pearce

DATES TO REMEMBER, WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

Important Dates in the History of Women in the Military:

American Revolution: Women served on the battlefield as nurses, water bearers, cooks, laundresses and saboteurs.

War of 1812: Mary Marshall and Mary Allen nursed aboard Commodore Stephen Decatur's ship United States.

Civil War: Women provided casualty care and nursing to Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals and on the Union hospital ship Red Rover. Women soldiers disguised as men served on both sides. In 1866 Dr. Mary Walker received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first woman to receive the nation's highest military honor.

Spanish American War: More than 1,500 Army contract nurses served stateside, in Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and on the hospital ship Relief. Twenty nurses died.

1901: Army Nurse Corps established; Dita H. Kinney served as first Superintendent.

World War I: Navy and Marine Corps enlisted women to "free men to fight." Army and Navy nurses served in hospitals stateside and overseas. 233 bilingual telephone operators recruited by AT served overseas with the U.S Army Signal Corps.

1948: The Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 granted women permanent status in the Regular and Reserves forces of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and newly created separate Air Force.

1949: Air Force Nurse Corps and Army and Air Force Medical Specialist Corps established.

Korean War: Some 540 served in the combat zone; Army and Navy nurses in M.A.S.H. units, hospitals, on hospital ships and Air Force nurses with Air Evacuation units.

Vietnam War: About 7,500 American military women served tours in Southeast Asia. The majority incountry were Army nurses. Eight died.

1967: On November 8 President Johnson signed Public Law 90-130 repealing ceilings on women's promotions.

1970: Anna Mae Hays, Chief, Army Nurse Corps, and Elizabeth P. Hoisington, Director of the Women's Army Corps, were the first women promoted to general in June.

1971: Air Force promoted Jeanne M. Holm, WAF Director, to brigadier general.

1972: The military draft ended and more women were recruited. Revised service policies equalized treatment of women in dependency and entitlements matters and entry standards for men and women. Alene B. Duerk, Director, Navy Nurse Corps, became first female admiral.

1973: Six Navy women were the first women to earn military pilot wings. Jeanne M. Holm became first female major general.

1974: Army Lieutenant Sally Murphy became first military helicopter pilot. Department of Defense policy revisions to permit women to remain in the military while raising families.

1976: On October 7, 1975, President Ford signed Public Law 94-106 admitting women to the military academies. Women were enrolled in all service academies by fall of 1976.

1976: Fran McKee, first woman line officer promoted to rear admiral.

1978: The Coast Guard was first service to open all assignments to women. Margaret Brewer became the Marine Corps' first female brigadier general.

1978: On October 20, the Women's Army Corps (WAC) deactivated and its members integrated into their basic branches.

1978 women served on U.S. Navy ships for the first time.

1979: Hazel W. Johnson, Army Nurse Corps, became the first black woman brigadier general and first black Chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

1983: Lieutenant Colleen Nevius became the Navy's first woman test pilot. 170 women were deployed to Grenada on Operation Urgent Fury.

1984: Kristin Holdereid graduated top of her class at the Naval Academy.

1986: Air Force women served as pilots, copilots, and boom operators on the KC135 and KC-10 tankers that refueled FB-111s during the raid on Libya.

1989: 770 women deployed to Panama in Operation Just Cause. Kristin M. Baker named brigade commander and first captain of the West Point Corps of Cadets.

War in the Persian Gulf: Some 40,000 American military women deployed on Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Two Army women were taken prisoner. Thirteen military women died.

1991: Servicewomen deployed to Honduras. Passage of the 1992 Defense Authorization Bill repealed laws banning women from flying in combat.

1993: Air Force Lieutenant Jeannie Flynn entered combat pilot training. Congress repealed ban on women serving aboard combat ships. Servicewomen deployed to United Nations' forces in Bosnia and Somalia.

1994: Navy women joined the crew of a carrier, USS Eisenhower. Women deployed with U.N. forces in Rwanda. Navy women served on combat ships in Haiti, Operation Uphold Democracy. Combat pilot, Navy Lt. Kara S. Hultgreen died in a training accident off the USS Abraham Lincoln.

1995: Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen M. Collins became the first woman pilot of a space shuttle, the Discovery. Marcelite Harris, USAF, was the first black woman to attain the rank of major general.

           

Buttons by Hollie