VETRAX NOV 2018 JIMMY LAPLANTE CVSO
Women have served in all of America’s major conflicts, beginning with the American Revolution –when some women disguised themselves as men to join the Continental Army. Women were hired in medical service in the wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. During the Civil War, women were hired as foragers for supplies, cooks and seamstresses, as well as saboteurs, scouts and couriers. (Dr. Mary Walker, an Army physician who served during the Civil War, was the first and only woman awarded the Medal of Honor for contributions in treating patients).
In the Spanish-American War, a typhoid fever emergency forced the Army to recruit 1,500 women under a civilian contract. This led to creation of both the Army and Navy Nurse Corps in the first decade of the 20th century.
Women were first recruited as members of the armed services in World War I. More than 35,000 served in roles ranging from nurses to telephone operators to clerks. It was the first war in which American women served overseas. Some died of illnesses in the field hospitals. Many were decorated, including three who received the Distinguished Service Cross, the combat medal for heroism second only to the Medal of Honor.
More than 350,000 women served in World War II. This war saw the first female officers. More than 200 military women of the Women’s Army Corps and Women Air Force Service Pilots died overseas or ferrying aircraft. Eighty-eight were held as prisoners of war.
The majority of women sent to Korea during the Korean Conflict and to Vietnam during the Vietnam Conflict were nurses. When the North Koreans invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) had just integrated eligible members of the corps into the regular Army. Also, during the previous two years, many former WAC enlisted women with prior service and former WAC officers had entered the Organized Reserve Corps (later called the Army reserve). The WAC’s had proved their value to the Army during World War II but it had taken almost three years for Congress to pass the law in 1948 that gave them a permanent place in the Army by granting them Regular Army and reserve status.
From the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 to the fall of Saigon in 1975, more than 265,000 women served as military nurses, physicians or in intelligence, supply, administration, and air support. Eight military nurses died while serving in Vietnam.