Today is the first day of National Women’s History Month. This marks the 30th Anniversary of celebrating Women’s History Month and this year’s theme is “Writing Women Back into History”.
Women are particularly missing from Military history…not that are aren’t accounts, they’re just not widely known. Women comprise ~14% of the armed forces today. Approximately 1.7 million troops have been deployed in the War on Terrorism since 9/11, of which 190K were women. Women are coming back from OIF/OEF need FAR more support than ever before. Additionally, approximately 700 women have been awarded the Purple Heart since 9/11.
Did you know that BGen Margaret A. Brewer (retired) became the very first woman flag officer of the USMC? While the Women Marines Association has been pretty good at trying to preserve our history and other websites have done a great job of consolidating information, who knows what other women military firsts there are because information is simply not being captured.
The Department of Defense supports “Women’s History Month”, and includes this excerpt in their 2010 MarAdmin:
3. TODAY, OVER 13,100 FEMALE MARINES SERVE ON ACTIVE DUTY AND MORE THAN 5,100 FEMALE MARINES SERVE IN THE MARINE CORPS RESERVE. SINCE 2003 CLOSE TO ELEVEN THOUSAND FEMALE MARINES HAVE DEPLOYED AT LEAST ONCE IN SUPPORT OF THE WAR ON TERRORISM AND OF THESE FEMALE MARINES, SEVEN HAVE PAID THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE.
What are you doing to raise awareness for military women during this year’s National Women’s History Month?