March is women’s history month but this past December, when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women, I immediately thought that history had finally caught up to our government.
“There will be no exceptions,” Carter said at a news conference. “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers, and everything else that was previously open only to men.”
Then, I read a quote on social media from U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel who was the first woman to fly in combat. Said the Rhode Island native: “It’s about damn time.”
The irony of the announcement is that women had been fighting in combat long before Carter announced his landmark decision. They have fought courageously alongside their male counterparts throughout our nation’s history.
In fact, the first female Army soldier in American history was a Massachusetts native, Deborah Sampson, who, at 21, joined the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army disguised as a man, and taking the name of Robert Shurtliffe, her mother’s first-born child, who had deceased at the age of 8.
Her 5-foot-8 frame and physical strength managed to keep her gender undetected. When she was wounded, she took matters into her own hands to hide her true identity. At Tarrytown, New York, she suffered a saber wound to the head and at Tappan Bay she was shot in the thigh. Each time, she treated her own wounds, including removing the bullet in her thigh.
It was not until Sampson contracted typhoid fever while defending the capitol at Philadelphia the next year that her pretense was exposed and she was discharged.
On a 4-acre semicircle by the grand entrance of Arlington National Cemetery, a memorial pays tribute to Sampson and the role of all women who served in the U.S. armed services – all 2 million of them.
Dedicated in 1997, the memorial was the result of lobbying efforts and significant private fundraising dollars, recalls Gloria H. Tuperkeizsis, a Northampton native who helped lead the way. Up until 1997, female veterans had not received a lot of recognition, says Tuperkeizsis, who served in peace time in the late 1950s.
The best part of the memorial, Tuperkeizsis will tell you, is a registry with a computerized databank that contains the name, photograph and account of the service of women veterans. Tuperkeizsis sent in her information immediately.
It’s great to see grandchildren go to the museum, hit a few buttons and up pops a picture of their grandmother or great-grandmother, she says. “I think every woman who served should register,” she says, “because the history is so important.”
But getting the word out about the registry has been tough, says Tuperkeizsis, who keeps in contact with organizers in Washington and with other women veterans through memberships with veterans’ organizations. She is willing to meet with other women veterans from any generation to talk about the memorial and to share experiences.
Tuperkeizsis joined the military during a time when women were not encouraged to pursue professional careers, never mind enlist in the armed forces. While her service experience was positive, many female veterans had to face obstacles and challenges and discrimination – and often harassment and abuse just for the right to bear a weapon and serve their country.
Many women never considered themselves veterans or sought veteran status. This was particularly true for World War II women veterans, who, once the war was over, got married, raised their families, entered the work force and put their service time behind them.
When male veterans returned home, they took advantage of health, education and housing benefits to which they were entitled. But women vets did not receive the same attention and many like Tuperkeizsis didn’t know they qualified.
For many years, veteran hospitals had no wards for women and no facilities to perform gynecological services or mammograms. Mental health programs for women veterans were grossly lacking.
Slowly, these inequities have been rectified. All Veterans Affairs medical centers now have women veteran program managers who advocate for women and are required to provide counseling and treatment services for women who suffer from military sexual trauma. In May last year, the VA medical center in Leeds opened a new women’s health clinic, designed to meet the needs of a rapidly growing number of female veterans.
The next barrier is the draft. Now, only males register for the Selective Service System, a behind-the-times law that is incompatible with all other gender equality issues and certainly incompatible with equal citizenship.
Over hundreds of years of our nation’s history, opponents to allowing women to serve our country have typically used lame excuses that their presence would harm the cohesion and effectiveness of their fighting units. Women in the military have often been treated with contempt by senior officers, been exposed to snide leers of their male counterparts and been singled out for abuse.
Yet time after time, women, when placed in situations where they have found themselves in the line of fire, have proven to be as capable as men in handling the rigors of military service and have bravely and courageously represented all of us in uniform.
And that’s a historical fact worth celebrating this month and every month.
Editor’s note: To learn more about the women’s memorial and registry and to meet other women veterans in western Massachusetts, contact Gloria Tuperkeizsis at 586-1261. The Women Veterans Program Manager for VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System is Kim Adams. Adams can be reached at (413) 584-4040, extension 2240.)
John Paradis, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, lives in Florence and writes a monthly column that appears on the second Friday.