Public affairs in their entirety on our weekly series real america. Saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. Here on American History tv. Each week, American History tvs american art facts visits museums and historic places. Next, in the first of a twopart program, we visit the womens memorial Near Arlington National Cemetery to learn about women who served in the u. S. Military. From the revolutionary war through world war ii. This is about 40 mince. Im dina williams. President of the womens memorial foundation. Im a retired Major General from the army and were at the womens memorial in arlington cemetery. Its the only major memorial thats dedicated to women who served their country. We have over 3 million women who have worn the uniform. This memorial was dedicated in 1997. Over 40,000 people line memorial avenue. From the bridge to the memorial. Women from world war i through the current times in 1997. The memorial son 4. 2 acres. It has glass b tableted without him and by women. Or women who had fallen. Theres a line going through a Lincoln Memorial, you can see it as it comes up Memorial Drive with stones as it goes through our memorial up the road to our fountain and through the memorial, there are black tile, which youll see inside. That connects the Lincoln Memorial with the mansion or as we call it today, arlington house. It signifies a reunify kags of the north and south. Something that was pointed out when the bridge was dedicated. Again, it is a memorial to all those serving now, who have serve and really those into the future. My name is i am a retired Army Lieutenant colonel. Served proudly for 25 years in the United States army. I left active duty on a friday and came to work here on monday. I would recommend people dont do that. Any way. If you had been here 22 years ago, you would be underground. Under dirt. Because the original facade here at the memorial which forms one side of the memorial walls was dedicated in 1932 by Herbert Hoover and it was part of the Memorial Bridge project that obviously built Memorial Bridge, Memorial Drive then this ceremonial gateway to arlington b national cemetery. So 1932, three years into the depression, what happens . The memorial sits here and you can see that it was never finished. The niches are free of sculptures. The plaza was, was bare and it just sat here for some 65 years. And i always like to say it was for us to come along and bring this incredible memorial to Womens Service. To the nation. So in essence, this is the place where the nation says thanks to the 3 Million People who served. The memorial itself is operated and maintain ed by the women in military service for american memorial foundation. We are not for profit organization. That relies on donations of corporate and individual. It always pains me to say that of the money that has been raised to build and maintain this memorial, 74 of it is from the very women itself that it, that the memorial honors. So let me take you on a tour of this extraordinary place. The memorial is set up so that its chronicles the hshistory o Womens Service. So gipg with the American Revolution until today. So well try to go on that journey together starting with the American Revolution. One woman we love to point out was a woman named Deborah Sampson gannett, actually. She disguised herself as a man because not only did women serve with the military as cooks and thins of that sort, following the troops, some actually disguised themselves as men because they just wanted to serve. And Deborah Sampson is a, she was an incredible story. She joined the massachusetts regiment and she was wounded twice. Served in the battle. When she was wouned, she treated her own wounds so she wouldnt be found. And she got sick. I dont know if it was a flu or whatever. And it was examined by a doctor and was discharged, but the key thing is that they did just discharge her from the military. She got a pension. Probably the first woman in history to get a pension. And in fact, when deborah passed away, her husband petitioned the government for a spousal benefit. Which in fact he got. Regrettably, he was dead by the time they granted it to him, but its quite a story. She served as robert shirtless. Another incredible character is. A surgeon. Trained in new york. The armys crying for surgeon. You know to come to help and take care of the sick and wound ed. She persisteded and in fact, she volunteered her services for some time. Fin finally, she was, they did hire her as a contract surgeon. She served in tennessee. She was taken prisoner. By the Confederate Forces. Held for four months. Down in richmond and was released in change Prisoner Exchange with some Confederate Forces and she was quite proud. She was exchanged for a Lieutenant Colonel. She thought that was pretty cool. When she served, she was equivalent to a lieutenant or captain. But remember, she was contract. Not in military itself. She was award ed, about several years really didnt meet the criteria for award of the medal. To send her medal of honor back. During the bicentennial, president cart er, he reinstituted the medal to dr. Walker. The important thing about that is shes the only woman in the history of the nation to receive it. We also credit her for pants for women. She was quite a character apparently. Home run pants and top hat which is op loan for us from a collector in california. She was a trail blazer, definitely. So we move down the gallery, of Womens Service to the nation, to our next image panel. Which speaks to wims service from early years of 1900 through to world war 2. Whats important about the this panel is that it presents women who did so well in their service in the spanish american war, the nurses, because the army was crying for nurses and dar help ed they should create and so in 1901, february of 1901, the Army Nurse Core was established. And after in 1908, the navy created the corps. They were just given the title of nurse. We understand the male members of congress didnt want them ordering men around. But finally, primarily for pay purposes legislation was passed that gave them relative rank. Again, he couldnt be ordering these men around. So whats critical about that is that they were in place. Where actually the first for the first time women were actually in the military. So we have world war i looming an the secretary of navy, daniels, was so concerned b about the fleet was growing. So they knew what they had to find. It took too long. And so he turned to his staff and said so can we, can women serve . As an aside, but at any rate, he was really ahead of his time. It just said citizens. So he jumped on that. From and 1917 was the first, a young woman, she was a clerk. She became first woman to enlist in the military. The marines didnt bring women in until about a year later in 1918. Just a few months before the war was over. But never the less, they brought women in. The army wouldnt have anything to do with it. They didnt want to bring women in at all. Except for the nurses. Particularly one of the things he needed was telephone operations to operate these new systems. It so happened that the only people, at least the initial people trying to be telephone operators were women. They contracted some i think it was 233 women to be telephone operators. To be trained by at t. Some were at fort meade and served in france sh england and germany. Never got him until 1977. But they called them the hello girls. Another Pivotal Point i would say with world war i. Of course women were crying to have full citizenship. And one of the arguments against having giving them the society was the fact they didnt, they didnt fulfill the duties of is citizen, ie, didnt serve in the military. But women who served down world example that indeed women are serving their full citizen requirements. It was actually the service of military women in world war i that was sort of the Tipping Point to give women the vote in the passage of the 19th amendment. She was so wedded to this memorial. Her family when helene passed away gave us her world war i victory medal. When she visited, bless her heart, she opened her purse and showed us her dog tag, which she said she had carried with her since world war i everywhere. World war ii is looming and we go through the same thing. I dont know if we want these women in the military. But the military did step out and created the womens Army Auxiliary core in early 1942. But they were contract. I dont even know if they knew that. They were part of that group in 1977 that fought to get benefits too 3 the wacs served in every theater of the war including overseas. The other women were allstate side except for the nurses. Wacs, army and navy nurses. Eleanor roosevelt was a great advocate of women serving in the military. So these are the women in the four components who stepped up to be the leaders of each of the womens components. The Womens Army Corps performs a full military part in this war. Generals marshall and eisenhower partnered with with congresswoman from massachusetts and maine in putting forward legislation that gave women a permanent place in the military. So we didnt have to start all over again with what uniformed, where are these people going to serve. But wed have a core of qualified women. That was called the Womens Armed Services Integration act which was passed in 1948. Women could only be 2 of the force. They could not achieve a grade higher than Lieutenant Colonel or commander in the navy. You could see women just wanted to serve. Also some critical points in that legislation, women couldnt serve on combat ships or aircraft. And there were other pieces in the legislation that dealt with pregnancy, marriage, benefits, all kinds of things that prohibited Womens Service to an extent, but nevertheless it was a foot in the door for us to serve on a permanent basis. So in 1967, that provision of the law that prohibited women from serving above the grade of Lieutenant Colonel or commander, that was rescinded and we had our first women general officers promoted to one star in 1970. And they were anna mae hayes. So the first woman in the history to be a general officer was a nurse, rightfully say. Shortly thereafter elizabeth hoisington. So you can see how that progressed over time as those provisions of the law were challenged and fell away. As we come closer to todays military, we have an astronaut, wendy laurchs. Wh lawrence. Wendys dad was an admiral. He had been training to be an astronaut as well but obviously the war turned that around. So she followed in his footstep. I think thats such a wonderful story of Womens Service. You can see that from the early years to today the transition on Womens Service. So we move from the images this lead us on the journey from the American Revolution today to the specific exhibits that relate to the wars. One of the things we wanted to do at dedication was to make sure that we were able to have the world war ii women be able to see themselves. So we wanted to finish their permanent exhibits because we werent sure they would be able to come back to see their memorial. They came from every area of the United States. Maddie pennet went to england, north africa. The boat she was on was torpedoed. Toward the end of the war she became part of the personal staff of general eisenhower. This is this young woman from ft. Kent, maine, end of route 1. Shes just kind of indicative of the women who served during that time. Its wonderful to hear the stories of the families that come in or theyve had a teacher or whomever who served during world war ii. You know, those women changed america. They came home from the war. They had the g. I. Bill. For the first time they could go to college on their own or get some training on their own. And they did. They became our teachers, they were business leaders, they were involved in their communities in different ways because of the things they had learned in the military. They were parachute riggers, Link Trainers where they taught men to fly. They served in various places here in washington, d. C. Many of them served in intelligence areas, were part of the team that broke the japanese code. Xray technicians, inspectors of harmy meat, teachers schoolig our soldiers. Wacs are classification experts, assignment interviewers. So this is a mans war, is it . Wacs are doing every sort of transport job, testing walkietalkies, testing radio tubes. Those are just a few of the jobs they do. There are 239. One of the things thats interesting when you meet women in the military and they talk about their uniforms. In world war ii they issued everything from their hose to their underwear to their daily uniforms. Its funny when they talk about how they train, some of them didnt have initially the proper things to do calisthenics, for example. So we have some examples of the things they were issued, their bed clothes, their hose, certainly their hats and their shoes. You know with the military everything is, the procedures are laid out for you. So we have all kinds of little manuals on how to put your uniform together. There are customs and courtesies of each of the services. Our next world war ii exhibit speaks to the women who served overseas. They were army and navy nurses in every theater of the war as well as the wacs. Some 80 women were taken prisoner of war by the japanese held in the philippines for almost three years, in the medical field, primarily all nurses. One of the pieces that we have that speaks to that is this clothes pin. What theyve told us in their stories and oral histories with us is that they were kind of on their own to gather their own food, to jerry rig different items that they would need to use on a daily basis. This one happens to be a clothes pin that they whittled and donated to us that kind of illustrates some of the things they had to do. And the interesting things with these nurses is that every one of them came home. And while they were in captivity they continued to nurse. They nursed their fellow prisoners, military as well as some of the civilians that were taken prisoner of war. One of the last ladies lived in new jersey, just passed away just a few years ago and talked about, we were fortunate to meet her and to be able to learn some of the things she did and what she had to do to tllive as a prisoner. When she came home, she had lifelong issues with teeth and dental issues because of the malnourishment. She talked about how she horde hoarded food because she went for three years without it. Some of them were in the administrative side of the house. They reviewed correspondence from the there were literally warehouses full of mail that had not been delivered to soldiers. So this specific unit was the only all woman black unit to be deployed. That was their mission, to get the mail off to the soldiers. They say every piece of mail got to a soldier. We had a number of women that lived here in the area. In fact, there was just a monument that was erected and dedicated just about a month ago out in kansas city at the airport there that was dedicated to the women of the 6888. It was quite a thing, because service was segregated at the time. One of my favorite pieces is these boots. Theyre called mosquito boots. It was over time until they finally got uniformed that were appropriate for women to wear under the conditions in which they were serving. So these boots, when the women first went into north africa and were dealing with mosquitos and malaria and all kinds of different diseases and here they are in skirts. So these boots, these wonderful boots were fashioned to cover their legs. As i said, they were called mosquito boots so they were protected from the ravishes of these diseases. The women of world war ii went places that american women had never gone and they did things that american women had never done before. They drove trucks. We have wonderful stories of women who had never driven before and they went into the marine corps, into the army. Theyre given these utility uniforms. So thats what they wore in maintenance and things of that sort. Thats an army uniform. Shes a sergeant. So this would have been her dress uniform, so to speak, not a formal uniform but what she would have worn on parade or whatever. In some cases perhaps if she was a clerk or whatever, she would have worn this uniform. The final panel of the world war ii women is the women who served on the home front. Their story is really quite amazing as well. We can tell stories of women, our mothers or our grandmothers who had some part of the war effort. Here we speak to the Women Air Force service pilots, 174 of them who flew 60 million miles back and forth across the United States, ferrying aircraft from the repair facilities, from the manufacturers to the ports to different units. 38 of them died in the line of duty. They were contract. There are stories of some of those 38 who passed away who because they were contract, the government did not send their bodies home. So the women among themselves raised money to send their bodies home. So they were really the first women in the military or with the military who flew aircraft. So here we are in world war ii, women flying aircraft. After the war is over and the womens amp ees Armed Services integration act, it prevented women f