I am president of the womans memorial foundation, im a retired Major General from the army we are at the womans memorial in arlington cemetery. It is the only major memorial that is dedicated to women who served their country. We have over 3 million women who have worn the uniform of the United States. This memorial was dedicated in 1997. Over 40,000 people lined memorial avenue, from the bridge to the memorial. Women from world war one, through to the current time in 1996. The memorial is on 4. 2 acres of park service lent. Behind me, you can see the headstone of Arlington National cemetery. That surrounds the park service lent. The memorial is composed of Education Center, the court of valor, a terrace that has glass tablets with quotations about women and buy women. There is a pool where we have ceremonies them, especially on memorial day, for women who have fallen. Theres a line going from the Lincoln Memorial, you can see it as it comes up Memorial Drive with stones. As it goes through our memorial up to the hill up to the fountain and through the memorial. There are black tiles which you will see inside. That connects the Lincoln Memorial with the costs lee manchin, or as we call today arlington house. It signifies a reunification of the north in the south. That was something that was pointed out when the bridge was dedicated. Approximately 33,000 of square feet of Education Center and exhibits. It is a memorial to all those who are serving now and who have served, and really those into the future. The my name is retired Lieutenant Colonel marilla cushman. I 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 not do that. Anyway, 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. It was part of the Memorial Bridge projects that obviously built Memorial Bridge, Memorial Drive, and then this sarah moral gateway to Arlington National cemetary. 1932, three years into the depression, what happens . The memorial just sits here. You can see that it was never finished, the niches are free of sculptures. The plaza was bare and it just sat here for some 65 years. I always like to say it was just waiting for us to come along. And bring this incredible memorial to Women Service to the nation. In essence, this is the place where the nations says thanks to the 3 million women who served. The memorial itself is operated and maintained by the women in military service for america memorial foundation. We are not for Profit Organization that relies on the donations of corporate and individual. It pains me to say, of the money that has been raised to build and maintain this memorial, 74 out of it is from the very women that the memorial honors. So, let me take you on a tour of this extraordinary place. The memorial is set up so that it chronicles the history of Women Service. It begins with the American Revolution up to today. We will kind of go on that journey together starting with the American Revolution. One woman we love to point out is a woman named deborah simpson. She disguised herself as a man, because not only did women serve with the military as laundress is and cooks, and things of that sort, following the troops. Some of them disguised themselves as men because they wanted to serve. Debra, she has an incredible story. She joined one of the massachusetts regiments and she was wounded twice and served in the battle of york town. When she was wounded she treated her own wound so that she wouldnt be found. She got sick, i dont know if it was the flu or whatever, and she was examined by a doctor who discovered she was a woman and was discharged. The key thing is, they did just discharge her. She got a pension, probably the first women in history to get a pension. In fact, when deborah passed away her husband petition the government for benefit, which in fact he got. Regrettably, he was dead by the time they granted it to him. But it is quite a story. She served as robert. Another incredible character is doctor mary walker. She was a surgeon, trained in new york. The army is crying for surgeons, to come and to help and take care of the sick and wounded during the civil war. So, she comes in presents or self but they dont want her. Why do you think . Because she is a woman. She persisted though, in fact, she volunteered her services for sometime. Finally threw her persistence they hired her as a contract surgeon. She served in tennessee. She was taken prisoner by the confederate forces, held for four months enrichment and was released in exchange, a prisoner exchange, for some confederate forces. She was quite proud. She was exchange for Lieutenant Colonel. Which she served she was equivalent to a lieutenant, but she was contract and not in the military itself. She was awarded the congressional maduro of honor by the president for her services. Several years later, the army determined that they were over 900 people who receive the aggression or medal of honor that really didnt meet that criteria for the award of the metal. And it is our nations highest award for valor. And besides that, she was not in the military. They wrote to all those people and said something back. We like to say that we dont know what that 899 others did but we know that mary walker refused to send her medal of honor back. During the bicentennial, president carter reid instituted the medal of honor in full fledged to doctor mary walker. An important think about that issue see only woman in the history of this nation to receive the medal of honor. Now, we also credit for pants for women. She was quite a character apparently. She spent a lot of time up on capitol hill and her pants and top hat and cane, which is on loan for us from a collector in california. Mary walker was a trail blazer. We moved down the gallery, moved down this journey of Women Service to the nation, to our next image panel. This speaks to Women Service from early years of 1900 through to world war ii. What is important about this panel is that it presents the first women who did so well in their service during the spanish american war, the nurses, because the army was crying for nurses. And the da are helped, the daughters of the medical who they served through the spanish american war and did so well that the army determines that they should create a core of nurses. So that way they didnt have to bring these people in and go and look for them, they were on active duty. The in 1901 the the Army Nurse Corps was established. After in 1908 the navy did the same thing creating the navy nurse corps. They were given the title of nurse, no rank. The as we understand the male members did not want them ordering them around. Primarily for pay purposes, in 1920, the it gave them relative rank went from lieutenant to major. But they could not order men around. What is critical about that is that they were in place, actually, for the first time, women were actually in the military. So, we have world war one looming. The secretary of navy, was so concerned about being able to man the force, because they are sending so many troops overseas, the fleet was growing, they knew that they had to find another source of man power. They did not want to go to Civil Service because it took too long. He turned his staff and said, can women serve . The as an aside we understand that his wife encouraged him to do that. He was ahead of his time. They looked at legislation that brought people into the navy. It did specify men, but the people they could break into the reserve just said citizen. So, he jumped on that and brought women into the navy. In 1917 it was the first young woman, a clerk in pennsylvania became, raised her righthanded took her oath, and became the first woman ever in history to live enlisted the military. The marine corps did not bring women in intel about a year later in 1918, just a few months before the war was over. Nevertheless, they brought the women in. The coast guard because they became part of the navy had a handful of women come in. The army would not have anything to do with it. They didnt want to bring women in at all except for the nurses. Pursuing was crying for people. One of the things he really needed was telephone operators to operates these do systems. Its so happened that the only people, at least the initial people trained to be telephone operators where women. They contracted, i think 233 women to be telephone operators. They were trained by at t, some right up here in fort need. They served in france, england, and germany. They were promised veterans benefits, never got them until 1977. They called them to hello girls. Another pivotal point, i would say, with world war one of course women were crying to have the vote, to have full citizenship. One of the arguments against having women vote was the fact that they didnt fulfill the duties of a citizen. For instance they did not serve in the military. But those women who served during world war one in the military, and certainly the nurses were used as the example that indeed, women are serving, performing their full citizen requirements. So, it was actually the service of military women in world war one that was a Tipping Point to give women the. Vote this is a lane. She was a woman who served during world war one. She came by when we were first formed and she was so wedded to this memorial. Her family when elaine passed away when she visited, bless her heart, she opened her purse and showed us her dog tag which she said she carried with her since world war one everywhere. Just to kind of set the stage for world war ii. When world war one was done they sent them all home. World war ii came and we go through the same thing. I dont know if we want these women in the military. But the army did step out at the encouragement of edith north rodgers a woman from massachusetts and created the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps in early 1942. They all went to fort des moines. They were trained their. Some of them were deployed to england. Some served even in north africa as in this w. A ac. They were not really covered by the Geneva Convention because they were contract women. They were part of that group in 1977 that fought to get benefits as well. The other services did not do that. Leader in 1942 the navy established waves, women accepted for voluntary emergency service. They called themselves the spars. It was about a year later in 1943 when the army transitioned from the waac witches contract, to the womens army corps. The wacs served in every theater army of the war. Except for the nurses. Maybe nerve navy nurses. One of the pictures i love to point out here is that Eleanor Roosevelt was a great advocate of women serving in the military. These are the women in the for components who stepped up to be the leaders of each of the womens components. When i think about them, they came on board. There were no uniforms specific to military women. There was no training base. What do you do with them . How do you assigned them . What do we do . But these women made it possible for women to serve and contribute in waves that had never been done before. We have to be forever grateful for their service and their commitment to womens serving and to the nation. The womens army car is an integral part of the army and the United States. Its members who are soldiers in every sense of the world perform a full military part in this war. There are hundreds of important army jobs which women can perform as effectively as men. In fact, we find that they can do some of these jobs, much better than the men. We move to one more of the image panels, which brings us to today. A world where two ends, and generals, marshal and eisenhower found that women servers were so valuable to the Nations Defense that they sort of partner with congress women, from massachusetts and congresswoman from maine, and putting forward legislation that gave women a permanent place in the military. We did not have to start all over again with what uniforms . Where these people going to serve . We would have a court of qualified women. That was called the Womens Armed Services Integration act which passed in 1948. Women can only to be 2 of the force. They could not achieve agreed higher than Lieutenant Colonel or commander in the navy. You could see, women just wanted to serve. Also, some critical points in that legislation is women would not serve on combat ships. On combat aircrafts. There are other pieces in the legislation. No pregnancies, 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. In 1967, that provision that prohibited women from serving above the greed of Lieutenant Colonel or commander, that was we had our first women general officers promoted to one star in 1970. They were Anna Mae Hays and she was a nurse. And after that, elizabeth horsing thin. You could see here, how that has progressed overtime as those provisions were challenged and fell away. As we come closer to todays military, we have an astronaut. Wendy lawrence. Wendys dad was in vietnam. He was a pilot. He was taken as a prisoner of war. He had been training to be an astronaut as well. Obviously the war turned that around. So she followed in his footsteps. I think that is such a wonderful story of women serving. They are looking to follow and their dads footsteps. Wendy has done that. This is leon haster. She served in iraq. She was awarded the silver star for valor. First women in history to be awarded the silver star for valor. You can see that from the early years, to today, the transition of women in service. We moved from the images that lead us on a journey from the American Revolution to today to the specific exhibit that relate to the war. One of the things we wanted to do was to make sure that we were able to have the world war ii with it, to be able to see themselves. We want to finish their permanent exhibits. We were not sure that they would be able to come back and to see their memorial. The next three visits that we visit are dedicated to the women of world war ii. 400,000 women served during world war ii. 400,000 women. There is a picture over here that i love to show. It is these women with their gloves and hats. They came from every area of the United States. There is one woman, my favorite story. She can she came from maine, her name was mattie. During the womens auxiliary court during 1942, she went to england. She also went to north africa with the waac. The book the boat she was on was torpedo. Towards the end of the war, she became part of the personal staff of general eisenhower. She is just kind of indicative of women who served during that time. It is wonderful to hear the stories that the families that come in, or theyve had a teacher or whomever who served during world war ii. Those women changed america. They came home from the war. They had the gi bill. For the first time they could go to college on their own or get some training on their own. They did. They became teachers. They were business leaders. They were involved in their communities in different ways because of the things that they had learned in the military. They were parachute rigors, Link Trainers where they taught meant to fly. They served in various places in washington d. C. Many of them served in intelligence areas. They were part of the team that broke the japanese code. Xray technicians, inspectors of meat, teachers schooling our soldiers. Classification experts. Assignment8 ao interviewers. So this is a mans war, is it . Doing every sort of motive transport job. Testing walking top ease, testing radio tubes. Those are just a few of the jobs they do. There are 239 more. Its always interesting when you see women in the military who are determined they talk about their uniforms. In world war ii, they issued everything from your hose to your underwear to their dearly uniforms. Its fun when we talk about how they train some of them. They did not have initially the proper things to do calisthenics for example. We have some examples of the things that they were issued. Bedclothes. Hats and shoes. With the military, everything is procedures are laid out for you. So we have all kinds of little manuals. How to put your uniform together. There are customs and currencies for each of the services. Our next world war ii exhibit speaks to the women who served overseas. They are the army and navy nurses. They were in every part of the war as well as the wacs. We had 81 women who were taken prisoner of war by the japanese in the philippines for almost three years. In the medical field. One of the pieces that we have that speaks to that is this close spin. What they told us and their stories and oral history is that they were kind of on their own. They had together their own food. Jerry rigged different items that they would need to use on a daily basis. This one happens to be a close spin that they donated to us, that kind of illustrates some of the things they had to do. An interesting thing with these nurses is that every one of them came home. While they were in captivity, they continued to nurse. A nurse their fellow prisoners. Military as well as some of the civilians that were taken as prisoners of war. One of the last lady, she came from new jersey. She passed away just a few years ago. She talked about we were f