Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts The Womens Memorial 20240713

This is about 40 minutes. Im president of the womens memorial foundation. Im a retired Major General from the army. Were at the womens memorial in arlington cemetery. Its the only major memorial thats dedicated to women who served their country. We have over three 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 i through the current times in 1997. The memorial is on 4. 2 acres of park service land. Behind me you can see the headstones of Arlington National cemetery and that surrounds the park service land. The memorial is come poposed of Education Center, theres a pool where we have ceremonies 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 the reel to our fountain and through the memorial there are black tiles which youll see inside. That connects the Lincoln Memorial with the mansion. We call it arlington house. It signifies a reunification of the north and the south. Something that was pointed out when the bridge was dedicated. Approximately 33,000 square feet of Education Center and exhibits. Again, its a memorial to all those serving now who have served in really those into the future. My name is marilla cushman. Im a retired lieutenant colo l colonel. I left active duty on a friday. I came here on a monday. I recommend people dont do that. 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 project that obviously built Memorial Bridge, Memorial Bridge and this gateway to Arlington National cemetery. 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 sculpttures. 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 Womens Service to the nation. In essence, this is the place where the nation says thanks to the three million women who served. The memorial itself is operated and maintained by the women and military service for american memorial foundation. We are not for Profit Organization that relies on the donations of corporate and individual. It also 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 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 servers, so beginning with the American Revolution up to today, so well kind of go on that journey together starting with the American Revolution. One woman we love to point out is a woman named Deborah Sampson gwinett actually. She disguised herself as a man because not only did women serve with the military as laundry and cooks and some of them actually disguised themselves as men because they just wanted to serve, and Deborah Sampson, she has an incredible story. She joined one of the massachusetts regiments and she was wounded twice, served in the battle of york town. When she was wounded, she treated her own wounds so she wouldnt be found, and she got sick. I dont know if it was the flu or whatever, and was examined by a doctor who discovered she was a woman 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 benefits, 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 shirtlif. Another incredible character is dr. Mary walker. Dr. Mary walker was a surgeon, trained in new york. The armys crying for surgeons, you know, to come to help and take care of the sick and wounded during the civil war. So she comes and presents herself. But they dont want her. Why do you think . Because shes a woman. She persisted, though. In fact, she volunteered her services for some time. Finally through her persistence, she was they did hire her as a contract surgeon, and she served in tennessee. She was taken prisoner by the confederate forces, held for four months down in richmond and was released in a Prisoner Exchange with some confederate forces. She was quite proud. I think she was exchanged for a Lieutenant Colonel. She thought that was pretty cool because when she served she was equivalent to a lieutenant or captain but she was contract. She was not in the military herself. She was awarded the congressional medal of honor by the president for her services. In fact, several years later, the army determined that there were over 900 people who received the congressional medal of honor that really didnt meet the criteria for award of the medal, and it is our nations highest award for valor. And besides that, she was not in the military. So anyway, they wrote to all of those people and said, you know, send them back. And we like to say we dont know, you know, the 899 others did, but we know that mary walker refused to send her medal of honor back. During the bicentennial, president carter reinstituted in full fledge the medal of honor to dr. Walker. She is the only woman in the history of this nation to receive the medal of honor. Now, we also credit her for pants for women. She was quite a character, apparently. Spent a lot of time on capitol hill in her pants and top hat and cane, which is on loan for us from a collector in california. Mary walker, she was a trail blazer, absolutely. So we move down the gallery. We move down this journey of Womens Service to the nation to our next image panel, which speaks to Womens Service from the early years of 1900 through to world war ii. Whats 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. If the army is crying for nurses and the d. A. R. Helped, daughters of American Revolution helped them find qualified women, so they served during the spanish american war, and they did so well that the army determined that it was that they should create a corps of nurses so they didnt have to bring these people in, look for them, who would be on active duty, so in 1901, february of 1901, the Army Nurse Corps was established, and in 1908, the navy did the same thing, creating the navy nurse corps, they were given the title of nurse, no rank, because we understand the male members of congress didnt want them ordering men around. But finally, in 1920, primarily for pay purposes, legislation was passed for lieutenant to major. But again, they couldnt be ordering these men around. Whats critical about that is that they were in place. Were actually for the first time, women were actually in the military. So we have world war i looming, and the secretary of the navy, a guy named josefius daniels was so concerned about being able to man the force because we were sending so many troops overseas, the fleet was growing, so they knew that they had to find another source of manpower. They didnt want to go to Civil Service because it took too long, and so he turned to his staff, and said so can we can women serve. As an aside, we understand his wife encouraged him to do that, but at any rate, he was really ahead of his time, and initially they looked at the legislation that brought people into the navy, and it did specify male, but the people they could bring into the reserve, naval reserve, it just said citizens. So he quickly jumped on that and brought women into the navy in 1917 was the first, a young woman, she was a clerk named Loretta Perfectus Walsh in pennsylvania, raised her right hand, took her oath and became the very first woman ever in history to enlist in the military. The marine corps didnt bring women in until about a year later in 1918, just a few months before the war was over, but nevertheless, they brought women in, the coast guard because they become part of the navy during time of war, they had a handful of women come in. The army wouldnt have anything to do with it. Didnt want to bring women in at all, except for the nurses. And pershing was crying for people, and particularly one of the things that he really needed was telephone operators to operate these new systems and it so happened that the only people or at least the initial people trained to be telephone operators were women. They contracted some, i think it was 233 women to be telephone operators, they were trained at at t, some at fort meade, and they served at france, england and germany. They were promised Veterans Benefits, never got them until 1977 but they call them the hello girls. Another pivotal point, i would say, with world war i. Of course women were crying to have the vote, to have full citizenship, and one of the arguments against giving them the vote was the fact that they didnt fulfill the duties of a citizen, ie, they didnt serve in the military. But those women who served during the world war i in the military, and certainly the nurses were used as sort of the example that, indeed, women are serving, performing their full citizen requirements. So 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. This is helene coxhead, helene was a woman who served during world war i. She came by when we were first formed, wanted to make sure we werent a scam, and she was so wedded to this memorial. Her family, when helene passed away, gave us her world war i victory medal, and 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. So quickly, just to kind of set the stage for world war ii. When world war i was done, they sent them all home. World war ii comes or is a looming 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 rogers, a congresswoman from massachusetts, and created the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, in early 1942, but they were contract. I dont even know if they knew that. They all went to fort des moines. They were trained there. Some of them were deployed to england. Some served even in north africa as in this waac, and they werent really covered by Geneva Convention again because they were contract women, and they were part of that group in 1977 that fought to get benefits too. The other services didnt do that. Later in 1942, the navy established the waves, the women accepted for volunteering emergency service, and the marine corps later that year as well as the coast guard. They call themselves spar, always ready, it was about a year later, 1943 when the army transitioned from waac, the womens auxiliary corps, which is contract, to the Womens Army Corps. The waacs served in every theater of the war, including overseas. When the other services were all stateside, except for the nurses, waac, army and navy nurses and one of the pictures i love to point out here is 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. And i think about them. You know, 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 assign them. What do we do. But these women made it possible for women to serve and contribute in ways that had never been done before, and we have to be forever grateful for their service and their commitment to women serving and certainly to the nation. The Womens Army Corps is an integral part of the army in the united states, and soldiers in every sense of the word, 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 man. And we move to one more of the image panels, which brings us to today. World war ii ends and generals marshal and eisenhower found that Women Service was so valuable to the Nations Defense that they sort of partnered with congresswoman edith north rogers from massachusetts, and congresswoman margaret chay smith from maine and putting forward legislation that gave women a permanent place in the military so we didnt have to start all over again with what uniforms, where are these people going to serve, but we would have a core of qualified women, and 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 can see women just wanted to serve. Also some critical points in the legislation is women wouldnt serve on combat ships, on combat aircraft, and there are other pieces in the legislation that dealt with pregnancy, marriage, benefits, all kinds of things that prohibited Women 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 may hayes, the chief of the Army Nurse Corps was promoted first, so the first woman in history to be a general officer was a nurse, rightfully so, anna may hayes and shortly thereafter Elizabeth Hoisington became a general officer for the Womens Army Corps, so you can see here how that has 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 lawrence. Wendys dad was an admiral. During vietnam, his pilot was taken prisoner of war, and he had been training to be an astronaut as well, but obviously the war turned that around, and so she followed in his footstep. I think thats such a wonderful story of Women Service that now they are looking to follow in their dads foot steps so to speak, and wendy has done that. This is leann hester. Leann hester served in iraq, was awarded the silver star for valor. First woman in history to be awarded the silver star for valor. So you can see that from the early years to today the transition on Womens Service. So we move from the images that lead us on the journey from American Revolution to 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, so the next three exhibits that we visit are dedicated to the women of world war ii. 400,000 women served during world war ii. 400,000 women, and theres a picture over here that i love to show. And its these women with their gloves and hats and they came from every area of the united states. Theres one woman whos my favorite story. She came from fort kent, maine. Her name was mattie pinnette, joined the womens Army Auxiliary core in 1942. She went to england, to north africa as a waac. The boat she was on was torpedoed. Toward the end of the war, she became part of the personal staff of general eisenhower, so this is this young woman at fort kent maine, and shes just kind of indicative of the women who served during that time, and its wonderful to hear the stories of the families that come in and or they have had a teacher or whomever who served during world war ii. And you know, 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, and they did, and they became our 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 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 technician, inspectors of army meat, teachers, schooling our soldiers, waacs are classification experts, assignment interviewers. So this is a mans war, is it, waacs work on every sort of army vehicle, doing every sort of motor transport job, testing walky talkies, those are just a few of the jobs they do. There are 239 more. One of the things thats always interesting when you see, when you meet women in the military, and you determine that they talk about their uniforms and in world war ii, they issued everything from their hose to their underwear to their daily uniforms and its funny when they talk about how they trained some of them didnt have initially the proper things to do calisthenics, for example. So we have some examples of the things that they were issued, their bed clothes, their hose, certainly their hats and their shoes. And you know with the military, you know, 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, and they are the army and navy nurses, every part of the part and the waacs. 81 women were taken prisoner of war by the japanese, held in the philippines for almost three years, well, in the medical field, primarily all nurses. One of the pieces that they that we have that speaks to that is this clothes pin, and what they have told us in their stories and oral histories with us is that, you know, 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, and 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 thing 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, she was 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 that she did, and what she had to do to live as a prisoner. When she came home, of course she had lifelong issues with teeth, and you know, dental issues because of the mall nourishment. She talked about how she hoarded food, you know, because she went for three years without it. The stories of these folks are just incredible. We had women obviously who served in europe and the european theater. Some of them, they were in the administrative part of the house, they reviewed correspondence from soldiers they were being sent home, and this was, i guess, this was the world war ii version of redacting where they just cut pieces out and sent them home. Theres a storied unit called the 6888. It was a unit of all black women who were sent initially to england, and then into france. That were responsible for the mail. And as i understand it, there were literally warehouses full of mail that had not been delivered to soldiers and 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 and they say they did it. They say every piece of mail got to a soldier. And just incredible. We had a number of people that served in the area, and in fact, there was just a moment 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. And that was quite a thing, you know, because the service was, one of my favorite pieces were called mosquitoes boots. It was over time until they finally got uniforms 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, they were full of malaria, and all different diseases and these boots, these wonderful boots were fashioned to cover their legs, as i said, they were called mosquitoes boots, so that they were protected from the ravishes from the diseases. Certainly the women of world war ii, they went places that american women had never gone, and they did things that american women had never done before. They drove trucks and we have wonderful stories of women who had never driven before, and they went into the marine corps, into the army, given these utility uniforms and so thats what they wore in maintenance, and things of that sort. Thats an army uniform. Shes a sergeant. This would have been her dress uniform so to speak. Not a formal uniform but what she would have worn when on parade or whatever, and in some cases, perhaps if she was a clerk or whatever, she would have worn this uniform. The final women is the women who served on the home front, and their story is really quite amazing as well, and i think probably there are so many of us who can tell stories of women we have met, our mothers or grandmothers who had some part of the war effort. Everybody, everybody served in some way. So 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. Varying 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 so here we are in world war ii, women flying aircraft, after the war is over. It prohibited women from flying combat aircraft but the service took that the next level and said no aircraft, so it wasnt until the 70s until women started flying again in the military. They receive their wings from the top woman pilot, each wasp like other women in other services has achieved no little thing. She has gone into a mans world because the men needed her. Gone through a tough ordeal, just a girl and come out a girl pilot with the u. S. Army air force. No time to waste, everywhere theyre needed so the men trained in training can go off to fight, while wasps get their ship started on the road overseas. For the Women Air Force service pilot, she was, if you see some of them with the pictures, they have fifi, and this is fifinella and the symbol of the Women Air Force Service Pilots. That was another incredible program, short lived, regrettably, and when the war ended in europe and all of those pilots came home, they disbanded the program, and they were another part of this effort in 1977 with legislation that went forward to give them Veterans Benefits and the Women Air Force Service Pilots were part of that legislation as well. Finally. Another Incredible Group of people were the cadet nurses, 134,000 women were trained, three years of training as nurses. There was a concern that we would, because we were in a battle of two fronts, nurses were critically needs so they in 1943 established the cadet nurse core for this training of military forces so when their training was done, they were supposed to go in the military or, you know, stay with the Public Health service and go to a, you know, a reservation or whatever, many of them by the time their training was done, the war had ended but nevertheless, this group of women kind of standardized nursing, and theyre still a very active group. It seems like annually there is legislation that goes before the hill asking to give them Veterans Benefits. They have never been given Veterans Benefits. It was an amazing thing for america and certainly for medicine here in america. Another group of people were the Civil Air Patrol. We had a number of women who served with the Civil Air Patrol and flew, and then we all know about those women who were rolled bandages with the red cross, who worked with the red cross, women who served with the uso. We recognize them as well, as they step forward to be part of the National Effort in world war ii. This was the first of a twopart look at the womens memorial. In part two, well pick up the story where we left off, learning about Womens Service during the korean war. You can valley this and all other American History tv programs at cspan. Org history. Each week, American History tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Next, we visit the womens memorial near Arlington National cemetery to learn more about women who served in the u. S. Military from the korean war to e