TIMELINE: A History Of Women In The US Military

In January 2017, the first female Marines graduated from infantry school. In 2016, the first female soldiers became infantry officers. Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson also took over as leader of U.S. Northern Command in 2016, becoming the first female service member to lead a unified combatant command and thus the highest ranking woman in U.S. military history. We also saw female enlisted sailors deploy on submarines for the first time ever.

In every case, these were historic firsts for the armed services, and a reminder that the military still has a long way to go before it is a truly integrated institution. But, since the United States first declared itself an independent nation, American women have found ways to serve their country despite resistance from men, sometimes going as far as impersonating male soldiers to join the fight at the frontlines.

In honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Task & Purpose has compiled a list of historic milestones that changed the course of our nation — milestones set by servicewomen who refused to accept the status quo and paved the way for the next generation. This is by no means a complete timeline; this is simply a snippet of those accomplishments.

read more here @ Task & Purpose

Female Afghan Pilots In US

From Reuters:

Afghanistan's first crop of female military pilots arrived for training this week, where they will first study English at the Defense Language Institute at Lackland. Dozens of male Afghan pilots have gone through similar training in the United States.

After six to eight months of language study, they will travel to Fort Rucker in Alabama for helicopter pilot training in the U.S. Army "Thunder Lab" program.

The women pilots will among about 1,200 students at the Institute, where students from around the world learn English - the global vernacular of aviation.

Axelbank said the Afghan women will undergo the same course of study in the United States as have male Afghan pilots, along with thousands of other military personnel who have trained at Lackland over the decades.

Jung Sung-im - Civilian in Military

From Business Ghana:

South Korea's military academy has appointed a female civilian as a professor for the first time in its history, an academy official said Saturday.

The development comes as the male-dominated military is seeking to give more opportunities to women.

Jung Sung-im, a former research fellow of Ewha Womans University,became the first woman and civilian professor to have a full-time teaching position at the Korea Military Academy, the official said.

Jung said she had taught cadets at the academy as a lecturer for the past nine years before being named a full-time professor on Friday.

Jung will teach politics and national security as a civilian worker in the military, beginning in the second semester, the official said.

So far, only army officers have taught cadets as full-time employees at the academy.

In a related development, all female college students are eligible to join the military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, beginning this year.

There are some 6,400 female commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers in the country's 655,000-strong military. Women are not required to complete military service.

Female Chief at Parris Island

From Bluffton Today:

For the first time in its 96-year history, a female general is taking charge at the famed Marine Corps training depot at South Carolina's Parris Island.

Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, who is also known as the first female Marine to ever hold a command position in a battle zone, takes charge Friday at the installation south of Beaufort.

Parris Island graduates about 20,000 Marines annually and is the only site where female enlisted Marines are trained to enter the service.

Reynolds is a native of Baltimore and a 1986 graduate of the Naval Academy. She has worn the Marine Corps uniform for 25 years. 

As a one-star general, Reynolds becomes only the third female general officer in the more than 200,000-member Marine Corps. The service has two two-star female generals, one in the active duty ranks and another in the Marine Corps Reserve.

India: Army Grants Commissions To Women

From the Indian Express:

The Army on Monday agreed to grant permanent commission to serving women officers in two branches, Judge Advocate General and Army Education Corps, following which the Supreme Court stayed “contempt proceedings” against the Army chief.

Fighting a lonely battle against non-grant of permanent commission to women officers after the Air Force complied with the Delhi High Court judgment of March 12, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who represented the Army, assured the court that women officers in the Short Service Commission (SSC) would be absorbed on a permanent basis in the next two months after the necessary screening and training procedures.

There are 2,200 serving women officers — 1,200 in Army, 750 in Air Force and 250 in the Navy — as per Ministry of Defence figures.

Major Leena Gurav, a serving JAG officer who had pioneered the litigation for permanent commission back in 2003, would be one of the first to be considered for permanent commission.

Australia: WRANs Honoured

From the Warrnambool Standard:

MARGARET Morton remembers her time in the Royal Australian Navy with great affection. “I loved it,” she said of her stint in the Women’s Royal Australian Navy (WRAN) Service at HMAS Cerebus from 1945-1946.

As an 18-year-old WRAN, her roles included working as an officer’s stewardess, and in the kitchen and serving meals.

The naval jacket she wore as a WRAN is one of a number of items in the Women in Uniform exhibition on display at the Warrnambool RSL.

Mrs Morton, 83, of Warrnambool, said she was pleased the contribution of women to Australia’s armed services was being recognised by the sub branch.

She said she loved the camaraderie of the WRANs at Cerebus and continued to enjoy the company of fellow ex-servicewomen who met at the Warrnambool RSL on the first Monday of every month.

Mrs Morton said she joined the navy to make a contribution to Australia’s effort in the World War II and “just made it in” before the war ended.

While Mrs Morton’s memories of her time in the armed services are happy ones, they contrast sharply with the war experiences of the late Mona Wilton, of Naringal, whose war service medals and citation are also in the exhibition.

Ms Wilton, 28, was killed during World War II when she was serving as a nurse.

The exhibition will be open until September.

Celebrating Women's History

From Pilot Online:

Rear Adm. Michelle Howard, the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy ship, will address the Greater Hampton Roads Chapter of the National Association of Black Military Women at its 2010 Women's History Month Luncheon.

The event will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Norfolk Marriott Chesapeake, 725 Woodlake Drive.

The event will feature Howard, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 2, and Bianca Martinez of WTKR-TV as mistress of ceremonies. Several women will be honored for making a difference in their community, according to a news release.

Tickets cost $25 and are required in advance. Information: (757) 836-3239.

India's "Night Witches"

From Thaindian News:

As India hotly debates whether to induct women fighter pilots, a look around the world reveals they have been so fearsome in some places that they came to be branded “nigh witches”. Pakistan and China already have them, but they have never faced direct combat.

“If women are trained in the same manner, then you cannot discriminate against them for just being women. China has inducted them, the US Air Force has women fighter pilots; then how can one say that India cannot have women fighter pilots?” Ranjana Kumari, chairperson of the Centre for Social Research, told IANS.

This month, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told parliament, “It has to be a conscious decision. Earlier we did not have women officers, but now we have women officers and we are thinking of expanding their roles.”

At present, the IAF has 748 women officers in all arms, barring the fighter stream.

This year Pakistan commissioned seven women fighter pilots, breaking into another male bastion. The women fly F-7s, a Chinese version of the Russian MiG-21.

China’s first batch of 16 women fighter pilots debuted during its National Day parade this year. They too are yet to see combat.

The erstwhile Soviet Union, which formed three regiments of women combat pilots who flew night missions and were so successful that the Germans feared them, calling them “Nachthexen” or night witches. Present-day Russia, however, has no woman fighter pilots.

The US Air Force allowed women to fly jets way back in 1993. According to information in the open domain, of the more than 14,000 pilots in the US Air Force, around 3,700 are fighter pilots. And of them, 70 are women. Many of the women fighter pilots of the US Air Force have flown bombing missions over Afghanistan after 2001.

The IAF has a good number of women military aviators flying helicopters and transport aircraft. But the issue of inducting women fighter pilots remains unresolved.

Women on the Frontlines

From Times Online:

The ban on women serving in frontline infantry roles alongside male soldiers is to be reviewed, the Ministry of Defence announced yesterday.

The last time that this issue was examined in any official capacity was in 2002 when the Service chiefs and ministers decided to maintain the policy of using only male personnel in close-combat roles. Women have always been barred from serving in infantry battalions, the Royal Armoured Corps, the Royal Marine General Service, the Household Cavalry and the RAF Regiment.

Because this taboo on equal treatment for women breaches European legislation, the Government is obliged to review the rules every eight years. At the moment just under 10 per cent of Armed Forces personnel — about 17,600 — are women.

There's also a link at Ohio.com

Female Swiss Guards

From the Telegraph:

The Swiss Guard is to consider recruiting women into the world's smallest army for the first time in the papal security force's 500-year history.

The new commander of the force, whose distinctive blue, yellow and red uniforms and ceremonial halberds grace the precincts of the Vatican, said that obstacles that had kept the force all-male could be overcome.

His surprise comments, which follow the refusal of his predecessors to contemplate women recruits, were made on the eve of a swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican for 32 new members of the force.

Ann E Dunwoody

Or ... General Dunwoody.

Ann Dunwoody has achieved what no other woman has - she has attained the rank of 4-Star General with the US Army. And this she has done after 33 years of service.

From BBC News:
"She said no one was more surprised than she and her husband. "Behind every successful woman there's an astonished man," she added.

There are 21 female generals, most of them one-star, in the US army. Women make up 14% of the army's active-service strength of more than 500,000 soldiers.

She is now head of the Army Materiel Command, in charge of weapons, equipment and uniforms for the army.

Women are barred from combat roles but have been allowed in the last two decades to serve in a wide variety of other positions."


A much deserved "well done Ann!"