Women vets on armed service: ‘Go for it’

The retired Army general stuck the pin through the fabric of Pat Hansen’s sweater, and as the two embraced she told her, “Thank you and welcome home.”

Hansen took a few steps away from the general, Deborah Ashenhurst — who served with the Ohio Army National Guard for more than 37 years before becoming director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs — and then she stopped and told those assembled before her that she had something to say.

“It is so meaningful, being a Vietnam vet and to get this,” Hansen said of the commemorative lapel pin made especially for Vietnam-era veterans. As a crowd of more than 100 stood and applauded, the 73-yearold Air Force veteran

surveyed them and continued. “It wasn’t like this then. It wasn’t like this then,” she said through tears, referring to the country’s anti-war sentiments that resulted in few, if any, warm receptions for returning veterans of the time.

And with that, there seemingly wasn’t a dry eye left in the auditorium of the Ohio History Connection, where the Ohio Department of Veterans Services hosted its annual gathering of women veterans in recognition of Women’s History Month.

Hansen wasn’t one of the panelists. She traveled from the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky, in northern Ohio, where she lives. She spent 1964 and 1965 in the Air Force, working in medical administration. She said Friday’s program was inspirational.

“Their stories all matter,” she said of the panelists.

Ashenhurst was among the speakers, as were Cassie Barlow, who commissioned into the Air Force as an officer in 1988 and retired after a 26-year-career; Brig. Gen. Rebecca L. O’connor, who commanded an intelligence squadron and was the first woman to be promoted to brigadier general in the Ohio Air National Guard, where she is currently chief of staff; Dr. Dana Robinson-street, who served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm and was both an enlisted and commissioned officer before retiring after almost 26 years of service; and Nancy Schools, who enlisted in the Marines in 1970 at a time when less than 2,000 women served in the Corps and became secretary to the Secretary of the Navy.

Schools entertained the crowd with her dry, witty one-liners about her time in the service.

“So what if you have someone yelling in your face?” she asked. “It builds character.”

Schools enlisted during the Vietnam War because she wanted to travel.

“I made it as far as Washington, D.C.,” said the 68-year-old Columbus native who still lives on the West Side. “I traveled, all right, from one floor of the Pentagon to the next floor of the Pentagon.”

Asked what advice she would give to young women thinking about military service, Schools said, “Go for it. Don’t be afraid. Pick up a wrench. Tighten those nuts. Fix a plane. Don’t be intimidated by men. Show ‘em what you can do.”

That also brought some applause and even a few scattered “Amens.”

Ashenhurst said the only barrier left for women in the military and in leadership positions is women themselves. She said women are natural jugglers, and know how to multitask and handle multiple pressures at once. Sometimes they just need to be reminded to go after what they want.

“Too often we limit ourselves,” she said. “Do great things.”