Attention!
Women veterans earn the recognition they deserve
While sons are traditionally thought of as the ones to follow in their father’s military service footsteps, daughters do too.
Meet Eileen Donovan. She’s a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and flew helicopters just like her dad, a Vietnam-era war veteran. In fact, the father and daughter actually flew the same kind of helicopter. “My dad is so proud of me,” says Donovan, who quickly adds that her grandfather was also a Marine.
Lieutenant Colonel Donovan has been in the Marines for 18 years. Ten of those years were on active duty. She was deployed all over the world in a Marine expeditionary unit, involved in assignments such as counter piracy operations at sea. She is currently in the reserves and part of a Marine detachment at Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago. Her full-time job is at the Boston Consulting Group here in Chicago.
“Everything I am is informed by my military service,” says Donovan. “I would not give up my service for anything.”
Recogniton, finally
Today, more than 230,000 women, or one in six active-duty military service members is a woman. There are nearly 2 million living women veterans.
It’s estimated that nearly 3 million women have served with or in the military since the American Revolution. About 350,000 women served during World War II, the first time all branches of the military accepted women.
Women haven’t traditionally received a lot of recognition for their service. In the past, few programs addressed the needs of women in the service and women veterans.
But that’s changing.
The Military Women’s Memorial opened in 1997 in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. It honors women who have served in the U.S. armed forces.
The Center for Women Veterans was created by Congress in 1994 to monitor and coordinate the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administration of health care, benefits, services, and programs for women veterans.
Local and state programs help women veterans too. The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs has a Women Veterans Coordinator to connect women veterans to various programs.
Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth has put women veterans in the spotlight. She was an Army helicopter pilot during the Iraq war when her helicopter was hit by a grenade rocket, and she lost both her legs. A huge advocate for veterans, Duckworth has noted that women are critical to all functions of the military.
Women Veterans Day is a relatively new annual holiday, celebrated on June 12. Illinois celebrated the holiday this year for the second time. National Louis University and the University of Chicago partnered with organizations across the state to host the event for women veterans to network and connect.