A Blog Honoring All Women In The Military
When discussing women in combat, one might think of Joan of Arc who in 1429, at age 17, successfully led French troops into battle against the English. Hundreds of women disguised themselves as men to fight in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Beginning in 1942, separate military services for women were established, but women did not gain professional military status until 1948 when President Truman signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act which limited their number to 2 percent of the total military. In 1991, the restriction of women from flying combat aircraft was repealed, but the 1948 law still bans women from serving on naval combat vessels (Minerva Spring 1994).
Despite various roles in the armies of past societies, the role of women in the military, particularly in combat, is controversial and it is only recently that women have begun to be given a more prominent role in contemporary armed forces. As increasing numbers of countries begin to expand the role of women in their militaries, the debate continues.
Nation’s oldest female Marine is laid to rest after passing away on Vet’s Day
November 22nd, 2009 | 
Author: 
On a crisp fall day in a cemetery in Queens, a Marine Corps honor guard blew taps over the country’s oldest female Marine.
Sgt. Miriam Cohen did not die jumping on a hand grenade, or storming the beaches of Normandy or battling the Japanese on Iwo Jima.
Most appropriately, she died on Veteran’s Day, one day after the 234th birthday of the United States Marines Corps. Cohen lived nearly half as long: She would have been 102 on Dec. 13.
When World War II threatened civilization, this beautiful, gutsy Brooklyn gal answered the call of a bugle, just like the one that played over her coffin Tuesday.
“Miriam was born in Sheepshead Bay and graduated from Smith College, where she was the only Jew in the school,” says her younger sister Marine Roberta Eaton, 86, of the Women’s Marines Association of New York.
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Quilters can’t camouflage feelings for fallen soldier
It was just like a couple of thousand other camouflage quilts sewn by a group of Wisconsin quilters for service members heading overseas – a small bedroll made of batting, green thread and American military uniform fabric.
Like many recipients of a free blanket from the Camo Quilt Project, the soldier sent a note of thanks to the quilters she would never meet. The soldier asked if 45 more quilts could be made for her comrades before her unit left Fort Hood for Afghanistan in December.
Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger signed off her e-mail by saying “thanks to all that are involved in this wonderful project!!”
Cut down in a hail of gunfire at Fort Hood this month, Krueger didn’t get a chance to use her camo quilt in Afghanistan. But the quilters are gathering Saturday at their Plymouth office space to make the 45 blankets Krueger requested for her fellow soldiers.
Capt. Hill follows father, uncle into Army
It seems almost silly to say, but Caton Hill sounded … so grown up. Well, actually, she always did seem older than her age. She was the clever, sarcastic, cut-to-the-chase forward for the Oklahoma women’s basketball team when the program made its first Final Four appearance in 2002.
Wednesday, on Veterans Day, a group of journalists — some of us who’d covered her Oklahoma career — were on a conference call with Capt. Caton Hill, now an Army doctor about to be deployed to Afghanistan.
We used to ask her about zone defenses or how well the Sooners had run their offense. Now she was answering about some of the specifics she needed to know to take care of soldiers in combat.
“IEDs … there’s a way that they explode — it’s different than any sort of injury you would see stateside,” she said of improvised explosive devices. “You learn how gunshot wounds enter, and how they move. You learn the physics of them. You also need to know about traumatic brain injuries.”
