EQUALITY WATCH : Fighting Women
Of the 58,000 names etched in the granite walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Americans killed in that war, only eight of the names are women’s.
Although that monument in Washington poignantly details the fatalities among Americans in Vietnam, it hardly reflects the total contribution of women to the war effort. Neither are women properly recognized in countless other statues and plaques across the country that express national or local debt to those who served in wars dating to the colonies’ fight for independence 200 years ago.
About 265,000 women served in the military during the Vietnam era; 11,500 were stationed in Vietnam itself. Large numbers of women have served in uniform in every major U.S. military conflict beginning with World War II.
Most worked behind the front lines, often nursing wounded and dying men. But in recent years, women military personnel have moved ever closer to combat.
If the enormous contribution and suffering of these women have gone largely without formal acknowledgment in the 20 years since the last U.S. troops left Vietnam, their nightmares and personal pain have been constant reminders for many of what they saw and did there.
Today, Veterans Day, America will dedicate a memorial in Washington to the women who served in Vietnam. The bronze statue of three women and a wounded soldier is but a first payment against a debt that, sadly, has only grown larger in passing years.
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