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Back issues
of
SHORELINES

WAVES National Michigan Unit 32 Newsletter

Dolores M. Maillette
Editor
shorelines@aol.com

July /Aug/Sept 2000  Page 3

"Women of the Sea Services"

July /Aug/Sept 2000   Page 3

Korean War Era Veterans

WIMSA Foundation opened a new permanent exhibit in June 2000 on the activities of servicewomen overseas and on the home front during the Korean War era. The Foundation will also publish a book on the servicewomen of the Korean War era.

The Curator’s office is looking for uniforms, documents, letters home, newspaper and magazine articles, instruction manuals, recruitment and information brochures, photographs or anything else related to women’s military service during the early 1950s. If you have any related items, call Britta Granrud, Collections Manager at 703-533-1155 or 800-222-2294.

The Foundation is also looking for material from servicewomen deployed to Grenada, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Bosnia, Croatia, Haiti and Kosovo. Also needed are items directly associated with military jobs such as medical equipment, tools, instruction manuals, licenses, certificates from speciality training and flight suits and gear, as well as photographs, diaries and letters.

The very first American armed ship named for a women was Lady Washington a small wooden river gunboat built in 1776 by New York State to defend the Hudson River, named in honor of Martha Washington.

In 1858 the first armed U.S. Navy ship named for a woman was the Harriet Lane, a revenue cutter, named for a niece of President James Buchanan, who served as Buchanan’s White House hostess. It was transferred to the Navy when the Civil War began in 1861 and captured by Confederates at Galveston in January 1963.

In 1942 the following U.S. Navy ships were named for women:     
Sacagawea (YT-241, harbor tug)
Elizabeth C. Stanton (AP-69), troop transport.
Pocahontas (harbor tug YT-266)
Florence Nightingale (AP-70), transport
Mary Lyon (AP-71), transport
Dix (AP-67), transport, named for Dorothea Dix.
Susan B. Anthony (AP-72), transport

In 1944:
Watseka (YT-387), harbor tug

In 1945:
Higbee-class destroyer, named for Lenah S. Higbee, Superintendent of Navy Nurse Corps 1911-1922 First warship named for a woman and first USN so named to take part in combat operations.

In 1979:
The Coast Guard was the first service to name a woman commander of a ship—Lt.jg Beverly Kelley.

In 1996:
The guided missile destroyer Hopper DDG 70, named after Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, one of the pioneering spirits in the field of computer technology who led the Navy into the computer age. She first retired in 1967, was then called back to active duty and retired a second time in 1986. She died in 1992.

This is only the first time since WWII and the second time in the Navy’s history that a warship has been named for a woman from the Navy’s own ranks.

The New York Times best selling book series, “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” is now collecting stories for an exciting new book, “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul!” They welcome stories from all wars, all eras and all branches of service. Sample topics include: Heroism, Camaraderie, Laughter, Sense of Duty, Closeness in Combat, Leadership, Reunions and Patriotism.

Submissions up to 1200 words will be accepted until August 1, 2000, but they will welcome stories after that for a second book. Mail: Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul, 607 W. Broadway, Fairfield, IA 52556; Fax: 515-472-0719.

Military Honors for Funerals

As of January 1, 2000, by law all eligible veterans will be entitled to military funeral honors signifying America’s gratitude for their honorable service. Upon request, two service members will fold and present the American flag to surviving family members and a bugler will sound “Taps.” If a bugler is not available, a high-quality CD will be used.

At least one member of the funeral detail will be from the deceased veteran’s parent military service. Other authorized providers, such as members of a veteran’s organization, may be used to augment the military detail.

The Department of Defense’s new policy calls for funeral directors, rather than families, to contact the military. Military funeral honors must be requested—they are not provided automatically.

Until the new law, nothing actually said the honors were a mandatory function. Congress responded to public concerns by writing the provision into the fiscal 2000 Defense Authorization Act, requiring the military to perform at least a basic level of funeral honors upon request for all eligible veterans

 Keep Registering 
 Servicewomen 

Only some 250,000 of the 1.8 million women who have served or are serving today are registered with WIMSA. This is only about 14% of those eligible.

WIMSA encourages us to continue our efforts to identify and register servicewomen, past and present, living and deceased in order to continue their legacy.

(The following is from “Capt. Barb’s Web Page on “Women in Combat-Why Not?”)

The reality is that there is absolutely no intelligent, logical, sensible reason for women not to be in combat roles with the technological style of warfare that abounds today.

The pure and simple point is that all jobs should be open to women and men if and only if the women and men are qualified, capable, competent and able to perform them! Nothing more, nothing less.