DID YOU KNOW ??
Over sixty women were either wounded or killed at various battles
during the Civil War?
In 1863, at age 19, a woman known only as Emily, ran away from home and joined the drum corps of a Michigan Regiment. The regiment was sent to Tennessee and during the struggle for Chatanooga a minie ball pierced the side of the young soldier. Her wound was fatal and her sex was disclosed. At first she refused to disclose her real name but as she lay dying she consented to dictate a telegram to her father in Brooklyn.
"Forgive your dying daughter. I have but a few moments to live.
My native soil drinks my blood.
I expected to deliver my country but the fates would not have it so.
I am content to die. Pray forgive me...... Emily."
After the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863,
the bodies of two Confederate women, in uniform, were found.
A Union flag bearer, also a woman in uniform,
was killed on the hill near Picketts Charge.
A young woman named Frances Day was mortally wounded while
serving as Sgt Frank Mayne in the Western Theater.
Ellen May Tower of Byron, Michigan was the first U.S. Army nurse
to die on foreign soil, of typhoid fever,
in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War,
MS. Tower was the first woman to receive a military funeral in Michigan.
Twenty two women died as a result of service
in the Spanish American War?
Bailey, Lurecia - Army Contract Nurse - Died from Typhoid Fever
Bradford, T.R. - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever - African American
Burke, Mary - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever - Nun
Cameron, Emma - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Campos, Anna - Army Contract Nurse - Died from Typhoid Fever
Dorothy Cochrane - Army Conttract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Flanagan, Elizabeth - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever - Nun
Greenfield, Margaret - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Larkin, Anne - Army Contract Nurse - Died from Typhoid Fever - Nun
Plant, Lulu - Army Contract Nurse - Undiagnosed
Roberts, Alcice - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Stansberry, Katherine - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Sweeney, Mary - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever - Nun
Toland, Irene - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Tower, Ellen - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Trioche, Margaret - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Turnbull, Minerva - Army Contract Nurse -
Died From Typhoid Fever - African American
Walworth, Ruebena - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Ward, Clara - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever
Wolfe, Carolina - Army Contract Nurse - Died From Typhoid Fever - Nun
Phinney, Dorthea - Volunteer - Died From Malaria
Spanish American War Nurse Clara Maass, died as a result of yellow fever.
Nurse Maass volunteered to participate in an experimental treatment program,
after having survived the war.
Several hundred women lost their lives in WWI?
Including:
Army Nurse Edith Ayers, Attica, Ohio. Killed May 20 1917
in an accident aboard the USS Mongolia, enroute to France.
Army Nurse Helen Burnet Wood, Evanston, Ill. Also killed aboard the USS Mongolia.
YMCA Volunteer Marion G. Crandall, Alameda, California,
killed by enemy shell in March 1918 at Ste. Menehould, France.
YMCA Volunteer Winona Martin, Rockville Center, N.Y.
killed in a Paris air raid in March 1918.
American Red Cross Worker Ruth Landon, NYC, New York, killed by a shell
fired on St Gervais Church, Paris, France, March 1918.
One hundred and eleven Army Nurses died overseas
and one hundred and eighty six died stateside, all while serving their country in WWI.
Twenty two or more U.S. Navy Yeoman (F) died during the World War.
Twenty seven Navy Nurse Corps women died while serving as Dieticians, telephone operators, YMCA volunteers, Red Cross and Salvation Army women, and women in military intelligence also lost their lives.
In World War Two ?
During the battle on Anzio,
six Army Nurses were killed by the German bombing and strafing
of the tented hospital area.
Four Army Nurses among the survivors were awarded
Silver Stars for extraordinary courage under fire.
In the Pacific Theater a Japanese suicide plane bombed the hospital ship
USS Comfort off Leyte Island.
In the attack 6 nurses, 5 medical officers,
8 enlisted men, and 7 patients were killed, and 4 nurses were wounded
In all, more than 400 military women lost their lives during World War II.
In 1944 U.S. Army Nurse Aleda E. Lutz of Freeland Michigan
was the first U.S. military woman to die in a combat zone
during World War II when her hospital plane
went down on her 196th rescue mission.
Ellen Ainsworth, a 24-year-old Army nurse from Glenwood City, Wisconsin,
was killed during theBattle of Anzio in Italy.
She was wounded in the attack and died six days later.
She was awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third highest award for bravery,
and the Purple Heart.
1st Lt. Blanche Sigman, 1st Lt. Carrie Sheetz and Lt. Majorie Morrow,
of the Army Nurse Corp, were killed on Feb. 7, 1944
when the 95th Evac Hospital at Anzio Beach was bombed.
A few days later Lt. Gertrude Spelboug and Lt. La Verne Farquar were killed
when the 33rd Field Hospital at Anzio was hit by artillery.
Approximately 200 Army nurses took part in the Anzio campaign.
Two of them were the first women to receive the Silver Star for meritorious duty.
Lt. Fern Wingerd, who was wounded when the 95th Evac was bombed recovered in time to be one of the first women to wade ashore with the 7th Army in southern France.
Lieutenant Frances Slanger U.S. Army Nurses Corps' unit
was the target of a German artillery barrage when one
of their shells burst near her.
A little known fact is that thirty eight WASPs gave their lives during WWII
and yet the WASP were not given full military status until many years later.
WASP: Jane Champlin -Susan P. Clarke- Margie L. Davis- Katherine Dussaq -Marjorie D. Edwards- Elizabeth Erickson -Cornelia Fort -Frances F. Grimes -Mary Hartson -Edith Keene- Kathryn B. Lawrence- Hazel Ah Ying- Lee Paula Loop -Alice Lovejoy Lea- Ola McDonald- Peggy Martin -Virginia Moffatt -Beverly Moses -Dorothy Nichols- Jeanne L. Norbeck- Margaret C. Oldenburg- Mabel Rawlinson - Gleanna Roberts -
Marie Mitchell Robinson-Betty Scott -Dorothy Scott- Margaret J. Seip -
Helen Jo Severson -Ethel Marie Sharon- Evelyn Sharp - Gertrude Thompkins Silver Betty P. Stine- Marion Toevs -Mary E. Trebing -Mary L. Webster- Bonnie Jean Welz Betty Taylor Wood 
The Korean Conflict
Ensign Constance R. Esposito, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Alice S. Giroux, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Calla C. Goodwin, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Constance A. Heege, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Margaret Grace Kennedy, Navy Nurse Corps
Ensign Mary E. Lijegreen, Navy Nurse Corps
Major Genevieve Smith, Army Nurse Corps,
Lt. Wilma Ledbetter, Navy Nurse Corps
Ensign Eleanor Beste, Navy Nurse Corps
Ensign Marie Boatman, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Jeanne E. Clarke, Navy Nurse Corps
Lt.jg. Jane L. Eldridge, Navy Nurse Corps
Ensign Edna J. Rundell, Navy Nurse Corps
Captain Vera M. Brown, Air Force Nurse Corps
SN Doris Frances Brown, Milwaukee, non-hostile death Navy.
AN Virginia May McClure, Sioux City, non-hostile air crash, AF.
AN Margaret Fae Perry, Morgantown, non-hostile crash, AF.
AB3 Kay Sherill Platt, Dexter, non-hostile death, Navy.
There is NO excuse for me NOT being aware of all the above women.
My mother, a PROUD WAVE in WW2, used to 'talk about women in service' and
I just did NOT listen.
Then, there was :
Vietnam
I SHOULD have realized women were dying RIGHT along with the men over there?? but? I did not
U.S. Army
2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones
Lt. Drazba and Lt. Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was from Dunmore, PA., Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old
Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander
1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski
Capt. Alexander of Westwood, NJ and Lt. Orlowski of Detroit, MI died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evac.
and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evac., in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push.
Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.
2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan
from Allston, MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8, 1968.
She was assigned to the 85th Evac. in Qui Nhon. She was 26 years old.
1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane
died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evac.
at Chu Lai was hit by rockets on June 8, 1969.
From Canton, OH,
She was posthumously awarded the
Vietnamese Gallantry Cross
with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism.
Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane
had attended nursing school,
erected a bronze statue of Lane.
Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham,
Chief Nurse at 91st Evac. Hospital, 43d Med Group,
44th Medical Brigade, Tuy Hoa.
Lt. Col. Graham, from Efland, NC, suffered a stroke in August 1968
and was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later.
A veteran of both World War II and Korea, she was 52.
U.S. Air Force
Capt. Mary Therese Klinker
Capt. Klinker, a flight nurse with the 10th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron,
Travis Air Force Base, temporarily assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines,
was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4 1975 outside Saigon
while evacuating Vietnamese orphans.
This is known as the Operation Babylift crash.
From Lafayette, IN, she was 27.
She was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal
for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.
Desert Storm
Major Marie T. Rossi was killed 1 March 1991
in Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Storm.
She was flying a CH-47D CHINOOK Cargo Helicopter
when it crashed into an unlit Microwave Tower in bad weather.
Major Rossi was 32 and a native of Oradell, NJ.
Army
PFC Pamela V. Gay, 19, Surrey, Virginia
PFC Cindy D.J. Bridges, 20, Trinity, Alabama
Private Dorothy Fails, Taylor, Arizona
Private Candace Daniel
Sergeant Tracey Brogdon, Bartow, Florida
2Lt Kathleen M. Sherry, 23, Tonawanda, NY
Specialist Cindy Beaudoin, 19, Plainfield, Conn.
Specialist Christine Mayes, 22, Rochester Mills, Pa.
Specialist Beverly Clark, 23, Armagh, Pa.
Specialist Adrienne L. Mitchell, 20, Moreno Valley, Calif.
Staff Sergeant Tatiana Khaghani Dees, Valley Cottage, Rockland County, New York.
Sergeant Cheryl LaBeau O'Brien, 24, Racine, Wisc.
Lt. Lorraine Lawton
Navy
AG1 Shirley Marie Cross
Stateside
ANG Pilot CWO2 Carol McKinney, Missouri
Peacetime
Lt Cmdr. Barbara Allen Rainey, 34, US Navy
First woman pilot in the history of the U.S. Navy,
earning her gold wings in 1974.
She was killed while training another pilot,
in an air accident in Florida in 1982.
LT Colleen Cain became the Coast Guard's first female
HH-52A pilot in June 1979.
Lt. Laura Piper, 25,
an Air Force Academy graduate,
was one of 26 people killed when Air Force fighter jets
shot down two Army helicopters over Iraq on 14 April 1994.
Lt. Kara Hultgreen, 29, US Navy
Lt. Hultgreen was the first woman to qualify in a combat-ready
F-14 Tomcat, graduating third in her pilot training class.
She was a member of the Black Lions of VF-213 readying
to deploy to the Persian Gulf.
As she was approaching the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln
on 25 Oct 1994, her aircraft began losing altitude.
Her radar intercept officer ejected successfully.
Hultgreen ejected immediately after, but the jet had already rolled.
After an exhaustive search, her body and the plane were not recovered.
She received full military honors upon her death.
The Navy salvaged the plane and recovered her body,
still strapped inside the ejector seat.
A four-month investigation found that engine malfunction caused the crash
and that almost no pilot
could have saved the plane after the left engine stalled.
Captain Amy Lynn Svoboda, 29, US Air Force
Captain Svoboda, an Air Force jet pilot, died on May 29, 1997,
after her A-10 Thunderbolt plane crashed during a training mission
at the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona.
Capt. Amy Lynn Svoboda's death marked the first fatality of a woman pilot
in the Air Force, which has only 13 other women fighter pilots.
Spec. Angela E. Niedermayer,
One of eight soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers
was killed in the July 8 1997 crash of a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter,
Ft Bragg, NC. Spec. Angela E. Niedermayer, 20, a noncommunications interceptor and analyst with the 313th Military Intelligence Battalion.
Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds,
40, of Panama City, Florida.
Sergeant Olds joined the Air Force 20 years ago after graduating from junior college. She had been assigned to the U.S. embassy in East Africa
for the last year and was killed in the August 1998 bombing.
Lt.j.g. Meredith Carol Loughran, 26, of Sandston, Va.
EA-6B "Prowler" crew member missing since the aircraft crash aboard the Norfolk-based nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Nov. 8, 1998,
The crew members are presumed lost at sea.
U.S. Army pilot Captain Jennifer J. Odom, 29, of Brunswick, Maryland,
along with her co-pilot and three other crew members,
died July 23 1999 when the DeHavilland RC7 reconnaissance plane she was piloting crashed into a mountain in southern Colombia.
The Pentagon says there is "no evidence" that narco-guerrillas
shot down the plane," but adds that "the investigation is continuing."
On Sept. 1, 1999 Sgt. 1st Class Jeanne M. Balcombe,
of the 1st Platoon, 55th Military Police Company,
was posthumously awarded the Soldiers Medal
for heroism in the face of danger. While on duty on Aug. 21st 1999,
Balcombe's quick thinking and selfless response safeguarded and
protected others at the Troop Medical Clinic at Camp Red Cloud, Korea.
Women sailors were also among the casualties on board
the USS Cole Incident in October 2000.
Casualties include:
Lakeina Monique Francis, 19, Woodleaf, North Carolina
Seaman Recruit Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22, of San Diego, California.
About 35 of the crew are women.
Also in the Pentagon attack.
Petty Officer Jamie Lynn Fallon, USN, 23
Specialist Chin Sun Pak, USA, 24
Staff Sergeant Maudlyn A. White, USA, 38
Lt Col Karen J. Wagner, USA, 40
Petty Officer Marsha Dianah Ratchford, USN, 34
Petty Officer Melissa Rose Barnes, USN, 27
Sergeant Tamara C. Thurman, USA, 25
Among the Marines killed in the C130 crash in Pakistan was :
Radio Operator, Sergeant Jeannette L. Winters,
25, of Du Page, Illinois.
Sgt Winters was the first woman Marine killed in a hostile fire zone.
Lost at Sea
Lt Terri Sue Fessner,Pilot, USN
March 2002 HH-60B Helicopter crash
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Air Force Staff Sgt.Anissa A. Shero,31, of Grafton, West Virgina
was killed in the plane crash in Afghanistan.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Kellye McCarty, 38,
Jacksonville Naval Air Station
Capt. Christel A. Chavez, 27,
was co-pilot of the MC-130H transport aircraft,
Navy Medicine's Commander Laurel Salton Clark
lifted off Jan. 16 on shuttle mission STS-107.
Many women were held as prisoners during the wars- including:
During the Vietnam War Monika Schwinn, a German nurse,
was held captive for three and a half years
at one time the only woman prisoner at the "Hanoi Hilton".
The following missionaries were POWs:
Evelyn Anderson, captured and later burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.
Beatrice Kosin was captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.
Betty Ann Olsen was captured during a raid on the leprosarium
in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968.
She died in 1968 and was buried somewhere along Ho Chi Minh Trail
by fellow POW, Michael Benge.
Eleanor Ardel Vietti was captured at the leprosarium in
Ban Me Thuot, May 30, 1962.
She is still listed as POW.
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