Side By Side
The Story of our brave sisters in uniform By Ken Riege USAF Veteran
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I had mentioned in last month’s story that for July I would be writing on how different military quotes and phrases have become a part of our everyday vocabulary. However, after a recent visit to Albuquerque and thrift shopping, I came across a book called Side By Side A Photographic History of American Women in War. With July 4th coming up, I couldn’t think of a better way to help celebrate our independence than to honor those brave women who have helped secure our freedoms in so many ways. As I was looking through this book, a saying stood out that I wanted to share. This was a quote from a British Officer’s report to Lord Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War. “Destroy all the men in America and we shall still have all we can do to defeat the women.” Here is a photo of Dr. Walker, provided curtesy of the Medal of Honor Our brave sisters in uniform have served, fought, bled, and died in Stroup, who served with the Women’s Army Corps every conflict our country has been involved in since the (WAC) during WW2. Her quote was as follows: “It Revolutionary War. wasn’t just my brother’s country or my husband’s country, it was my country as well and so this war wasn’t just their There has been only one (I am sure that reviews of war, it was my war too and I needed to serve in it.” other actions should be done) female Medal of Honor Recipient, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. Just recently (6 May 2021) a historic first happened at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) in San Diego. It Dr. Walker is believed to have been the only female was the first time that an all-Female Platoon graduated surgeon deployed to the Civil War Battlefields. She from their training at MCRD which for the past century overcame misogyny to become the first female surgeon in had only been training male recruits. Pvt. Jordan US Army history. She was a major crusader for women’s Peshlakai of Naschitti was among that first group of right to vote which was finally achieved 1 year after her female Marines. It would be a great honor to meet her and death on 21 February 1919 with the passing of the 19th to do a story on her in the future. I was reading a story Amendment. about Pvt. Peshlakai in the February 18th, 2021, edition of the Navajo Times and her drill instructor described Pvt. Another quote from this book was by Beatrice Hood Peshlakai as “Tough as Nails”.
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July 2021
