The sun is shining today, and the warm air feels wonderful. It’s great to be outside without bundling up or worrying about shoveling snow. 

Speaking of which, I want to thank the Windham DPW crew for their hard work clearing snow this winter. I could hear their plows rumbling past my house at all hours - no easy task, driving large trucks through harsh conditions and long hours so our community can travel safely.

Women's History Month is celebrated annually in March to honor the contributions of women to American history. I have in past articles mentioned a few women who have served our country in combat situations. 

For so long we forget the contributions that women have given to our country. Women workers took over factories during WWII, building airplanes, ships, clothing etc. for the war effort. 

We now have women in government positions, lawyers, judges and every occupation supporting our needs. Some women contribute in ways many do not realize.

 Approximately 10,000 to 11,000 American military women were stationed in Vietnam, with 90% serving as volunteer nurses, often working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, in combat zones.

These young women, mostly in their early 20s, managed mass casualties, amputations, and tropical diseases, contributing to a 98% survival rate for those reaching medical care. 

Nurses served in Army evacuation hospitals, Navy hospital ships (e.g., USS Repose, USS Sanctuary), and as Air Force flight nurses during medical evacuations. 

They operated in high-stress, dangerous environments, often facing rocket attacks at hospitals. Eight women, all nurses, died during the conflict, with their names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

No official record exists of the number of nurses who served in Vietnam during the war. They were a largely invisible and unrecognized contingent of an unpopular war until their stories slowly began emerging with the advent of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project in the mid-1980s.

Today, it’s generally estimated that 10,000 American military women were stationed there, 90% of them nurses. Dianne M. Gagliano deployed to Vietnam in 1971, shortly after obtaining flight nurse certification from the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. 

She flew medical and humanitarian missions all over Southeast Asia, caring for critically injured troops and airlifting prisoners of war and orphaned children. 

Gagliano’s papers also chronicle a lesser-known chapter stemming from that war: the contentious, decade-long battle by women veterans for representation at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

“The Wall,” as it’s commonly called, was dedicated in 1982 and is etched with more than 58,000 names, including eight women nurses who died in Vietnam.

But another element of the memorial, the bronze sculpture of three American infantrymen that honors the soldiers who came home, struck nurses like Diane Carlson Evans, who had served in Vietnam, as yet another example of historical erasure.

“The norm of leaving women out of the historical account of war had to change,” she said. Members of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project were adamant about their choice of site.

In 1988, when Congress finally did authorize the memorial but did not specify its placement on the Mall, stating only that it be established "on federal land in the District of Columbia or its environs”, Evans and her colleagues started the legislative process all over again. 

Their refusal to compromise added more years to what had already been an exhausting campaign, but they ultimately prevailed.

Evans, Gagliano, and thousands of other women who had served in that war saw the Vietnam Women’s Memorial formally dedicated on Nov. 11, 1993, on the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, just 300 feet from the statue of the three infantrymen and near the Wall. 

“Some said women had not been in combat, did not suffer, and were too few in number to be honored." Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project

Remember all who served our country along with all who serve today in our all voluntary military. God bless America and all who keep us safe. 

Marc Farmilette, PDC – Commander VFW Post 1545

The Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C.