Happy Veteran's Day

When I was going through my Bloglines feed, I happened across an old online friend, Becky. She's a woman of faith, courage and honor, and she's served our country in the military. I also want to recognize a couple of other blogging friends, her sister veterans, Robbie and Chasing Moksha (whose blog is now private).

Serving our country is a responsibility that all citizens have whether or not we recognize it, but our military veterans take that responsibility to a higher level, and they deserve our recognition. While not intending to slight our male veterans, women are still not being recognized for their service and sacrifice, and I want to give them a special tribute today.

In college, I had the honor of studying Women's History under a veteran of the World War II WASPS. While technically not engaged in direct combat, she risked her life in service to her country. Several of her sister WASPS died in service. After the war was over, she and her peers had to fight her country to receive the status and benefits of US Armed Services veterans. Relying on my faltering memory, that battle began in the 50s and ended in 1977, only 31 years ago.

30 years sounds like a long time in print, but it hasn't really felt that way in life. There have been big changes. Women in today's military aren't set aside in special branches just for women. They don't have to battle for decades to be recognized as veterans by the government, but our government hasn't hesitated using women for propaganda just because service women can be seen as different than men. The nature of the battle for respect for military women has changed, but it still continues. We, the American public, need to make sure that our women warriors get the respect they deserve.

Veteran's Day, feminism