pages of history
Honoring Women
A Year of Military Women exhibit at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., pays tribute to female servicemembers who risked or gave their lives in service to the country.
An exhibit at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., honors the contributions and sacrifices of female servicemembers. Year of Military Women, which debuted in April and will run through April 2014, was created in partnership with the U.S. Army Women’s Museum, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, and other institutions.
“We thought this was a story whose time had more than come,” says Vice Adm. John Totushek, USN (Ret), president and CEO of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation. “Women have been supporting the defense of our country since the Revolutionary War, though they often didn’t get the same recognition as their male counterparts. We wanted the American public to understand the contributions these women have made.”
The exhibit features important dates in the history of American female military service and how the military utilized women over the years. Other highlights include a display of uniforms worn by pioneering military women, including one worn by Navy Capt. Mildred McAfee, the first WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) director during World War II; a display commemorating female servicemembers who died serving their country; and an exhibition of artwork illustrating the achievements of female servicemembers.
“Year of Military Women has gotten great acceptance from the women who have [served] and are serving,” notes Totushek. “Its message is that it’s not just men who have served our country for the past 230-plus years, it’s the men and women who have done so much to keep this nation free.”
History Lesson
On Sept. 1, 1939, at roughly 5:30 a.m., Adolf Hitler’s armies invaded Poland, officially starting World War II in Europe.
Statue Finds A Home
The Battleship Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, has been selected as the permanent home of a bronze statue honoring Navy Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz. The 8-foot-tall statue, created by Rip Caswell, will be unveiled at the memorial’s end of World War II ceremony Sept. 2.
“Nimitz was the United States’ signatory at the historic World War II surrender ceremony on the decks of the USS Missouri (BB-63),” said Michael Carr, president and chief operating officer of the Battleship Missouri Memorial, in a statement. “The reunion of these two icons of American history is a fitting homage to the day ... peace was restored to the world.”
In World War II, Nimitz was designated commander in chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas. In December 1944, he was advanced to the rank of fleet admiral.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based freelance writer, authors this monthly column.
SEPTEMBER 2013 MILITARY OFFICER 105
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