In 1990, nearly 40,000 American military women deployed during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Although officially barred from combat, they served in hundreds of roles, from piloting helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft, to acting as administrators, air traffic controllers, engineer equipment mechanics, ammunition technicians, radio operators, drivers, chaplains and law enforcement specialists. Several women commanded brigade, battalion, company and platoon size units in combat service support areas.
Service Women in Desert Storm found themselves in even greater danger than ever. “Operation Desert Storm was a toxic battlefield,” the 2014 documentary Women at War: Forgotten Veterans of Desert Storm pointed out. “Female soldiers came under fire in a hot, dusty world of oil well blazes and Scud missile attacks. They experienced exposures to biochemical weapons, oil well fires, anthrax inoculations and depleted uranium that sent many of them into casualty hospitals.”
Of the 13 U.S. servicewomen killed in the 1991 Gulf War, four of them were from enemy fire, including three servicewomen who were killed by an Iraqi Scud missile attack. Twenty-one women were wounded in action, and two were taken prisoners of war.
“The qualities that are the most important in all military jobs—things like integrity, moral courage, and determination have nothing to do with gender.”