Remembering Friends Who Served

Remembering Friends Who Served

As an undrafted 19 year-old man, John Thomas was conflicted. He felt a deep calling to serve in Vietnam, but he also felt a strong obligation to work his family’s ranch and grow the legacy of his father.

He woke at 5am to milk the family’s small dairy herd by hand and often considered how his life may have been different had he enlisted.

“I really admired my friends who served. And I sometimes wondered if it would have been a better path for me,” said John.

In the years that followed, he built a home by hand, grew his young family and went into town once-a-month to country dance with his wife and friends.

In many ways, he had the life that over 58,000 service members longed to return to. Thomas celebrated the friends who came home and mourned the ones who did not.

“I heard all the stories around the cafe table,” said Thomas. “Those people are real heroes and it hurt me to see they didn’t always get the welcome home they deserved.”

Thomas attended many memorials. His wife often brought grieving families food, flowers or a helping hand with a church service.

Today, #wearbluetoremember exists to do the same: remember those who served, assist wherever we can, and honor the sacrifice of so many.

Remembering Vietnam and the Sacrifice of Service

Vietnam Remembered

Two long months ago, Michael Murray walked through the charming country church where he and his fiancé would eventually marry. On this day, Murray was face down in a hot foreign jungle as random shells exploded in all directions.

It was a sound that regrettably became familiar. His is just one of the many stories from those who made sacrifices to serve in the Vietnam War.

Murray would fortunately return home, but not without the emotional and physical scars of battle, the pain of having lost friends and the personal burdens carried from the toll of a very long war.

“I like to talk,” says Murray. “But you didn’t talk about those things back then. Today, it’s very different. There are a lot more resources out there and support for a guy like me.”

Every story is unique. To best remember the bravery of those like Murray and those not fortunate enough to return, #wearbluetoremember supports all those who served and lives to honor their memories and sacrifice.
From 1964 to 1973, about 2.7 million American served in Vietnam, and more than 58,000 died. While some like Murray returned home to an “I do”, we must also lift up those who did not. And #wearbluetoremember does just that.

Learn more, join our efforts and always remember. 

Women Warriors Today

In 2015, the ban on women in combat was lifted leading to a slow but steady expansion of positions open to women in the U.S. Armed Services. The percentage of women in the U.S. military has been rising slowly in recent years; with women now representing 16 percent of our forces.

Organizations and missions, once open to only males, now see women serving with distinction. In 2019, the first woman completed the physically and mentally grueling two-week Navy SEAL Officer selection process. By April of 2020, 50 women have graduated from the Army’s Ranger School. The Army has recently announced that another woman successfully passed Special Forces training and intends to join  the Green Berets.  Women are now serving, and leading, in infantry units across the Army.  

Also in 2020, Lt. j.g. Madeline Swegle earned her wings to become the US Navy's first Black female fighter pilot and later this year the Army will integrate female infantry and armor Soldiers into its final nine brigade combat teams.

Women not only are making exceptional contributions in the military, but are also using their skills and experiences from their service to make contributions to their communities and to become public service leaders. They are leaving a blueprint to encourage and empower the next generation of young women to aspire to be anything they want to be.

“From a strategic standpoint… women are people too. Equally motivated to preserve life, fight for liberty, and pursue happiness... Leadership is about recognizing potential in people and catalyzing it. Women are people, and if you can’t recognize potential in women, you’re not leading. You’re following along with the status quo. … If we want freedom and security in the world, we have to fight for freedom for everybody.”

— CPT Kristen Griest, U.S. Army

Danger Zone: Fighting the Global War on Terror

Seven hundred thousand American women would join the military campaigns launched after the September 11 terrorist attacks. 

Although women were prohibited from direct combat roles until 2015, the Iraq War was a guerrilla insurgency, fought with improvised explosive devices, suicide bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. Military sociologist Brenda Moore, PhD, explained, “The unpredictable nature of the attacks in [the Iraq war blurred] the distinction between front-line and rear areas.” Women who were assigned support roles often found themselves under fire, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Women were allowed to fly combat aircraft and serve on combat ships, and many female soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors courageously put themselves in danger in war zones. 

PFC Lori Piestewa (posthumously promoted to Specialist), was the first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military. She was also the first American woman in the U.S. military to be killed in the Iraq War.

A total of 174 women lost their lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Syria since September 11, 2001. Thousands were severely injured, including Tammy Duckworth, later elected senator from Illinois, who was one of the first women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A Purple Heart recipient, she lost both her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down. 

Women were making strides, back home, too; in 2007, Marine Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas served as the first Latina woman commanding general of Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and the Marine's Western Recruiting Region.

“This award doesn’t have anything to do with being a female. It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”

— Leigh Ann Hester, Sergeant, Kentucky Army National Guard, Silver Star, Operation Iraqi Freedom

Evolving Roles: Women Warriors in the Persian Gulf

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.”

— Rhonda Cornum, Brigadier General (Retired), US Army Medical Corps

Big Shifts in the ‘70s: From Power to Education

The 1970s were a time of shifting attitudes. In 1975,  law was signed allowing women to attend the all-male military academies. The first women enrolled in the summer of 1976 and graduated in spring 1980, however the challenges these women faced were significant. Only 66% of the inaugural class of women reached graduation.  Currently women represent 27% of service academy cadets and midshipmen. In 1989, Kristin M. Baker, was the first female cadet at West Point to be named Brigade Commander and to command its Corps of Cadets, and in November 2020, Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber became the first black woman to serve as brigade commander at the US Naval Academy. 

Women in the military were making strides elsewhere during this time. In 1970, Colonel Anna Mae Hays, Chief, Army Nurse Corps was promoted to the grade of Brigadier General, becoming the first woman in the history of the U.S. Army to attain General officer rank. Nine years later, in 1979, Brigadier General Hazel W. Johnson-Brown became the first Black American woman to become an Army General. In 1985, Brigadier General Carmelita Vigil-Schimmenti became the first Hispanic woman to serve as a Brigadier General, and in 2001, Brigadier General Coral Pietsch became the first Asian-American woman to serve at this level. As these women rose through ranks, the general attitude toward women in the military began to evolve.

Vietnam: A New Type of War

Of the 265,00 women who served their country during the Vietnam War, approximately 11,000 American women served in Southeast Asia with close to 90 percent serving as nurses in the Army, Navy and Air Force. Others were doctors, physical therapists, air traffic controllers, communications specialists, intelligence officers and clerks. 

This conflict presented unique challenges unlike previous wars. As the Vietnam Women’s Memorial website points out, “Because of the guerilla tactics of Vietnam, many women were in the midst of the conflict. There was no front, no such thing as ‘safe behind our lines.’ Many women were wounded throughout the Vietnam War, with eight ultimately killed in action.

WACs, WAVES and WASPs: Women in World War II

When the U.S. officially entered the war in December 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, pressed for a women’s branch of the armed forces; General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, agreed that womens’ service would be essential for victory. Thus the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (later renamed Women’s Army Corps or WAC) was established.

More than 100,000 women enlisted in the WAC (6,000 were officers) and were initially trained to serve in three roles: switchboard operators, mechanics and bakers. 

During this time the Navy also established the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program, with more than 100,000 women joining and performing critical jobs including military intelligence, cryptography and parachute rigging.

Women also began to take flight. More than 1,000 women joined the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), as licensed pilots who flew planes transporting essential cargo from factories to bases, and participated in simulation strafing and target missions. For decades, the WASPs’ service went unrecognized. However in 2010, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors, under the Obama Administration. 

Three years after the end of WWII, in 1948, President Truman signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, which recognized women as full members of the armed forces and gave them access to the same benefits as male counterparts.

“Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom. That our resolve was just as great as the brave men who stood among us and with victory our hearts were just as full and beat just as fast-that the tears fell just as hard for those we left behind.”

— Anne Sosh Brehm, 1st Lieutenant, US Army Nurse Corps, World War II