Remarks by
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.
Director

Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Rhode Island Women Veterans: To Honor and Remember

October 27, 2007
Warwick, RI

Thank you, Jeannie [Lt. Col Jeannie Vachon of the RI National Guard] for your kind introduction and for your invitation to be with you today. This is a true homecoming for me. During the week, I work in Rockville, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, as Director of the Center for Mental Health Services in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. At SAMHSA, the mental health care needs of all veterans, including women, are a top priority.

But I’m not here today in my official capacity. I’m here as a woman, as a Captain in the United States Naval Reserve, and as a Rhode Island resident. If it is true that “home is where the heart is,” my heart is here with all of you as we gather to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Rhode Island Women Veterans Memorial. What a fitting tribute to the brave and wonderful women of this State who have given their all in service to their country and have sometimes paid with their lives. We are here to honor and to remember them today.

A Brief History

It was the author Washington Irving who said, “There is in every true woman’s heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.” From the beginning of our country’s history, women have risen to the challenge of defending this Nation in time of war. Indeed, women were the vanguard for today’s all volunteer force.

During the American Revolution, it was not uncommon for wives, mothers, and daughters to follow their men into battle, tending to the wounded and serving as cooks, seamstresses, and laundresses. But women have never been content to remain on the sidelines.

You may be familiar with the story of Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, a resident of Pennsylvania, who earned the nickname of “Molly Pitcher” for bringing water to the revolutionaries at the Battle of Monmouth in June of 1778. When Mary’s soldier husband died, she took up her position at his cannon and helped fend off British troops. In 1822, Mary was awarded an annuity by the Pennsylvania assembly for her service during the fight for independence.

During the Civil War, at least 400 women disguised themselves as men and assumed combat roles alongside the troops on both sides of the conflict. By the end of World War I, about 34,000 women served as nurses in all branches of the Armed Forces. They did so despite the fact that military nurses had no official rank and were not given the benefits provided to men in the military and male veterans. They heard their country’s call and they responded.

Writing about women veterans for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2005, Robert Klein noted, “If World War I was a turning point for women in the military, World War II was the time when women served in relatively large numbers, responding to an all-out mobilization because of a desperate need for personnel.” In all, roughly 400,000 women served in the military during the course of the war.

As Judy Barrett Litoff, Professor of History at Bryant University in Smithfield and the author of numerous books about women in World War II has said, “These were ordinary women doing extraordinary things.” They worked as carpenters, cartographers, and electrical specialists, weather forecasters, pharmacists, and control tower operators, draftsmen, truck drivers, and welders. These were the pioneers who paved the way for today’s servicewomen who fly combat aircraft, staff missile placements, and drive supply convoys.

What the Numbers Tell Us

Sometimes statistics can be dry, but they tell us some interesting and important things about women veterans. As of September 2006, the population of women veterans numbered more than 1.7 million, including 5,400 from Rhode Island. Clearly, that population is expected to grow. Today, 14 percent of active duty military personnel, 21 percent of the reserve components, and 14 percent of the National Guard are women.

Here are a few things we know about women veterans:

• They are younger than their male counterparts. In 2004, for example, the estimated median age of women veterans was 46, whereas the estimated median age of male veterans was 60.
• They are fairly well educated. Data from the VA’s 2002 Current Population Survey show that 72 percent of women veterans had at least some college experience; nearly 40 percent of those had at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Increasingly, they come from ethnic and racial minority groups. By the year 2000, nearly 30 percent of women veterans identified themselves in the Census as a member of a racial minority group.

Most important to me, in my role as a mental health professional and advocate, is the changing face of the war our women are fighting today. In Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, the lack of a front line means that soldiers can face danger anywhere—even when they are not assigned to combat roles. And medical advances now allow soldiers to survive catastrophic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and wounds that once would have been fatal.

The fact that women are serving in harm’s way means that we must recognize and address the implications for their mental and physical health. Consider these facts:

• In the 2001 National Survey of Veterans, nearly one-quarter of women veterans reported contact with dead, dying, or wounded compatriots during their military service. In a more recent study of combat experiences of members of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, 95 percent of the Army respondents and 94 percent of the Marines reported seeing dead bodies or human remains.
• Perhaps not surprisingly, in 2004, depression was one of the top three diagnostic categories for women veterans treated by the VA.
• Further, in a study of women veterans being treated at the VA Women’s Comprehensive Healthcare Center in Los Angeles, 43 percent of women who experienced any kind of trauma had a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. But 60 percent of those who experienced military sexual trauma, including rape, had a diagnosis of PTSD.

We cannot afford to remain silent about trauma, particularly sexual trauma, in the lives of the women who serve our country. Although many providers do not ask women about their history of sexual trauma, the overwhelming majority of women indicate that they would prefer to be asked this question. Few survivors are likely to offer this information unless they are prompted in a non-threatening and respectful manner.

We cannot afford to remain silent because the consequences are dire. As the VA’s Advisory Committee on Women Veterans pointed out in its 2006 report, “the unfortunate truth of PTSD is that it can manifest itself not only in additional physical problems requiring medical attention, but also in substance use and homelessness.” We know that in 2002 and 2003, nearly 4 percent of female veterans were dependant on or abusing alcohol or illicit drugs. About 3 percent of the 195,000 veterans who are homeless on any given night in this country are women.

We can and we must do better. My agency, SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services, has made the mental and physical health of returning veterans and their families a centerpiece of our efforts to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities.

To Honor and To Remember

I don’t want to leave you with these stark statistics because I came here today to share a message of hope.

I came to honor and to remember the courageous women of Rhode Island who are a credit to their gender, to their State, and to their country. Many of you here today are those women.

In recent years, there have been a number of important oral history projects that have begun to chronicle the lives of Rhode Island women who served in World War II. One such project was featured in the recent Rhode Island PBS documentary, “Rhode Island Women in World War II: In Their Own Words,” which Lt. Col. Vachon played a key role in organizing. The women veterans were interviewed by ROTC students at Cranston East High School.

We had the privilege of meeting Arlene Chilson, a Navy WAVE and gunnery instructor. In boot camp, Arlene was told her aptitude test revealed that she would be a good yeoman or pharmacist, but that didn’t sound exciting enough for Arlene. She wanted to go to gunnery school, and she was one of six in her class of 1,000 recruits selected to go. “When the men in my class saw a woman instructor,” Arlene says, “you could see on their faces the words they couldn’t say.”

We met Marine Corps Women’s Reserve member Martha Marshall, who in addition to her regular duties volunteered to visit Marines who were awaiting plastic surgery. “It was heartbreaking,” she confides, but she was proud to be able to make a difference.

We saw the genuine affection between Rosetta Desrosiers [De-row-schuss] and Evelyn Cohen who became fast friends while serving in the Coast Guard SPARS and have remained so to this day. “We’ve never had an argument,” Evelyn says.

And we learned that Dr. Mary Ravin became an expert in tropical diseases while serving as a Navy WAVE. When she got out of the Navy, she went to medical school on the GI bill.

Each and every one of these women exemplifies that “spark of heavenly fire” that Washington Irving described.

So, too, do the Rhode Island women veterans interviewed about 10 years ago by students in the Honors English program at South Kingstown High School for a project they called, “What Did You Do in the War Grandma?”

The students spoke to Barbara Gwynne, who went from being President of the Providence Junior League to Commanding Officer of the WAC detachment at Stark General Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. She was candid about how the war changed her and the women she knew:

“I can tell you that women had become much more independent because we had the experience of standing on our own two feet while [the men] were overseas,” Barbara said. “We had to do it, and so obviously we were used to making decisions for ourselves and were more independent. I suppose that it was a surprise for some of the men.”

Lucille Spooner Votta expressed what many women of this era have said about their wartime service: “I didn't think of myself as a heroine or anything like that because we just thought we were needed. That was all,” Lucille said. In Lucille’s case, that was hardly all of the story. A graduate of the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing, Lucille became head nurse on the psychiatric ward at a general hospital in the Philippines. She was the only nurse for 200 patients, working alongside 10 corpsman. “I had a wonderful experience,” she recalled.

Finally, the students were delighted to speak to Genevieve Chasm, who admits that her habit of speaking her mind sometimes got her into trouble.

“The last week before I was commissioned, we had to fill out a form,” Genevieve related, “and one of the questions was, ‘If you could have any job in the United States Army, what would it be?’ So I wrote, ‘I would like to be a mess officer because I've been hungry as long as I've been in the Army.’”

Genevieve was put in charge of the mess hall at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which came to be rated as the second best mess in the United States Army. “I was very proud of that fact,” Genevieve said.

We pause today to honor the determination, the spirit, and the integrity of these women who paved the way for all of us who serve in the United States Armed Forces. But we would be remiss if we didn’t also take a moment to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

We remember United States Marine Corps Lance Corporal Holly Charette, a 2001 graduate of Cranston East High School where she played field hockey and was a cheerleader for the Thunderbolts ice hockey team. Holly was killed in Fallujah in 2005 when her military convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber.

She was a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, and a fiancé. Most of all, she was a proud Marine and we know she is sorely missed.

We also remember Sharon Mayo Swartworth, who was among six individuals killed in November 2003 when her Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq. When she graduated from Warwick’s Pilgrim High School in 1977, she already knew that she wanted to pursue a career in the Army.

In her 26 years in the Army, Sharon rose through the ranks to become warrant officer of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. She was the primary adviser to the Judge Advocate General on administrative matters, and she was also the director of operations for legal technology, overseeing JAG computer systems. Our thoughts are with Sharon’s husband and son.

Both Holly and Sharon left their families behind when they headed off to war, and those families need our support, as well. That’s what led another inspirational woman, Susan Storti, to jump into action. Susan is a registered nurse and Director of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center of New England at Brown University.

When Susan’s fiancé was deployed with the Rhode Island National Guard, she assessed the needs of soldiers, veterans, and their families; identified available resources; and helped create a “Rhode Island Blueprint” to fill the gaps. At SAMHSA, we were proud to help support this initiative, which led to the creation of the Veterans Task Force of Rhode Island.

Now the entire community is involved in welcoming veterans home and supporting families while they’re gone. Experts train community providers in such areas as traumatic brain injury. Support groups give families tips on stress management and opportunities to vent. Researchers are studying ways of enhancing resilience in children. Even the local theater company has gotten into the act, with a play drawing on the words of soldiers, journalists, and others who have been to Iraq.

Closing

Poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.” We can hope and pray that time will come soon. In the meantime, we know that the women of Rhode Island, and all across this country, will continue to volunteer to protect and defend all that we hold dear.

I would like to leave you with the words of Carolyn Lundberg, whose letter is one of the hundreds featured in Judy Litoff’s book We’re in This War, Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform. Carolyn wrote this letter to her Navy husband, who was serving in the Pacific, shortly after she graduated from officer’s candidate school at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. She said:

Dear Don:

Pledges inspired by graduation day and preceding indoctrination:

1. May my rank be a constant reminder of my responsibility.
2. May my work and behavior be worthy of the honor I’ve won by being commissioned an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
3. May I have the moral courage to put the service first, even before you, since this and similar services will return you to me the sooner—and reunite millions of people.

Bon Voyage, Carolyn

Responsibility, honor, and moral courage—I can’t think of any better way to characterize the women from this State and around the country—women just like you—who have served our Nation because they felt they were needed; it is their sacrifices we honor today. We are better for having known them, loved them, and served with them, and our gratitude is unceasing.

Thank you again for the honor of addressing you today.