Thank You, Margaret Chase Smith! A Practical Case for Women in Uniform

Why do we recognize June 12th as Women Veterans Day?

This date marks President Truman’s signing of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, legislation that formally allowed women to serve as permanent members of the regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the newly established Air Force.

This law did not appear overnight. It came after years of wartime service by women who had already proven themselves essential – and it was supported by leaders willing to make the case in Congress. Leaders like George C. Marshall, James Forrestal, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But it began with one lone voice - one person willing to sign a bill alone…and stand alone, until others would join her.

Margaret Chase Smith, the Congresswoman and later Senator from Maine.

What is significant about Smith’s advocacy is that she did not frame the issue primarily around emotion or equality. Her position was not about fairness. Her argument stayed grounded in national defense and military readiness. She focused on what women had already demonstrated during World War II.

Women had served. They had taken on critical responsibilities.

They had strengthened military operations and proven themselves dependable under pressure. Smith’s argument was practical and direct: the nation had already seen what women could contribute, and the military should not overlook proven talent and capability.

In a 1948 floor speech supporting the legislation, Smith laid out her case with clarity and confidence. Rather than treating women’s service as theoretical or symbolic, she spoke to military utility, readiness, and the value of keeping capable personnel available to meet the mission. With a disciplined and strategic approach, her position was difficult to dismiss.

That perspective still resonates today. Women who serve in the military are not defined by symbolism. They serve because they are qualified, trained, and ready. They contribute because the mission requires talent, leadership, resilience, and commitment.

Smith recognized that clearly. When she introduced the legislation in the House, it was her name alone on the bill. She stood with her feet firmly planted in what she knew to be true. And she convinced a Congress and a President to stand with her and say “yes.”

She said what needed to be said. Women could serve. Women could lead. Women could strengthen the Armed Forces and help accomplish the mission.

And they have.

On Women Veteran’s Day, we honor every woman who has served, and we remember those leaders like Margaret Chase Smith, President Truman, Eisenhower, Forrestal and Marshall - people who helped move the conversation beyond assumptions and toward a practical truth.

On behalf of this retired Master Sergeant, USAF, and my granddaughter who is only beginning her Air Force career – Thank You Margaret. I hope we’ve made you proud.

Barbara J. Bozeman USAF MSgt (ret)

For more information on this historic event: https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/womens-armed-services-integration-act/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Who Are Military-Affiliated Women?

Military-affiliated women are individuals connected to the U.S. Armed Forces through service, family, or employment, including active-duty service members, veterans, National Guard/ Reservists, spouses, widows, and dependents. This broad community encompasses women who serve in uniform and those who support the military mission.

Women who serve in the Armed Forces are often considered a distinct group due to their unique, shared experiences of navigating a male-dominated, high-stakes, institutional culture that sets them even farther apart from the civilian population than their male counterparts.

They often experience a blend of intense camaraderie, specialized health needs, and distinctive challenges related to service, including high rates of military sexual trauma (MST), and difficulties transitioning to civilian life.

The number of women joining the military has been increasing over the last few years, so that women make up nearly 18% of active-duty personnel. The US Department of Defense reports the largest increases in the Air Force and Navy. The Marine Corps still has the lowest percentage of women among the branches.

In addition to those who serve in uniform, there is a whole other, even larger, group of women who support the military mission such as spouses, mothers, or those employed as civilians. They have their own unique set of challenges.

Spouses of Active-Duty military can struggle to maintain stable employment due to having to move so much due to their spouse’s orders. While moving to different places and experiencing different cultures can be exciting, it is also a lot of work, most of which falls to the spouse while the service-member attends to their official duties.

Women at home also have to deal with their spouse being gone often, sometimes called away suddenly, and for extended periods due to training or deployments, which leaves them handling all aspects of life, and, if they have children, all aspects of child care on their own.

If the serving spouse is of lower rank, there can be financial difficulties as well, especially if the at-home spouse is constantly looking for new employment or there is a large family to care for.

Today, women are roughly 1 in 3 civilian DoD employees with a modest growth between 2010 and 2024, a much slower growth rate than that of military members. Women remain underrepresented in senior executive and upper GS-grade civilian leadership positions.

And what about the moms?

The mothers of military members often struggle with anxiety and constant worry for the safety and security of their children. And if they are the only one, or one of only a few of their peers with children serving, they can find it difficult to find the kind of support that only comes from another mom who knows their specialized fears and concerns.

In many cases, they are providing additional support to their military child’s spouse. It’s not uncommon for spouses to move in with family during long deployments especially if there are children, and sometimes that means moving back from an overseas deployment, causing additional readjustment issues for everyone. Military service often runs in families, meaning the mother of a servicemember is likely to be a veteran herself, be married to a veteran, or have multiple children or grandchildren serving.

Women serving in civilian roles are often working directly with military members and facing challenges similar to those of female servicemembers with regards to the overall military culture. They are often called to train, travel, move and even deploy to combat zones.

Approximately 70% of the DoD’s roughly 800,000 civilian workforce are veterans. Of that number, 25% are women. So civilian women supporting the Armed Forces are highly likely to be veterans themselves.

Most civilians have only a glancing understanding of what happens in combat, however, they understand that when they’re not fighting or training, servicemembers do all the jobs civilians do – mechanic, accountant, pilot, human resources, supply-chain, interpreter, journalist, security (physical and cyber), etc.

But what about the civilians? They also might be any of the above, or attorneys, doctors, data analysts, aircraft techs, IT specialists, psychologists or social workers, etc., just as if they were working in the civilian world.

However, their choice to do those jobs within the military presents them with challenges their non-military-affiliated peers might not understand. That’s because at any given time, less than 1% of the US population is actively serving in the military, making its special challenges unfamiliar to most Americans.

Only around 7% of the current US population has ever served, and women make up under 25% of that number.

Adding affiliated women increases those numbers but the significant overlap in the groups means that military-affiliated women are less than 0.5% of the overall US population. For perspective, that’s significantly fewer than the approximately 80% of women who have reported being sexually harassed or the 30% of women who have been the victims of domestic violence.

Today I am a civilian employee of the Department of the Army. Like many of my colleagues, I am an Army retiree and combat Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Also like many of my colleagues, I am from a military family. My stepfather, husband, father-in-law, and other relatives have served. My mother is a Blue Star Mother—someone whose children have served or are serving. Not only am I a veteran, but so are two of my brothers.

All of this places me in a position to have direct insight into the particular challenges of active duty and retired service personnel.

Nicole Callender-Sedon
Chair

Statistical information for this article comes from the Department of Defense, the Government Accountability Office, legalclarity.org, defense.gov, NSIT.com, and airandspaceforces.com.

Wellness Checks for the Military-Affiliated Woman

Military-affiliated women often carry unique responsibilities – service, leadership, relocation, caregiving, resilience, and constant transition. Your wellness matters, whether you are active duty, a veteran, a reservist or guard, spouse, surviving spouse, caregiver, or support a loved one in uniform.

May is a perfect time to focus on the whole woman.

Five Areas of Wellness to Prioritize this Month:

Physical Wellness.

Schedule that appointment you’ve been putting off. Take a walk. Commit to stretching daily. HYDRATE! REST! Strength begins with taking care of your body.

Emotional Wellness. Give yourself permission to seek support from those you trust or a professional, and don’t undervalue the importance of quiet time and community. Military life is full of transitions, separations, uncertainty…all of which can contribute to stress.

Financial Wellbeing. Review your financial goals. Check on your benefits, insurances, and savings. Between moves, retirement or separation transitions, and family obligations, financial wellbeing is an important area for your focus.

Social Wellness. It is easy to fall into a pattern of isolation in a military-connected life. Be sure to connect with friends and family, veteran networks and women’s organizations that understand your journey.

Identity Wellness. Often this is attributed to caregivers, but everyone is more than their title or rank, or role. Be sure you take time to focus on and nourish that core that makes you YOU.

These are suggestions for your personal wellness check in May. While you are at it, look around. You may give yourself a good rating on personal wellness, but be sure you aren’t overlooking when your friends or loved ones might need a boost to help them with what they are going through.

Be well sisters!

Barbara J. Bozeman, MSgt USAF (Ret)

Recent discussions within military policy circles have revived longstanding arguments about whether women should continue to serve in direct combat roles. Some viewpoints circulating in these debates claim that opening combat specialties to women has not improved military effectiveness and suggest restricting women from certain positions. Because these ideas have significant implications for women currently serving, they warrant close examination.

As long as there has been a military in the United States, women have been there. However, for most of that time, women in the US military were not allowed to serve in direct combat roles, specifically artillery, cavalry, infantry, and armor units. This changed in 2016 when that ban was finally repealed.

Prior to that, over 200K jobs were closed off to female military members, roles that were considered requirements to reach the most senior roles such as Chief of Staff of the Army or Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Revoking the progress made in having women in combat roles would push approximately 4,000 women out of their current roles. Those numbers include 10 Green Berets and 51 Army Rangers, some of the most elite forces in the world.

Removing women from direct combat roles won’t remove them from combat. As evidenced by the war on terror, there are no clearly defined front lines in combat anymore.

Three hundred thousand women are com-bat veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Many of them served on Female Engagement Teams (FET), teams of female service members who engaged with local women and children – positions prohibited to males for cultural reasons.

The FETs have been credited with gaining significant intelligence and developing im-portant rapport with local women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Women are an ever-growing segment of the American military, making up about 20% today, and growing steadily.

In academics and fitness, two of the main areas the military looks at when evaluating potential recruits, women continue to outperform men and are expected to continue to grow as a percentage of the military as a result.

Current efforts to restrict women’s access to combat roles place these advancements— and the operation-al benefits they pro-vide — at risk.

Yet, despite now be-ing publicly treated as second–class citiens by one of the nation’s highest com-manding officers, women in the military will continue to do what they have always done: great things that let their actions speak for themselves.

For information on this club, please email militarywomen@nfbpwc.org.

Nicole Callender-Sedon
Chair Military-Affiliated Women

Allies in Action in World War II

Every Veterans Day, we honor the brave women and men who served. Among these historic figures stand the extraordinary women of the Six Triple Eight. This all Black, all-female unit of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was the only African American women’s battalion deployed overseas during World War II.

Their Mission: In early 1945, 855  women  (approximately 32 officers and 824 enlisted) were tasked with one objective—clear a massive backlog of undelivered mail for service members across Europe.

In just three months, despite freezing warehouses, rat- infested mailbags, and round- the-clock shifts, the Six Triple Eight processed millions of pieces of mail, by hand.

Their service broke barriers of race and gender. While at home, segregation was still the norm, these women stepped into roles few imagined possible and proved excellence knows no limits.

The women of Six Triple Eight embodied service before self.

Call to Action:

On this Veterans Day, remember the women of the Six Triple Eight not just for what they did, but what they symbolized— excellence, resilience, and equality in action.

To the women of the 6888th:

• We thank you.
• We honor you.
• We will carry your spirit forward.

 

For information on this club, please email Nicole Callender-Sedon, Chair, 2024-2026, militarywomen@nfbpwc.org.

For information please email.

NICOLE CALLENDER-SEDON
MILITARY AFFILIATED WOMEN CHAIR
2024-2026

Arlington National Cemetery, established in 1864, is the resting place of over 400,000 of those who have served and include military members from all walks of life as well as US Presidents, astronauts and other notable figures. Included in that number is 23-year-old Marine Sargeant Nicole Gee.

On August 26, 2021, SGT Gee lost her life during a suicide bombing attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gee, a 4-year veteran of the Marine Corps, was deployed to Kabul as part of the 24^th Marine Expeditionary Unit as part of Operation Allies Refuge. The operation was part of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and their role was to assist in evacuation of Afghans attempting to flee the country. Gee was part of a Female Engagement Team, a team of female military members who served in front line combat roles when cultural differences make it impractical or impossible for traditionally male military members to communicate with locals. Women were not allowed to serve in direct combat roles, but the FETs served on the frontlines, aside the men in those roles. Women were finally allowed to serve in combat roles in 2015, but the FETs remained for cultural reasons.

Gee’s life and sacrifice will be remembered. She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold medal by President Joe Biden. The USS Iwo Jima, the ship on which she was once stationed, renamed the ships gymnasium in her honor. Part of I-80 in California is named after her and a statue honoring her is in the Veterans Park in Oskaloosa, FL. There are a number of other memorials and dedications in her honor across the US.

Young women are and continue to be strong and capable leaders in today’s military. And far too often, their contributions are diminished, waved off as unimportant or they are treated as lesser because of being women. But women continue to step up and take charge in our military. They are close to half of the participants of Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC), a program available for high school students to learn leadership skills from former military members. Women make up 25% of the attendees of military academies. While still a minority, there are 2 million women veterans in the US today, making up roughly 10% of the overall veteran population.

Nicole Callender-Sedon

NFBPWC Military Affiliated Women Chair

(2024-2026)

Anna Mae Robertson was a living piece of American History at the time of her passing on May 30th, 2025, at her home in Milwaukee at 101 years old. Born and raised in Arkansas, she enlisted the Army’s Women Corps in 1943. She was assigned to the 6888 Central Postal

Directory Battalion as a Private First Class in 1945. The 6888 which became the only all - Black female unit stationed overseas during WW 2. The unit cleared a 3- year backlog of mail in Birmingham, England 3 months, well ahead of their 6-month goal and repeated their success again in both Rouen and Paris, France, greatly improving morale across the battlefield.

The unit, known as the Six Triple Eight, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2022. At the time, Robertson was one of six known living veterans of the unit. In 2024, the film The Six Triple Eight was released, starring Kerry Washington and highlighting the accomplishments of the unit during a time that they were fighting a battle on two fronts, the World War and the segregation. As a black unit in 1945, they were required to be self-sustaining, doing their own cooking, cleaning, maintenance, vehicle repairs and supplies.

After leaving the Army, Robertson moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and went on to marry John Robertson, also a WW2 veteran and they went on to have 8 children, 7 daughters and 1 son. She continued to support Veterans, working as a nurse’s aide for the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee until her retirement. With the passing of Robertson, the only remaining living member of the Six Triple Eight is Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon who resides in Tempe, AZ at 104 years old.

Members of the 6888 in the unit mess hall in Birmingham, England in 1945 (pictured below).

Maj. Charity E. Adams, (front) and Captain Mary Kearney (back, left), inspect the first contingent of members of the Women’s Army Corps assigned to overseas service with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in England. (Photo courtesy of National Archives)

Sources:

Spotlighting Black Military History and the Service of Women in WWII

https://www.dav.org/learn-more/news/2024/all- female-world-war-ii-unit-that-deployed-overseas- included-dav-member/

American Veterans Center – Anna Mae Robertson

https://americanveteranscenter.org/2019/07/anna- mae-robertson/

Milwaukee's Anna Mae Robertson, one of last surviving members of World War II's famed Six Triple Eight unit, dies at 101

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2025/06/ 01/anna-mae-robertson-member-of-six-triple-eight- battalion-dies-at-101/83978415007/

Tempe veteran, 104, served with honor in WWII

https://www.ahwatukee.com/news/tempe-veteran- 104-served-with-honor-in-wwii/article_e58eff68- a082-11ef-b70a-0ff55c0a8f81.html

Nicole Callender-Sedon

NFBPWC Military Affiliated Women Chair

(2024-2026)

The last few months have seen a significant change in the way that women and minorities are heralded by our country. We have seen a systematic erasure of women and their contributions from the official pages of military history. Women have served in some capacity from the Civil War up until today and many of them have been laid to rest at Arlington. One of those places that has removed this information is the website of Arlington National Cemetery. A page that allowed visitors to quickly access information and stories about the women interred there is no longer available.

If you are able to visit Arlington and would like to access locations and information about the women who gave their lives for their country, this information can be found at the website of the Foundation of Women Warriors. Please visit their website www.foundationforwomenwarriors.org

Nicole Sedon
NFBPWC Military-Affiliated Women CHAIR
2025-2026

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Vote for our California BPW Veteran!

Meet Melissa Washington – California BPW member, Navy Veteran and founder of Women Veterans Alliance (WVA) is a nominee for Veteran of the Year.

Her entry information can be found at:

https://viqtory.us.launchpad6.com/voy-2025/entry/262

Voting Gallery Link: https://viqtory.us.launchpad6.com/voy-2025

Learn more about Melissa and the Women Veterans Alliance at:

https://www.womenveteransalliance.com/

From Service to Sisterhood: Championing Women Veterans Around the Globe

When I joined the Navy, I never imagined that my future would include founding a global organization focused on empowering women who’ve served. And yet, here I am, over a decade into leading Women Veterans Alliance (WVA)—a thriving international network committed to connection, visibility, and opportunity for women veterans.

My journey recently brought me into the BPW community thanks to a Military Women Affiliated Call where I had the honor of speaking. Alice Gallop West extended the invitation, and Sher Singh, who was also on the call, followed up with an invitation to meet for coffee in Sacramento. That conversation affirmed what I already felt: BPW’s mission deeply aligns with my own. I joined the Northern California chapter shortly after.

About Me

I’m an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and a tireless advocate for women who’ve worn the uniform. I founded Women Veterans Alliance in 2015 because I saw a gap—too many women veterans felt isolated, underrepresented, or invisible. What began as a small meetup has grown into a global movement of sisterhood and strength.

What We Do at Women Veterans Alliance

WVA connects women veterans across borders and backgrounds. We host national and international events, including conferences, community meetups, and virtual gatherings. Through Women Veterans Giving, our nonprofit arm, we award business grants and support veteran-owned enterprises.

We maintain a Veteran Speaker Directory, manage a nationwide calendar of events, and recently launched Women Veterans Global Alliance-connecting women who serve across the globe.

Our Signature Events:

Women Veterans Engage Conference-(May 31, 2005 20 locations and online): A dynamic day focused on empowerment, personal development, and networking for women veterans and those who support them.

Women Veterans Unconference-(September 26–28, 2025 – Irving, TX): A refreshingly unique event where women veterans take the lead—choosing sessions, sharing stories, and building community through hands-on workshops

WVA has built a foundation of trust and transformation—bridging veterans, organizations, and advocates from across the globe to strengthen our impact and our voices.

Why BPW Matters

Joining BPW is a natural extension of the mission I live every day: to elevate women. Through this community, I see new opportunities to collaborate, learn, and advocate. Whether it’s building economic power, creating visibility for women veterans, or opening global doors, I’m excited to be part of the work ahead.

To the remarkable women reading this: thank you for the warm welcome. I look forward to building something powerful together.

Let’s connect:

www.WomenVeteransAlliance.com 

linkedin.com/in/melissawashington

Melissa A. Washington
Navy Veteran Founder & CEO, Women Veterans Alliance
BPW No. California Member