Women of the United States Armed Forces

From DAV magazine March/April Issue
By Dave Autry

"With more women answering the call to duty, more women veterans need timely access to health care and other earned benefits and services when they return"

"More than 182,000 women have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the surrounding region-about 11% of U.S. troops deployed, according to the Pentagon. That far surpasses the number 7,500 women who served in Vietnam and the nearly 41,000 deployed during the Gulf War."

What is the most shocking is this;

"The VA reports that 20 percent of women seeking its care since 2002 showed symptoms of military sexual trauma.

If you are a woman warrior, please consider joining this group.
Welcome Women of the United States Armed Forces

(Army/Navy/Air Force/Marines/Coast Guard - Reserve and National Guard)



National Summer Meeting

Please click on the National Summer Meeting hyperlink above for information on how to register and Hotel information.

Welcome to The United Female Veterans of America, Inc. (UFVA) website.

This organization is a non-profit veterans organization. We were formed in May 2006 out of a necessity to bring women veterans together in a unified organization.

Our Vision

To support the women of today's Armed Forces
To keep alive the heritage and legacy of the women who pioneered the way
Our Purpose

To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America
To safeguard the principles of freedom, liberty and justice for all
To promote the cause of peace and goodwill among nations
To maintain the freedom of our country
To preserve the fundamentals of democracy
To support the friendship and associations of all veterans
To dedicate ourselves to the cause of mutual assistance to all veterans
Our Objectives

Promote the general welfare of all veterans in hospitals or wherever the need exists
Provide informational publications about veterans service and support
Promote our military history and heritage within the military, in our schools and in our community
Support general education and civic interest programs for the betterment of our communities
Our Dream

That no veteran ever spends another day without a friend, a home, a family, a meal, a job, a healthy mind and body and a heartfelt thanks for their sacrifices for our country.

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Organizational Profile
The United Female Veterans of America, Inc. is an active member of the communities where we work and live. To this end, we have developed a service support program of financial aid and manpower that includes:

Veterans Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Rehabilitation Centers
Homeless Veterans with Dependants Initiative
Veterans Education and Training Centers - Nationwide
Veterans Events - i.e.; Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, 9/11 Memorial Service; Vietnam Moving Wall, Veterans Muster, African-American Medal of Honor Memorial Ceremonies; Veterans' Stand-downs
Community projects - i.e.; Suited to Succeed, The Sharing Table, Martha's Meals, Meals on Wheels, Golden Diners
We belong to the Chamber of Commerce in each county that we have a chapter.

Our Membership is comprised of women who have served and/or are serving in the United States Armed Forces. This includes the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard (Active duty, Reserve and National Guard).
http://www.ufva.us/

You need all the support you can get and there are very few groups just for female veterans.

Who would have thought that during the Civil War a woman would be awarded The Medal of Honor? When we think of those days, we tend to zero in on Scarlet O'Hara of Gone With the Wind, not a real hero who was so far ahead of her time, she became an icon in days where women were a little more worthy than a horse.

The Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award.
Dr Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded the nation's highest honor by President Andrew Johnson. The citation reads, in part:
"Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, has rendered valuable service to the government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways, and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, KY., under the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United states, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a southern prison while acting as contract surgeon...."

Most decorated

Colonel Ruby Bradley is America's most decorated military woman. She served in WWII - and was a POW for 37 months in a Japanese prison camp. Later she was a frontline U.S. Army nurse in Korea on the day 100,000 Chinese soldiers overran American troops and started closing in on her hospital tent. Col. Bradley has earned 34 medals and citations for bravery, including two Bronze stars. She retired from the Army in 1963, but remained a nurse all her working life.
According to Arlington National Cemetery upon the death of Col. Bradley in 2002 at age 94 -
"On December 1, 1999, then 91 years of age, Col. Ruby Bradley received more than a dozen military awards to replace those she had lost over the years. She is the nation's most highly-decorated female veteran. Senator Rockefeller presented the medals and ribbons to Bradley, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, who lives in Spencer, West Virginia. She was a U.S. Army nurse and a POW for two years in the Philippines and was known as the "Angel in Fatigues" at Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila.
The replacement awards reportedly included the Legion of Merit medals, the Bronze Star, two Presidential Emblems, the Meritorious Unit Emblem, The American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Army Occupational Medal with Japan clasp, three Korea Service medals, the Philippine Liberation Medal, the Philippine Independence Ribbon and the United Nations Service Medal.
http://userpages.aug.com/captb...

Three women have been awarded Silver Stars

Spc. Monica Lin Brown from Lake Jackson Texas of 82 Air borne stands guard at a forwarded operating base in Khost, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 8, 2008. Brown, will be the second female soldier awarded the Silver Star since World War II, for her role in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) She was 19 when the award was presented and only 18 when she earned it.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester is the first female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star medal for valor in combat.
Photo Credit: By Spec. Jeremy D. Crisp -- Defense Department Via Associated PressRelated Article

Mary Roberts Wilson was the first woman to be awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in combat for her action during the battle of Anzio during World War II. With her Army evacuation hospital under German shellfire, Wilson continued supervising her nursing staff of 50, allowing the hospital to continue functioning. Tom Brokaw devoted an entire chapter to Wilson's exploits in his best-selling paean to World War II-era Americans, The Greatest Generation.

With records to prove their bravery, this is what women in the military still face.