[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 59 (Friday, May 10, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E773-E774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         OUR SERVICEWOMEN FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM DESERVE FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 9, 2002

  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the House denied 
itself the opportunity to address a discriminatory practice affecting 
the women serving in our military. An amendment which would have 
required equal treatment of servicewomen overseas was prevented from 
coming to the floor. I consider this a great loss to all those who 
serve in our military and all Members of Congress who wished to express 
their conviction that our military can and must treat its members 
fairly.
  The military currently requires or strongly encourages servicewomen 
to wear abayas and headscarves, complete coverings of their bodies, 
while off-base in Saudi Arabia. The military makes no such 
recommendations to servicemen to dramatically alter their appearance. 
The government of Saudi Arabia does not require non-Muslim women to 
wear abayas, and the U.S. State Department does not encourage its 
female embassy employees nor tourists to wear abayas.
  I believe it is important to remember that the women who have served 
in our military have not always responded to a call. For many, they 
proudly volunteered long before a call was ever sounded.
  During the American Revolution, wives followed their husbands into 
war, mothers followed their sons. They brought water and supplies, they 
tended the wounds of those who

[[Page E774]]

were injured, and they took up the rifles of those who had fallen.
  In World War I, women were, for the first time, allowed to enlist. 
More than 30,000 did so, a third of them served overseas. Since then, 
women of all generations have served in wars and conflicts far from 
their homes and families.
  Discrimination in the military is an insult to the memory of those 
women who died in service to their country and a grave injury to those 
who currently serve. These women, who have helped foster freedom in 
nations on whose soil their blood has been shed, are owed the certainty 
that the military does not see them for their gender but rather for 
their courage and commitment to the ideals embraced by all of its 
military personnel.
  During the Gulf War, helicopter pilot Major Marie Rossi, now buried 
in Section 8 of Arlington National Cemetery, offered her thoughts on 
the work of women in the military, ``It's our jobs, you know. There was 
nothing peculiar about us being women. We're just the people called 
upon to do it.''
  The more than 300,000 women currently serving in our military would 
tell you the same. The House of Representatives should have seized the 
opportunity to tell our military women that we agree: their 
contributions and sacrifices are deeply appreciated by their nation. 
The military must not treat them as second-class citizens.

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