[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 72 (Wednesday, June 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING WOMEN WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES THROUGHOUT 
                           AMERICA'S HISTORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, recently, back in my district in central 
Pennsylvania, I had occasion in connection with the armed services 
holidays and celebrations to appear with a group of women right in the 
center of the action of Harrisburg, at the capital area, who were 
celebrating long service on the part of women in the Armed Forces of 
the United States.
  What was brought to bear at that function was the memory of Oveta 
Culp Hobby, who was from Texas and who was the first Women's Army Corps 
general; she did not make general, but she was commander of the Women's 
Army Corps. That is one of the first visions we have had of actual 
women serving in the service in the modern era.
  But women have served in the Armed Forces ever since the Revolution. 
Many of them served, of course, as nurses throughout all the conflicts, 
and they were Army and Navy and Air Force nurses, actually, so they 
were part of the Armed Forces. But we have had many, many different 
examples in the Revolutionary War, in the Mexican War, in the Civil 
War, and all the modern wars, so to speak, of women posing as men for 
the sole privilege on their part of wielding a weapon and engaging in 
fierce combat. Hundreds and maybe thousands of such cases can be found 
in the history of armed conflict in the United States.
  The remainder of the function in which we participated was to give 
recognition to modern day women participants in the current ranks of 
the Armed Forces, so it was a splendid day.
  One thing that was evident throughout all of this was that the women 
exhibited extreme pride in their current status as members of the Armed 
Forces and in the reverence with which they spoke about their 
predecessors, and the same women about whom I have made reference in 
the history of armed conflict in the history of our country.
  So we ought to know that when we celebrate the national holidays, 
like the one now coming up, Independence Day on July 4, that we include 
in our celebration the thought and memory of the gallant women, as well 
as our men; the women who, from the Declaration of Independence until 
the current season of the war on terrorism, when women are flying 
combat missions, women are participating in practically every form of 
armed conflict or preparation therefor; and that we should not anymore, 
throughout the remainder of the history of the Nation, conduct the 
holiday and celebrate our history without due concern and mention and 
recordation of the deeds of the women of our society who plunged 
themselves into armed conflict along with the men that we have honored 
for so many years.

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