[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5787]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                         FEMALE TROOPS IN IRAQ

  (Ms. CLARKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Speaker, the war in Iraq has presented numerous 
hardships for our troops, their families, and by extension, our Nation. 
Over 3,000 American soldiers have been killed. Every day brings news of 
more explosions and more soldiers coming home with traumatic brain 
injuries and other maladies. However, this war has been a particular 
hardship for our Nation's courageous female troops.
  In this, the first full week of National Women's History Month, I 
feel it is vital that we recognize the historic trials being faced by 
the women who are defending our country. As of 2005, there was a record 
203,000 female troops on active duty in military, along with many 
thousands more National Guard and Reserve troops activated to work in 
Iraq.
  Like their male counterparts, many of these female troops never 
expected to fight in a war and certainly not for such an extended 
period of time. Countless soldiers are mothers who joined the National 
Guard and Reserves to give back to their country. Now they find 
themselves half a world away from their homes and families, fighting a 
war on the sun-hardened battlefields of Iraq with no resolution or end 
in sight.

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