A recent column about the origin of Aviation Day and Airborne Day brought several comments excoriating me for not having used Google to find the origin. To me Google is a character in a long defunct comic strip whose name was Barney Google.
It was mostly tongue-in-cheek, folks. But the origin of today’s column, Women’s Equality Day, which is tomorrow, is better known. And I didn’t have to Google; the Army interviewee had the facts.
Women’s Equality Day began in August 1971 and was due to the 19th Amendment. That is according to Army Maj. Antoinette Daoud of Tampa, Fla. She was one of four women CGSC students from different services that I interviewed. All were asked why they chose their profession and had they ever experienced inequality so far in their careers.
Daoud said “I was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and saw war first-hand as a child. My family was fortunate to come to the U.S., which saved my life. As my way of thanking the U.S. I joined the Army and went to Officer Candidate School.
“No, I have never experienced lack of equality in any assignment. I’ve been fortunate to have had great leaders who always took care of their soldiers regardless of their sex.”
Maj. Misca Cartwright is a Marine Corps aviator from Denmark, S.C., who flies Huey helicopters. She said “When I was in high school some Marines came to our school to work with the kids and impressed me very much. I wanted to be like them, so joined the Marines and was commissioned through the Platoon Leadership Course. I’ve served two tours in Iraq and no, I’ve never experienced any lack of equality. In my first squadron assignment there were two other females who had been there a while.”
Maj. Kathy Jordan, a military police officer in the Air Force, is from Berwick, Maine. She was commissioned through Officer Training School and didn’t intend on an Air Force career from the beginning.
“It sounds corny,” she said, “But I came in to serve my country. Then good things happened, I liked it, and here I am 18 years later. Honestly I’ve never experienced any inequality. Some jobs in the military, including the Air Force, are not open to women and I understand that.”
Cdr. Virginia Kammer, a U.S. Coast Guard officer from Washington’s Crossing, Pa., is the first Coast Guard student in CGSC’s School of Advanced Military Studies’ Advanced Operational Arts Studies Fellowship. She was in Houma, La., for 10 days working on the oil spill cleanup before she came to Fort Leavenworth. Her reason for joining was “I wanted to help people and thought what the Coast Guard did was cool.
“Women can be assigned to any job the Coast Guard has. All jobs are open to women. There just aren’t enough women in the Coast Guard. And no, I have never experienced inequality in any assignment I’ve had. In many places I’ve been the first woman assigned there. I would only add that we need more women in the Coast Guard.”
If these four women students are typical it shows that at least in their assignments and experiences no inequality was experienced. Wonder if that means that Women’s Equality Day has done its job as far as the armed services are concerned?
If so that sounds like a pretty good thing. My guess is that even with progress Women’s Equality Day won’t be wiped off the books, and that too is probably a good thing.
Wonder what the next “day” is that I can explore and ask questions of interesting people
John Reichley is a retired Army officer and retired Department of the Army civilian employee.
