Tyonajanegen (“Two Kettles Together”) was an Oneida woman who fought in the Battle of Oriskany, armed with two pistols, she rode into battle and fought.
Margaret Corbin disguised herself as a man and continued fighting despite being wounded multiple times; 1779, Congress awarded Margaret a lifelong pension in recognition of her service.
Elizabeth Warner Sands accompanied Dr. James H. McCulloch to tend to the wounded at Fort McHenry.
María Josefa Zozaya died by gunfire while tending to wounded soldiers on both sides.
Sarah Bowman, earned the nickname “the Heroine of Fort Brown” and the honorary title of Colonel Bowman. She was buried with full military honors.
Mary Edwards Walker Medal of Honor Recipient. The medal was stripped from her by government action in 1916; it was reinstated to her in 1977.
Women’s Relief Corps (an Organization of Civil War Nurses).
WWI Women were openly allowed to serve in the U.S. military.
Loretta Perfectus Walsh was the first woman to enlist in the Navy.
Yeomanettes and Hello Girls served during this time.
Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung, the first Chinese American woman to become a physician.
WWII For the first time in history, all branches of the military enlisted women in their ranks.
Sergeant Mary Castro became the first Mexican-American woman to serve in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), she signed up to help bring home the seven men in her family who were fighting in the War.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only all-black female unit to serve in Europe during the war.
The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act enacted in 1948, allowed women to join the any branch of the military.
The first African American woman to enlist in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, Annie E. Graham, did so in 1949.
Staff Sergeant Barbara O. Barnwell became the first woman Marine to receive the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism after she saved a fellow Marine from drowning in the Atlantic.
First Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism.
Persian Gulf Across all US military branches, approx 37,000 (6.8%) deployed troops were women, serving in many roles.
Global War on Terror in the 20 years since the United States invaded Iraq, over a quarter of a million women have served there, the largest-scale and most visible deployment of women in U.S. history.
2013 Secretary of Defense removed the military’s ban on women serving in combat.
2016 all combat roles open to women without exception.