As we go about honoring those who have fought for this country, let’s remember the trail blazers, the often maligned, overlooked and ignored, the women who paved the way for the next generation, and who, in some cases, gave their lives, many without any recognition of the gov’t.
Col. Sally Murphy, the Army's first female helicopter pilot; Ellen May Tower of Byron, Michigan was the first U.S. Army nurse to die on foreign soil, of typhoid fever, in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War, and was the first woman to receive a military funeral in Michigan.
One hundred and eleven Army Nurses died overseas and one hundred and eighty six died stateside, all while serving their country in WWI. Twenty two or more U.S. Navy Yeoman (F) died during the World War.
Twenty seven Navy Nurse Corps women died while serving. Dieticians, telephone operators, YMCA volunteers, Red Cross and Salvation Army women, and women in military intelligence also lost their lives. more than 400 military women lost their lives during World War II.
In 1944 U.S. Army Nurse Aleda E. Lutz of Freeland Michigan was the first U.S. military woman to die in a combat zone during World War II when her hospital plane went down on her 196th rescue mission.
9 US woman are still listed as MIA from the war in Viet Nam and SPC Lori Piestewa, first woman, first Native American, to die in the current fiasco.