Women hold role in military

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

May 27, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Hundreds of local residents joined thousands of Americans at cemeteries nationwide Monday to commemorate fallen veterans of the United States' wars.

And, in addition to heaps of tradition, the Bemidji Ralph Gracie American Legion Post 14 celebrated its annual Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery with its first-ever woman speaker -- former U.S. Army Soldier Amanda MacKinnon.

MacKinnon, a graduate of Bemidji High School who enlisted in the Army and served 1979-83, spoke about women's roles throughout the last 90 years in the military, even as several contentious debates about women serving in the military -- sexual harassment scandals in the Army and the Lt. Kelly Flinn case at Minot, N.D., Air Force Base -- swirl about the nation's conscience.

"I completed Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri (in 1979). That training was side by side with the male members of my company," she told a crowd of about 100 Monday in front of the Greenwood Cemetery office. "Today, we find women continuing to serve alongside male counterparts in all services and in nearly all specialties. But this was not always possible."

Women's first roles in the military began in 1901 with the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps, said MacKinnon -- who was a Russian linguist for the Army and was stationed at Misawa Air Base in Japan. However, the organization was apart from the military, and women were not allowed to attain ranks until many years later during World War II.

That period also saw the creation of women's reserve units in the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, she said. A civilian unit of women, the Women Airforce Service Pilots, also piloted noncombat aircraft during WWII.

In 1948, Congress enacted the Women's Armed Forces Integration Act which gave women permanent, regular and reserve status in all branches of the military service, but it also limited the number of enlisted women allowed to join and limited the rank they could attain.

The major advances women made in the military happened in the 1970s, after the end of the draft, she said. The services began to actively recruit women, and by the mid-1970s all female auxiliary units had been dropped as women were accepted into the military.

Although there is detailed information about what part women played during Operation Desert Storm, prior wars offer sketchy details about women's contributions to war efforts, she said.

"During Operation Desert Storm, 7 percent of the active forces and 17 percent of the Reserve and National Guard units were women. Over 40,000 U.S. military women served in combat-support positions throughout the Persian Gulf Region," she said. "Sixteen women died during Desert Storm, and two were held prisoner."

In addition, it is known that during hostilities in Vietnam, eight female officers died, and one of those was also a veteran of World War II and Korea, MacKinnon said. Other women lost their lives during Vietnam while working with organizations such as the American Red Cross.

"Today, we gather to remember those who have given their lives in service to this country. We thank them for their honor, their obedience and their bravery," she said. "We thank them for helping us keep the freedoms we hold so dear. We thank them for making the ultimate sacrifice. We remember the men and the women."