In honor of Memorial Day, this is my 1996 photograph of Glenna Goodacre’s Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Goodacre, who died in April 2020 from the aftereffects of a brain injury, had an illustrious career as a sculptor and painter. A good article about her in the New York Times includes this:
While she was best known for her Vietnam and Irish memorials, she said those pieces, with their serious subject matters, were exceptions to her larger body of work. “I am a very positive person, so most of my work tends to be upbeat, if not downright happy… I don’t do morosely philosophical pieces like some artists. It’s just not in me.”
I’m a pacifist, not inclined to glorify war, but I’m also the descendant of people involved in many U.S. conflicts, including the American Revolution, and the daughter of an Army veteran who saw combat in WWII and served through the Korean and Vietnam wars. I recognize the sacrifices of service members and their families especially on Memorial Day, which commemorates those who gave their lives.
In keeping with the theme of my photo, I researched women who died in service to the U.S.
Ninety percent of women who served in Vietnam were volunteer nurses. Eight American military women were killed in the Vietnam War. Fifty-nine civilian women were killed in the Vietnam War.
Women who served and died in other U.S. military efforts:
Since the attack on America on September 11, 2001, a total of 152 women deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria lost their lives in service to America.
In Desert Shield and Desert Storm, although women did not serve in units whose mission involved direct combat with the enemy, some women were subjected to combat. Five Army women were killed in action.
There were some 120,000 women in the United States who were on active duty during the Korean War. Most of the women who served in Korea were nurses. Females also served in support units in Japan and other Far East countries during the war. In all, eighteen women were killed during that conflict.
During World War II, as many as 543 women serving with the armed forces died in war-related incidents, including 16 nurses who were killed by enemy fire.
One hundred and eleven Army Nurses died overseas, and 186 died stateside, all while serving the country in World War I.
Although no nurses were killed in combat in the Spanish-American War, 153 died from diseases during the war (including one, Clara Maass, who perished from yellow fever after volunteering to undergo Army experiments on that disease).
Historians estimate that as many as 1,000 women may have disguised themselves as men and served in the Confederate and Union armies in the American Civil War. Some historical records verify the fact that over sixty women were either wounded or killed at various battles during the war.
There are no records from the American Revolution for women who might have died while in service to the colonies, either near battlefields as camp followers or disguised as males who fought, or serving as spies or informants for the Continental Army. Though women were sometimes killed in battle-related incidents, fatalities were not statistically broken down by men, women, or children.
It’s also notable that many Native American women served the military in various capacities including combat in the Revolution and the War of 1812. My limited search found no records of fatalities. In the past, I’ve done research on the Buffalo Soldiers, Black Americans who fought and died in the American Indian, Spanish–American, Philippine–American, Mexican Border, and World Wars, but Native women in combat on behalf of the U.S. was new information for me.
We recently removed the two light posts we once used at Houndstooth Hall to display the flag on holidays. Tom was able to put our flag in a holder left above our widows by the Hall’s former owner, who was retired military. This is Tom’s Instagram photo, taken today.
