A Salute to Our Military Women

This Day in History: July 9, 1947

Lt. Col. Florence Aby Blanchfield

While we regularly think about our men going into the military, we should never forget the role of a service person is NOT gender specific only to the male. While in today's society, both men and women serve in commissioned and non-commissioned officer status, that has not always been the case. The woman's role was mostly in the form of care and aid when needed with many entering the military as nurses.

Florence Blanchfield joined the Army in 1917. She is credited for setting the wheels into motion for the recognition so well deserved of women who served in the nurses corp but never received the benefits of military rank.

Of the many thousands of women who served as military nurses during World War II, not one received the same rights, privileges or pay as her male counterparts of equal rank. The comptroller general declared that, under the laws which governed military pay, "Women were not persons." This did not sit at all well with Lt. Col. Florence Aby Blanchfield, the formidable supervisor of the Army Nurse Corps. While the government may have considered Blanchfield to hold rank in name only, she did not agree. She struggled to achieve full military rank and privileges for herself and all military nurses. Read the Rest of the Story...

On this day, to all women who serve in our military...

 While you salute our nation, I salute you!