Fort Hamilton Army Base celebrates Women’s History Month

Celebrating heroic women!

Fort Hamilton Army Base marked Women’s History Month by acknowledging the contributions of servicewomen throughout history.

The festivities, held on Thursday, March 16 at the base’s Washington Room, paid tribute to heroic women as members of the WMD Civil Support Team (CST) stationed at the base read aloud their accomplishments in the first person. The teachings spanned American history from the Revolutionary War, when women followed their husbands to war out of necessity and served as nurses, to the present day, with Captain Lauren Glover, who in 2014 was the first female commander of the U.S. Army Drill Team.

Other highlights, noted CST commander Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Genthner, included women’s “service during the Civil War as medics and cooks, to World War I and World War II for the Women’s Auxiliary Corps. Then in Vietnam, where nurses served, to the ’90s when you had combat aviation with women fighter pilots supporting the Gulf War, the invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, women are allowed in field combat units. It’s truly amazing and we did our best to capture these moments in history.”

“This was just a small taste of the contributions that women have made to our nation and our armed forces over our many years,” said Colonel Peter Sicoli, the base commander. “The least we can do is to take time out to recognize those contributions and efforts and the strides those women have made.”

Among the women highlighted were Major Delia H. Raney, who in 1942 was the first black chief nurse commissioned as a lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps; Private First Class Emma J. Burrows-Windham, who was the first female crew chief and flight engineer in 1946; Colonel Sally Murphy, the Army’s first female helicopter pilot in 1974; Captain Linda Bray, the first woman to lead a platoon into combat in 1989; Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, who in 2005, was the first woman to be awarded the Silver Star Medal for exceptional valor since World War II; Colonel Stephanie Dawson, the first female brigade commander in the New York Army National Guard, and more.

“I dragged my daughter out of school today,” Sicoli added. “It’s parent-teacher conference today so it was a half day but I brought her out early so that she can listen in on these conversations and personally see and observe what these great women have done so that one day, Kate, you will achieve those same successes.”