The history of women in the U.S. military is missing in action, says Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee. The co-author of four books on women’s experiences and contributions in the military is doing her part to change that.
Neidel-Greenlee began her career as a surgical nurse in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during the Vietnam era and retired after more than two decades in various managerial positions at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta.
While at the VA, Neidel-Greenlee met Evelyn Monahan, a psychologist who was counseling veterans, including nurses with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Together, the two have written extensively about the role of nurses in World War II; one book chronicles nurses taken prisoner by the Japanese.
Their most recent book, “A Few Good Women,” released in paperback in April, relies on archives, journals, histories, news reports and interviews to tell the stories of women veterans from the world wars, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.
With women now making up more than 15 percent of the U.S. armed forces, this Memorial Day weekend seemed like a good time to check in with Neidel-Greenlee, 70, who lives in Brookhaven and has two grown sons, including one who served in Iraq.
Q: The image many of us have of Memorial Day is the male soldier marching in a parade. Should we be thinking of the female soldier?
A: We surely should but there are all kinds of ways that women remained hidden. Groups like the VFW and the American Legion barred women. The 1990 census was the first to ask women if they were veterans. The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs were shocked to find out that there were more than one million women veterans out there.
Q: What do you think about on Memorial Day?
A: I think about the women nobody ever did interview about their service. There were lots of voices that will never be heard.
Q: Can you talk about the contribution women in the military have made?
A: Women have contributed greatly. I tell audiences, if there had not been women nurses in World War II, many of you would not be here today.
Q: Don’t you think that women in the military have come a long way?
A: They definitely have but it hasn’t been without a fight and they still don’t have full status. Combat is how men get into the higher ranks in the military. If you keep women down and don’t allow them in combat, they can’t make their greatest contribution.
Q: So you think women should be in combat?
A: Women have been in combat. In World War II, nurses were on the front lines and sometimes in enemy occupied territory. The public thinks that women were safe behind the front lines and in hospitals where they wore pristine white uniforms. Baloney. Didn’t happen.
Q: What about women in combat today?
A: Women in Iraq and Afghanistan are in combat. In modern warfare, there are no front lines; the front line is where the IED [improvised explosive device] is buried. Women are detailed to go out with men to kick down doors and find the bad guys, but they do not have the full benefit of the training that men do.
Q: People can learn from your research. What have you learned?
A: I was shocked to learn that nurses in World War II were paid half of what men of equal rank made. I learned that women can do whatever they put their mind to if they are properly trained and given the same opportunity.
Q: The women who have served in the military always have volunteered, never been drafted. What does that say about them?
A: The running theme through every woman we ever interviewed is: “Patriotism. Patriotism. Patriotism.”
The Sunday conversation is edited for length and clarity. Writer Ann Hardie can be reached by e-mail at ann.hardie@ymail.com.
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