Designs For Memorial Honoring Military Women Unveiled At Veterans Conference (3 PM)

Las Cruces Sun-News - Las Cruces, NM, USA

By Ashley Meeks Sun-News reporter
Posted: 03/28/2009 03:00:08 PM MDT

LAS CRUCES — Designs for a memorial honoring military women were unveiled Saturday during the second and final day of a conference for women veterans, just a day after a bill-signing ceremony for a state veterans museum in Las Cruces.

The memorial will be on the south side of the garrison flag at Veterans Park, 2651 Roadrunner Parkway, and will feature six statues, one for each military branch and one representing the National Guard's participation in current wars, said its designer.

Former "military brat" Patricia Decker, an architect intern at Perspectiva in El Paso, completed the design work pro bono and Las Cruces's women veterans say they hope to raise all the money to build it — a figure unknown as yet — by themselves.

"It's recognition, education and ultimately a place to celebrate women veterans and your service," Decker said.

Women represent 7 percent of American veterans but 15 percent of current ranks, said John M. Garcia, Secretary of New Mexico Department of Veterans Services, where the ranks of female service officers has grown from one to five.

"The roles women are playing today is very different, very unique," Garcia said Saturday at the Ramada Palms, where the state's first-ever women's veterans conference was held. A crowd of 81 women representing veterans from World War II to current conflicts attended.

Army National Guard Lt. Col. Lynn Scott, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, left her almost 3-year-old for an eight-month deployment, she said.

"For a mom, definitely, it's a heart-breaking position," Scott said. "But I did make the right decision."

That message was emphasized also by former Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, Saturday's keynote speaker. Johnson, 36, was the first black American female prisoner of war and a Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient. Six years ago last Monday, Johnson's convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah and she was shot in her ankle, then captured with five others. Three weeks later, Marines rescued them from a house in Samarra.

The tradition of women serving in the military, Johnson told her fellow vets, "will get even better, but it wouldn't happen without you ladies."

"It can only get better if we step forward and make it better. We must encourage our young women to do the same thing," Johnson said. "We walk together in the sisterhood."

Marine Capt. Carol Gaines, 72, said while it took bravery for her to join the Marine Corps almost five decades ago, women still face unfair discouragement from enlisting.

Gaines became a Marine officer on the advice of her mother, a single parent in small-town Wisconsin, and a brochure she found in high school, offering six weeks of summer training for women Marines.

"I did not find particular harassment, but there were men who resented that women did not do the combat, the male macho thing," Gaines said. "Women veterans today play a very different role."

Gaines, who served for eight years as an education officer and married a Marine veteran of the Korean War, said the mid-century slogan encouraging female enlistment, "Free a man to fight" is still applicable — as is the aspect of adventure.

"My mother said, "If you were a teacher, you'd be in some town in the middle of nowhere. (In the Marines) I know someone's always looking out for you, you always have food and you're going to some place interesting — so I can come visit you.'"

And upon return, New Mexico is a good place to be, said Craig Moore, director of the Albuquerque Veterans Affairs office. Moore enlisted in the Air Force in 1971 and joined the VA to change the shoddy treatment he and others experienced upon returning. Moore even distributed his direct phone number — (505) 346-3990.

Noting that every injured veteran he thanks for his or her service "seems embarrassed" by the praise, Moore encouraged those present to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to them, which he said are among the highest in the nation in New Mexico.

"These aren't giveaways," Moore said. "These are benefits you're earned."

Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462.