tv [untitled] May 12, 2012 9:30am-10:00am EDT
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take the tour starting at 1:30 p.m. eastern. join in the conversation with william kel sew and bly straw answering your questions live at 2:30 eastern. part of "american history tv" this weekend on c-span3. next on american history tv, we hear from women veterans of the persian gulf war. over 40,000 women were deployed as part of operations desert shield and desert storm from 1990 to '91. the veterans here discuss their army, navy and air force service in the persian gulf and reflect on the attention they received from the press and disrespect they experienced due to their gender. the library of congress veteran's history project hosted this event. it's about an hour. >> this is great. good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the library of congress. my name is bob patrick. i'm the director of the veterans history project, a special
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collection of the library's american folk life center. the veteran's history project is a congressionally mandated effort to collected and preserve the wartime memories of america's veterans. we're in our 12th year of doing just that. it's a very important effort. it's thanks to the efforts of volunteer organizations, institutions and even individuals, we have been able to amass an archive of some 80,000 collections of veterans, veterans from world war i all the way up to veterans in the most recent conflicts in iraq and afghanistan. this is a permanently preserved archive at the library of congress that we hope in the future will inspire, will instruct and will educate. it is educating and inspiring people today. we know because it's here at the library of congress, it's going to be preserved for generations to come. today, we are doing our part to commemorate women's history month.
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we are honored to present a panel of women veterans from the first persian gulf war. desert shield and desert storm marked a turning point in the role of women in war, as many women were called upon to serve in mainstream mission roles for the first time. just over 20 years ago, women from all military services set a standard that we have seen upheld to the highest level in our most recent conflicts over the last ten years in iraq and afghanistan. we at the veteran's history project trust that today's discussion will raise further awareness to the contribution of women who served in the persian gulf war and will also inspire other women to come forward and tell their story. i've been talking to several folks here in the audience today about who the veteran in their life s. i would ask you during the course of this discussion to think about who the veteran in your life s be it a woman, a man, father, grandfather, aunt. think about that and what their
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contribution has been to the military and maybe take a part in the veteran's history project by capturing their store richlt before i introduce our moderator today, i would like to call juanita to the podium who has a few words about the department of veterans affairs. >> good afternoon. i just want to let you know that i do work at the department of veteran affairs here in washington, d.c. believe it or not, i worked for two centers, i work for the center for minority veterans, 75%, and also for the center for women's veterans, 25%, both offices are in the office of the secretary, and i kind of split my time in between with the center for minority veterans, i'm the american indian veterans liaison. i work with tribal leaders nationwide and their veterans and also any veteran that comings for assistance, we help them. we help them across the board. also i work at the center for
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minority veterans. both centers were established by congress in 1994 by public law 103446. within the center for women veterans, the director serves as primary adviser to the secretary on department policies, programs and legislation that affect women veterans. so when i'm working with the center for women veterans, i focus on all minority female vets and any issues or concerns are brought up to that office. i also brought out brochures, quick series to hand out. they're in the back. also i brought out information sheets on both centers. so if you would like to have a copy, they're in the back. thank you. >> the department of veterans affairs has been a great partner in this project. great to have you here today. it's my privilege to introduce the moderator for today's panel. captain lori manning, u.s. navy
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retired, ser nvd the united states faef i have for over 25 years send is director of the women in military project here in washington, d.c. during the persian gulf war captain manning served on the staff of the commnander in naval forces europe. in this assignment she was part of a team that coordinated telecommunications for u.s. and allied forces participating in the ward. her field tours include communications officer, naval computer and telecommunications station, ncts, executive officer ncts balboa panama and commanding officer ncts diego garcia. she's served on the staff of chief of naval operations, chief of navy personnel, chief of legislative affairs and on the london staff of the commander u.s. navy forces europe. as a former army officer, you had some pretty nice assignments there, captain manning. >> i did.
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>> captain manning served on the secretary of veterans affairs advisory committee in 1998 to 2004 and of the service members legal defense network from 2006 to 2009. she's a recognized expert on veterans issues, particularly as they apply to women. she's been a frequent guest commentator on a plethora of television and radio networks that are too numerous to mention. it's the whole alphabet we all know about tv and radio. it is now my pleasure to turn the podium over to captain lori manning who will introduce the panel members and lead our discussion. ladies and gentlemen, captain lori manning. [ applause ] >> thank you. it's great to be here on this beautiful and moderately cool, which i prefer to the 80-degree weather outside. it's gorgeous around this building today. before i introduce the first of the speakers, i want to give you a little bit of a summary about
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where women in the military stood at about the time the persian gulf war started. the persian gulf war, for those of you old enough to remember it and since it was 20 years ago, it's probably not all of you who remember it very well. it was the first major test of the all volunteer force against a large, well armed, well ordered enemy. the verdict frankly was still out on how effective such a force would be, and the biggest doubt was the part of that force who were women. before the end of the all volunteer force in 1972, less than 2% of the people in the military were women. now, they were sitting at about 11% and they were beginning to creep into many more occupations than they had been in 1972, and they were getting more senior, both in the enlisted ranks and in the officer ranks than they
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had been when the draft expired. many commentators on military matters thought the women simply would not be able to handle the stresses of deployment, and they would fail in the field to the detriment of the mission, of the men they were serving with and frankly, of themselves. also many people in the public -- and if you were paying attention back 20 years ago, they would often do this trick on the nightly news shows. you'd see a soldier in full battle gear getting ready to deploy and the camera would come in closer and closer and closer until you thought, oh, my god, that's a woman! when they really wanted to have fun, she'd be holding an infant or a toddler. the persian gulf war was the first time that we deployed large numbers of women who were not in the nurse core to an
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active war zone. women had deployed, certainly nonnurses in world were ii and in world war i even, but they were well, well, well behind the lines. only the nurses were up front in those days. one of the reasons the nurses were there, were that close was because there were no men in most of the nurse corps until sometime during the vietnam war. so throughout korea, world war ii, world war i, there was an absence of men in one particular part of the military. there was much consternation, particularly about the deployment of mothers. we had never, ever before this time deployed a mother to a war zone, and the u.s. was not the only country doing this. there were british women soldiers and sailors, australians, canadians, there were women from other countries there, but the u.s. was the biggest deployment.
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there were over 40,000 women who we deployed. the other thing that had changed after the end of vietnam was that because of technological developments, discussed missiles and long-range field artillery, the front lines weren't so distinct anymore. it was a little less clear as to where you were safe and where you weren't. and those of you who follow the persian gulf war know that there were six women killed in a -- sleeping in an air force dormitory one night when it was hit by a skud missile. many were deployed and they were mothers and they were at that time ban friday being in air combat, sea combat, by law and by practice from ground combat.
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but they were in great danger, even the ones who were serving behind the lines and the ones in the air force or the navy who were aboard so-called noncombatant vessels. as you all know because of where women are these days, they did very, very well. the doubts that many people had raised about their performance proved not to be the case,nd there were some rewards for them after the persian gulf war which i will mention at the end. our first speaker today is going to be july anna mock she served with the 87th medical detachment servi service. during the months of january,
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february and march during 1991 the unit completely experienced lateral arms of chemical injector and injected bromide tablets. since the war, she and her husband, also a persian gulf war veteran experienced health combinations, and in 2003 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. she is now president veterans of modern warfare and an advocate for veterans health and there are still major health concerns with gulf war veterans that we're still trying to sort out. julie ann, you can stay right there if you'd like or come to the podium, whichever you prefer. >> i'll stay here. i was deployed from germany with a 60-person dental team. when we arrived in saudi arabia, we split up in three different 12 to 14-person teams. i was a hygienist assigned to the team. we were the most forward
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evacuation hospital established. we not only saw americans, but we did see the iraqi pws down the road. when the war began, we, of course, had no idea what was going on. we didn't have the communications availability that the soldiers do now. we had no idea what was going on. in fact, the only way we were able to get information was by listening to bbc on our transistor radio. we had some very unique experiences. we were never knowing exactly when we would be possibly under attack, what was going on. we were close enough to the border that we could feel the bombs as the air war began, but not knowing what would happen, we had one chemical suit assigned to each of us. we went in to mop four gear and sat for about a day. what people don't know once you
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break open a charcoal chemical suit, it's expired. that was all we had. as time went on, we now realize we were exposed to the chemical plume cloud and, of course, we were inundated with a lot of oil well fire smoke. we were deployed for five months. we left back for germany in may of '91. so that's my story. >> our next speaker is juanita mullen. she was raised on an indian reservation and is a pioneer for american indian women in the u.s. air force. she served stateside tours during the gulf war in support of troops overseas, watching her husband deploy and caring for her children and family while
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serving. she herself was mobilized for deployment but was called back. she retired from the air force after 20 years and after a stint joined the center for women veterans and serves as the american indian veterans liaison for both centers. >> good afternoon. i'm a member, as you know, american indian, my tribe is seneca indians in new york state. i joined the military in 1980. when i first joined, a lot of people say, what might be a long time for a lot of people. when i joined the service, they did not have female uniforms. i had to wear male uniforms. they would always laugh at me because when i would go through an inspection line, my top pockets would be tucked in my pants. they would say how does that happen. i would go, well, the shirt was too long. they just had to try to get
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around that. when i was stationed in florida during the gulf war, of course, during the time when i was in the military, i was known as sergeant campbell, juanita campbell. my first husband was also active duty, she was stationed at duke field. i don't know if you're aware, but eglin air force base is a big mobility base. he was stationed at duke field and also a big mobility area. and when the gulf war started, he was -- everybody that works on eglin, we have to be ready for mobility. we're all part of mobility. we have to make sure our bags are packed, have our checklists checked. of course, we had two girls at the time and also a dog. we had to prepare for them. when the gulf war -- as soon as it kicked off, i worked night shifts, i had to work 12-hour shifts for like 2 1/2 months to three months and i had two kids,
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two girls. then when they started first deploying, i was one of the people that actually put my husband on a plane to get deployed with hundreds of others, and at the same time i was on a task -- certain bases had to send so many people out from their respective bases. i was on a second task. at that time i was supposed to represent hill air force base so they could meet their quota. of course the first task, went through the line and i was getting to close to go through the line to get the shots in the backside, it was quite a bit of fluids that they put back there. i was nervous about that. i can handle anything else but a shot in the back eside. during the whole time, when they canceled our first task, it also canceled my task. i was grateful at the same time that i didn't have to get deployed because i was worried about my girls, even though we had preparations made for them
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to go to texas with their grandparents and that. then i just kind of worried if anything happened. my first husband when he was over in iraq, he was stationed by the patriots, of course, he would keep me in contact with what was going on over there. he would send me little souvenirs. he send me a souvenir of a scud missile with the wires hanging out of it. i still have it. even though i was working 12-hour shifts shipping everybody out and i would go home and sleep, at the same time take care of the girls. there was a lot of times they did get left alone at nighttime. i think my oldest was probably 11, 12 years old. they had to stay by themselves in teaching. i'd get home early in the morning after my shift was over and then get them off to school. this was going on for two to three months. and then when hi started -- my first husband stayed there during the whole time till like
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march when they started shipping everybody back. when he was -- when they were shipping people back, of course they would call me. when they say, hey, your husband did the news. they're ready to put him on tv. they'd call us to make sure to catch him on there. when troops started coming back, even on our base, they would forget about the duel military. they would always forget about the other military spouse and say, hey, we're there for you. they would usually do like dependentwise, they would focus on them and kind of forget about us and say, hey, what about us? we're working 12-hour shifts. our spouses are over there and we deal with the same pressures and the worries. but they kept me pretty busy. and then even though we were loading aircraft and get to talk with the civilian pilots and
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they show us how to load -- how their cargos and the little coke cans. it was a good experience. i a good experience. and i learned quite a bit and i would never trade it up. thank you. >> our next speaker is darlene iskra. she was one of the first navy officers who was a diver. and she was also the very first woman in the navy to command a ship. it was the uss opportune ars 41, one of the noncombatants. i'll take off my glasses to read. she took command of the ship and took to war during desert storm in january of 1991.
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in addition on her experience as a sea going officer, her staff work included both enlisted personnel management at the bureau of naval personnel irks which i hear they'll finally knock down the navy annex over in virginia. >> oh, really? >> yeah, i talked to the base command every and they're actually letting a contract to knock it down sooner or later. he didn't say when. and she also worked in civil affairs disaster and did military atache work for the commander chief pacific. she retireded in april 2000 and got her ph.d. at the university of maryland and her story is included in the veterans history project collections and is featured in the veterans history project voices of war. >> hi, thank you, everybody, for
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coming. my story begins a little bit before the war. i knew i was going to a command of opportune. i was scheduled to take command in january of 1991. but i wanted to go in there a little bit early because the previous screening officer had to get medically evacuated from the area. turned out he had stomach cancer. and i was also originally supposed to take the ship in naples, italy, which i subsequently did. so i got called from my home in virginia, norfolk, to get on a plane the day after christmas and fly to naples and take command of the ship, so i never really had a formal big hoo-lala turnover. just walked on board the ship the day arrived and said over the command system this is commander iskra and i'm now in command of the ship and that was
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like it. so that was december 27th of 1990. and they were will in naples un the beginning of january. and of course we had heard about all the build up from desert shield. my first husband -- my ex-husband, i was married at the time, was involved with the buildup but he mad come home by the time i left for the tee employment. and i was the first woman to command a navy ship. so there was a lot of publicity about that. so the second day i was on the ship, the pao, public affairs officer, contacted me and asked me if i'd be willing to do an interview with the local and international press. and i of course said yes. primarily because i think i thought at the time, and i still do, that it was a really good you news story for the navy. especially during war time with
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all the stuff that was going on, now we have a woman in command of a ship that, you know, was forward deployed. and so i thought it was the right thing to do anyway. so what happened is during desert storm when the war started, my picture of course was in all the papers. and a friend of mine husband's sent a copy of a paper that was in saudi arabia, arabic paper, sent to my husband and he'd like thinking, oh, great. my wife is, you know, out there and now she could be a target because of the publicity. but anyway, as it turned out, we did get underway for the gulf i think it was january 21st. we got under way. and our mission was to steam about 50 miles outside of port sigh seed, egypt, in case the
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canal was mined or a ship was sunk in the canal which would prevent the canal was operating canal was mined or a ship was sunk in the canal which would prevent the canal was operating. so we steamed in this little 50 mile square area. we did go into port sieed one day for refueling and reprovisioning. we were actually anchored out. we could not go pier side for security reasons. but when the agent came on board via small boat, suddenly there were all these small boats that were crowding around the pan tail of the ship and i'm like thinking, oh, my god, you know, because i remember what happened with the uss cole 20 years later. but when i talked to the agent, he assured me that they were just merchants that really wanted to sell, you know, suf me souvenirs to my crew, so i reluctantly said okay, so we had
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about a two hour market day on the fan tail of the ship. luckily there were no problems. another thing that happened was as one of the other women indicated, the chemical and biological threat, the navy also provides mop gear, chemical biological nuclear threat gear to the ships. and of course because we knew about the scud missiles, but we didn't really know about the scud missiles in terms of what their capabilities were. and we didn't know whether they could be fired from iraq to eastern mediterranean. we didn't know if they could be fired on a moving target. we didn't know anything. and as -- your name is jessica, right? >> julie. >> julie, i'm sorry. as she said, we didn't have any communications either. occasionally i would get
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messages over the radio telling me what had happened, but it wasn't like in america where you're getting the news, you know, minute by minute we knew nothing until like two weeks after the fact of things most of the time. so i was really in a state of i felt like a mushroom, you know, i didn't really know a local lot was going on. and i didn't have enough of these chemical masks and hop gear for the whole entire crew. i had a crew of about 100 people, i only had like 90. so then people had to go into deep shelter. what wound up happening again we were a small noncombatant ship, we didn't have the big sur fast to surface radars. i mean air search radars. we didn't have any capability of communicating with aircraft. we could communicate ship to ship and ship to shore but that was about it.
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but every day and at different times of the day, an aircraft would come over us and it was friendly, but we didn't know it, you know. you couldn't take chances that it was this friendly all the time. so every day whenever time they decided to apply over, we could see this aircraft coming low on the horizon and then tomorrow up and then go over it. we were doing it on purpose i think. and of course we went to gq every i'm. if it had been a foe, we wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. we had machine guns that could possibly shoot small boats if it they happened to come near us, but we had 20 millimeters, but they were world war ii vintage. so it was all manually operated and eyeballs.
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so there was no way we would have been able to shoot down a plane for fun so to speak. we used to do training with the 20 millimeter guns and one of the things that we would try and shoot at and again no birds were killed in this operation, but if there was a bird flying over us, i'd say, okay, let's see if you can try and shoot that bird, you know, because you have to forward and -- all those things you have to try and do. of course the birds totally got away. they probably scared the hell out of them, but none of them were killed. but it was a good practice. the only other exciting thing that happened during the war, the only way we had physical training on the ship was we had a couple of lifecycle by cycling type of gear back in the salvage hold.cycling type of gear back in the salvage hold.cycling type of gear back in the salvage hold.icycling o
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