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Lioness

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Women Veterans

Here’s more information about this event next week:

Women Veterans: Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times

Thursday, March 5, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
*This BHS event is being held around the corner from BHS at the Rotunda Gallery, 33 Clinton Street*

Women veterans who served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
discuss their military experiences and the expanding role of women in U.S. Armed Forces.

Presented in conjunction with the Brooklyn Historical Society exhibit
In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn’s Vietnam Veterans

Featuring:

Joan Furey, author with Lynda Van Devanter of Visions of War, Dreams of Peace, and a narrator in the exhibition In Our Own Words.  Ms. Furey joined the Army Nurse Corps as a Second Lieutenant in June 1968 and volunteered for duty in Vietnam.  She served as a staff nurse in the Post-OP/ICU at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku from January 1969 – January 1970.  Ms. Furey worked at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for 30 years.

Captain Esther S. Marcella, Commander of the Long Island Recruiting Company, U.S. Army and Army Reserves.  Captain Marcella first entered active duty in May 2002 and served in a variety of assignments as a Chemical Officer and Intelligence Officer in the U.S., Kuwait, and Iraq.

Susan O’Neill, author of Don’t Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam.  Ms. O’Neill signed up for the Army Nurse Corps in 1967 and she served in Vietnam as an operating room nurse from 1969 – 1970.

Moderated by:

Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, filmmakers behind the documentary Lioness (aired on PBS).
Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat. Without the same training as their male counterparts but with a commitment to serve as needed, these young women fought in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war and returned home as part of this country’s first generation of female combat veterans. Lioness makes public, for the first time, their hidden history.

Lioness

Last night, on Channel Thirteen, I saw a documentary called Lioness about women Iraq war veterans.  I was totally turned off by the title until I learned that “Lioness” is actually the Army term they use in Iraq and Afghanistan when they need units of women for particular tasks like body searching Muslim women, for example.

The main point of the film is that in the current wars, military women are serving in combat situations even though Congressional law prohibits women from combat – which means that women are serving in combat but not being trained for combat duty, nor are they being appropriately recognized for their combat experience.

I’m not sure when Lioness will air again in New York but the DVD is for sale for $20 (less than 2 tickets to a movie in the theater).

We’re currently planning a panel discussion here in conjunction with the In Our Own Words exhibit called Women Veterans: Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times.  Women who served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan will talk about their experiences:  Thursday, March 5, 2009, 6:30pm.

Let us know if you know women who served who would be interested in joining the panel.