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Women Veterans

Written by Sady on February 25th, 2009

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.

Posted in Oral History | No Responses »
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Brooklyn Women

Written by Sady on February 20th, 2009

Yesterday, I was getting some ducks in order for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project we’re working on and browsing through some audio recordings to double check dates of birth and I happened to listen to two striking moments.

In one, a woman who grew up in Red Hook in the 1920s and 1930s breaks into tears when she talks about having to end her schooling and go to work.  She was a proud honors student but she didn”t finish high school.  In the second, a woman who worked as a welder in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WWII talks about how she would have loved to continue her career as a welder but no one would hire a woman; you can hear the disappointment and frustation in her voice but this interview was conducted in 1989 and you can also hear how resigned she is to that being the way it all went.

Women’s History Month is a week away now.  In February, there was lots of public conversation about Black History Month and whether it’s still necessary after Obama’s historic election.  I always feel a little funny about the History Months but the fact remains that Black History and Women’s History are still not given fair enough play during the rest of the year.  And so much has changed in such a short amount of time there’s a lot to think about and discuss so, both months still seem important.  But ungh, I remember calling radio station programmers on behalf of Voices of Public Intellectuals, a feminist radio series produced at Radcliffe, and there was always a handful of station managers who would respond, “Oh but Women’s History Month already passed…”

That said, we do have some great events coming up in the spirit of Women’s History Month:

Wednesday, February 25
Seminar Application Deadline
Listening to Women: Documenting Women’s Lives Through Oral History

Thursday, March 5, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Discussion – Women Veterans: Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times

Wednesday, March 18, 6:00 PM
Domestic Violence, Citizenship and Equality – A Lecture with Professor Elizabeth M. Schneider

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Citizen Soldiers

Written by Sady on February 13th, 2009

While We Lie Sleeping, a silent short film by Monica Sharf, is a tribute to those who have served or are still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It’s a provocative addition to the ‘support the troops and oppose the war’ conversation.

Relatedly, we’re hosting a discussion with women who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam:

Women Veterans: Citizen Soldiers in Changing Times
Thursday, March 5th
6:30 – 8:30pm

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The War Comes Home

Written by Sady on January 16th, 2009

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Brooklynite Luis Carlos Montalvan, a veteran of the Iraq War who came with Philip Napoli to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans.  Mr. Montalvan’s assistance dog Tuesday was a wonderful visitor to the museum!

Here Luis Carlos Montalvan and Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans speak with Laura Flanders:

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Iraq War Veterans

Written by Sady on December 3rd, 2008

I’m very much looking forward to reading this new book from the Palgrave Studies in Oral History series:

SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon by Carl Mirra, a soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps during the first Gulf War, currently an Associate Professor of Education at Adelphi University.  This book is an oral history of soldiers, policymakers, and family members effected by the ongoing Iraq War.
I’ve met many Iraq & Afghanistan War veterans who come here to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans or attend on of the discussions we’ve held in conjunction with the exhibition.  And I know many Vietnam veterans who have taken it upon themselves to support the soldiers returning from Iraq/Afghanistan, giving these new veterans advice in how to readjust and cope with their experiences – advice Vietnam veterans did not receive upon their homecoming.

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