Vets Reflect on Changing Roles of Women in the Military

Written By Scott Braden

When you ask veteran Kate Palmer – formerly of the United States Air Force and currently living in Sykesville – if there is a single moment she remembers most from her military career, she demurs; she will give you three. One is being with her comrades-in-arms. Two is shaking the hand of the elder President Bush as he told her that she was doing the Lord’s work in Somalia. And the third, well, that is a convenience that most of us take for granted.

“We were deployed to Africa on December 4, 1992,” said Palmer, “and Christmas Day I took my first shower (in 21 days). Ever seen one of those orange buckets that you find in the back of a contractor truck? The ones where you push the lever and the water comes out? Well, we appropriated some pallets and stacked them up, and got a piece of tent that we wrapped around them. We then sat the orange buckets up on a pallet, and that was my first shower since I’d been deployed. That was a good day!”

As the nation observes Veteran’s Day (November 11), it is noteworthy that the role of American women in the military has changed substantially since Deborah Sampson first impersonated a man and fought in the Revolutionary War. Although they have not gone to Sampson’s extremes, some women veterans who came after her have found their military careers subordinate to men’s.

“That’s an absolute,” agreed Palmer, who served in the Air Force from 1988 to 1994, and held the rank of E4 senior airman. Today, she is a combat-disabled veteran who could have retired from the Air Force in August 2008, if she had not been injured during the first invasion of Iraq.

“Is it fair to say that the military from 1988 to 1994 was a male organization?” said Palmer. “Of course it was. but Desert Shield/Storm changed that. The United States had more women deployed during the Desert Shield/Storm/Calm and Operation Restore Hope time frame than we did during any other time before in this nation’s history. Do we outnumber the men in the military? No. But why would we ? There are just more men who make the decision to join the military than women do. I never felt that I was limited by my female status, and I never felt slighted. There’s a lot more of us (now)! It takes all kinds of people to protect this country.”

“I regret that, unlike my male counterparts, I never got to sea,” said Aline Babin of Westminster, a Navy veteran. Babin, who, like Palmer, was a technician from 1977 to 2003 and held the rank of E9 master chief. She currently tends bar at the American Legion Auxilary, Carroll Post #31 in Westminster.

“In my specialty in the Navy, only junior enlisted men could go to sea at the E5 and E6 level. When I was E5 and E6, women were considered non-combatants. When they changed the law and allowed women to become combatants, I was too senior to go.”

“I also worked in the shadows of all my seniors,” said Palmer, “the same way civilians do today. If you’re a manager, you work in the shadow of your director. If you’re a worker bee, you work in the shadow of your manager. The military is what you make of it. I don’t care if you’re a guy or a gal, because honestly, I had just as many men working beside me who worked in the shadows of females.”

Not too long ago, the only jobs offered to military women were emergency service jobs, and those were mostly in support roles. However, that changed with the approximately 41,000 U.S. women who served – some close to the front line – in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

And playing against stereotype, Palmer was not in emergency services. She was a maintenance technician – a job that would one day lead to her civilian career as a technical project manager for the New Jersey-based business communications company, Avaya.

In late 1992, Palmer served in the humanitarian effort known as Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu, Somalia:

“We deployed with a mission. My unit, the 5th Combat Communcations Group, included one of the first C5 aircraft to land at Mogadishu airport, following the Marines successful amphibious mission.

“Remember when the Marines stormed the shore, and CNN was sitting right there waiting for them? They had packs on their backs for secure communications.

“Well, after the Marines secured the airport and the area, the United States then flew in the Air Force to set up what’s called ‘mobile comms.’ My unit’s mission was to go in right behind the men and women who landed on the ground, take the packs off their backs and give them mobile ‘land’ comms systems.

“I maintained the Crypto “mobile comms” gear. That’s the comms gear that encrypts and decrypts communications that need to be kept confidential. After that, other armed force units – I think it was the Army – were responsible for constructing permanent buildings with permanent wiring for traditional telephony/crypto gear. So to summarize, my team was the Ômiddle man.’”

“Everything (in the Navy) is open to women now except for submarines,” said Babin. “They have widened the Navy, and there is no discrimination whatsoever. And the only reason that we’re not allowed on the submarines is because of the compactness of the sub and the inability to cordon off men and women. If they can figure a way to do that, women will be on submarines, too.”

Another reason that nearly two million women veterans (with almost 48,000 female vets in Maryland alone) may not feel slighted is because of the steps that the United States Military and Congress took to celebrate and respect the American woman veteran.

To serve them better, Congress established the Center for Women Veterans in November 1994. The center has the sole purpose of overseeing Department of Veterans Affairs programs for female veterans. And in the fall of 1997, female veterans were celebrated with their first memorial, the $21.5 million Women in Military Service for America Memorial, which is located at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

As a veteran, Palmer is thankful for the traits she learned from her time in the Air Force – discipline, drive, honor and respect. She also believes that being a veteran opened up avenues that she might not have had otherwise.

“Of course, it did,” Palmer said. “I’m a technical project manager for a Fortune 500 company, I have my bachelor’s degree in international business, my project management certification, and I plan on starting my masters within the next year. I have traveled to 23 countries. I have my comrades – active duty, retired, and discharged. None of this would have been possible without my military foundation and training.”

At the end of the day, both Babin and Palmer are proud to be American veterans.

“I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the Air Force,” said Palmer. “I’m proud to be a vet because of what my brothers and sisters in the military are doing right now, both domestically and overseas. These fine men and women are out there every day, working hard, away from their loved ones, risking their lives so we don’t have to.”

“I served my country,” said Babin, who helped guide many future leaders of the Navy. “I made a difference.”