PRINTER'S NO. 618
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE RESOLUTION
No.
64
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY SCHWANK, DINNIMAN, BROOKS, FONTANA, SABATINA,
GREENLEAF, BROWNE, BREWSTER, RESCHENTHALER, HAYWOOD, WARD,
HUTCHINSON, RAFFERTY, COSTA, YUDICHAK, LANGERHOLC, FOLMER,
TARTAGLIONE, KILLION, VULAKOVICH, HUGHES, MENSCH, AUMENT AND
SCAVELLO, MARCH 28, 2017
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, MARCH 28, 2017
A RESOLUTION
Designating March 29, 2017, as "Female Veterans Recognition Day"
in Pennsylvania and encouraging all Pennsylvanians to join in
recognizing, appreciating and saluting the service and
sacrifices of more than 71,000 female veterans who live in
Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, Women have a long, courageous and largely
unrecognized history of military service to our country; and
WHEREAS, At the founding of our nation, women provided
important support services as nurses, cooks, laundresses and
clerks for the troops and heroically stepped up to the front
lines or risked their lives in other ways; and
WHEREAS, Margaret Corbin and Mary "Molly Pitcher" McCauley
manned their fallen husbands' cannons at the battles of Fort
Washington and Monmouth and Ann Simpson Davis carried supplies
and messages across enemy lines during the southeastern
Pennsylvania campaign of the War of Independence; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the history of our nation, women such as
Clara Barton, who cared for the wounded and dying from Antietam
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to Andersonville during the Civil War, and Cathay Williams, who,
freed from slavery during the Civil War, dressed as a man to
serve two years as an infantry soldier, have, in every conflict,
served our national interests largely without official
recognition and commendation; and
WHEREAS, With America's approach and entry into World War I,
for the first time women were recruited to serve in auxiliary
military units; and
WHEREAS, During World War I, 14,000 women responded to free
troops for combat by serving in noncombat duties such as clerks
and radio electricians while 21,000 more women served in the
United States Army Nurse Corps at camps and hospitals here and
overseas; and
WHEREAS, Women's services nonetheless continued to be
regarded in a subordinate position: hundreds of women who served
in the United States Army Signal Corps were required to purchase
their own uniforms and were denied military discharges until
1979, long after most of these veterans had passed away; and
WHEREAS, The auxiliary units were disbanded following World
War I until 1941 and, in 1943, were granted official military
status in the Women's Army Corps (WACs), Women Accepted for
Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), the United States Navy and
the Marine Corps Women's Reserve; and
WHEREAS, With the passage of the Women's Armed Services
Integration Act of 1948, women were finally allowed to serve as
permanent members of the military and granted entitlement to
veteran benefits; and
WHEREAS, More than 200,000 women, comprising approximately
10% of all service personnel, including dozens of female
generals and admirals, are fully integrated throughout all
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branches of the armed forces of the United States, including
combat components; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the long restrictions on their
opportunity to serve, women did so despite injury, privation,
imprisonment and death, from the death of Jemima Warner of
Thompson's Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion at the siege of Quebec
in 1775, through that of Army Specialist Lori Piestewa, who died
after being captured by Iraqi forces during Operation Iraqi
Freedom; and
WHEREAS, One in ten living veterans is a female veteran; and
WHEREAS, More than 71,000 Pennsylvania residents are female
veterans; and
WHEREAS, After service, female veterans continue to face
largely unrecognized challenges: one in four female veterans
seeking VA medical care has experienced sexual assault and
female veterans have a 400% greater risk of homelessness than
their male peers do; and
WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Commission for Women has asked the
Senate and the House of Representatives to join in recognizing
the service and sacrifices of Pennsylvania women in the
interests of our nation; and
WHEREAS, The selflessness and bravery of women in keeping our
Commonwealth and our country safe and in protecting our freedoms
should not go unnoted or be diminished; and
WHEREAS, The courageous and dutiful efforts of women in the
service of our Commonwealth and of our country should be called
to the attention of all Pennsylvanians; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate designate March 29, 2017, as
"Female Veterans Recognition Day" in Pennsylvania; and be it
further
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RESOLVED, That the Senate encourage all Pennsylvanians to
join in recognizing, appreciating and saluting the service and
sacrifices of more than 71,000 female veterans who live in
Pennsylvania.
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