them in makeshift battlefield hospitals and institutional
facilities alike; and
WHEREAS, Women of color, like Cathay Williams, freed or
escaped from enslavement, enlisted in the Civil War and fought
in the ranks by concealing their gender and serving with neither
commendation nor formal acknowledgment; and
WHEREAS, Women were first openly recruited to serve alongside
regular military units during the First World War, serving in
clerical and technical capacities and as military nurses at home
and in the battlefields of France; and
WHEREAS, Women serving during World War I still were required
not only to pay for their uniforms but also denied formal
recognition of their military service by being kept ineligible
for military discharges until long after most died; and
WHEREAS, Official military status was first obtained by women
during the Second World War in 1943 with the establishment of
the still gender-distinct Women's Army Corps (Army WAC), Women
Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (Navy WAVES), Semper
Paratus Always Ready (Coast Guard SPARs) and the Navy and Marine
Corps Women's Reserve; and
WHEREAS, In 1948, women were finally fully integrated into
the United States military with enactment of the Women's Armed
Services Integration Act, which law for the first time also
granted to women veteran benefits and privileges of service; and
WHEREAS, Today, women and men regularly and routinely serve
alongside one another in every rank, branch and component of the
United States military, with approximately 200,000 women service
members representing roughly 1 in every 10 active military
personnel; and
WHEREAS, One in ten veterans today is a female, including
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