Source: U.S. Department of Defense

"The military needs women, and they need them to serve in different kinds of roles and different kinds of circumstances, including sending women to fight alongside men. The military is realizing [women] can do the job just as well as anyone.”

Women joined their husbands on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War, pretended to be men to fight in the Civil War, and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan by the tens of thousands. The U.S. government also called on women to join in on the war effort—from sewing uniforms and tending wounds, to more recently, engaging in ground combat. About 2.5 million women have served our nation in the military since the nation’s first major war in 1775—including 280,000 who deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

March is Women’s History Month and we’re sharing the stories of the women who bravely fought for our nation and for military equality.