Mother of the Unknown Soldier Tree
In addition to its built memorials, Arlington National Cemetery includes more than 140 memorial trees — living tributes to service members, units, wars, battles, or historical topics. This memorial tree was dedicated on May 8, 1932, in honor of the mother of the World War I Unknown Soldier, herself unknown. It is the earliest known memorial tree in the cemetery.
Nurses Section
Section 21 is sometimes known as the “Nurses Section” because it is the resting place of over 650 nurses who heroically served for or in the armed forces throughout U.S. history.
Dr. Ollie Josephine Baird Bennett
Bennett served as an Army contract surgeon during World War I. After the war, she worked for the War Industries Board to facilitate cooperation between the Army and the Navy, installed the first modern medical emergency room in a government department, and later served on the staff of the National Homeopathic Hospital in Washington, D.C. She was influential in passage of a law that allowed women to receive temporary commissions in the Army, Navy, and Public Health Service.
Petty Officer Third Class Frieda Hardin
Hardin enlisted as Navy Yeoman (F) days after learning women were allowed to serve. She was a role model and advocate for empowering women to serve in the military.
Colonel Emma Vogel
Vogel served as a civilian reconstruction aide during World War I. While Supervisor of Physical Therapists at Walter Reed General Hospital, she organized the Army's first peacetime physical therapy training course. She served as advisor to the Surgeon General's office for issues related to physical therapy. Vogel served as the first chief of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps.
Lieutenant Lillian Harris
Harris was one of the first WAC officers to specialize; her chosen field was logistics and she worked as a logistics officer at the Pentagon. She retired in 1968 as a lieutenant colonel, the highest rank women could hold in the Army at that time. Her awards include the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.
Technician Fifth Grade Mary Crawford Ragland
Ragland served with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only WAC unit composed of women of color deployed to Europe during WWII. She and the 6888th helped process backlogged mail for U.S. service members. Ragland was also assigned to a group that provided entertainment for American troops. Her work greatly helped the morale of the troops by enabling them to hear from loved ones back at home.
Lieutenant Elaine Danforth Harmon
As a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), Harmon flew military aircraft in noncombat settings during WWII. She advocated for WASP pilots to be recognized as veterans of equal status with male veterans despite their civilian status during the war.
Master Sergeant Catherine G. Murray
Murray served as a motor transport Marine during WWII, and was one of only 50 women who continued to actively serve in the Marines after the war. While stationed at Quantico, Virginia, she wrote manuals used to train future female Marines. After serving for 20 years, Murray retired at the rank of master sergeant in 1962, becoming the first enlisted female Marine to retire from active duty.
Arlington Farms
“Gee! Twenty-eight acres of girls!” a young sailor exclaimed when he arrived at Arlington Farms. Built in 1942 on what is now part of Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Farms was a bustling community of approximately 9,000 women. The complex, built to relieve the wartime housing crisis in Washington, D.C., housed white female government workers —known as “government girls” — and Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).Beginning in 1941, women streamed into the capital city to fill the abundant civil service jobs necessitated by the nation’s entry into World War II. They crammed into boarding houses and apartment buildings, and yet there was still a housing shortage. To accommodate this influx of women into the city, the U.S. government built temporary dorm complexes to house the women for the duration of the war, located in Arlington, Virginia; Suitland, Maryland; and Washington, D.C. Arlington Farms was the largest and the most well-known of these facilities, housing up to 9,000 women aged 16 to 68 at its peak.
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Hopper was pioneer in the field of computer programming. She wrote the first operations manual for the Mark I, and assisted with the construction of the Mark II and Mark III computers. She spearheaded development of the first word-based computer programming language FLOW-MATIC, which made the world of computer science more accessible to people without math and engineering backgrounds.
Brigadier General Hazel Johnson-Brown
Johnson-Brown was the first Black woman general in the U.S. Army. While serving as chief of the Army Nurse Corps, she worked to implement the first standards of practice within the Army Nurse Corps.
Lieutenant Kara Spears Hultgreen
Hultgreen was one of the first female F-14 Tomcat pilots. She was the first combat-qualified female naval aviator.
Captain Maria Ines Ortiz
Ortiz served as an Army nurse during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She was killed in action, the first Army nurse to be killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
Military Women’s Memorial
The Military Women’s Memorial is the voice of women in the military, their stories and their legacies. It is the only national repository that“honor[s] and tell[s] the stories of women, past and present, who serve our nation.”Inside are exhibits to women who served in or alongside the United States military from the Revolutionary War to the present. Additionally, the memorial features an education center, an extensive collection of military women’s stories, and a registry of over 300,000 women who have served our nation in uniform. The Memorial is privately run and not part of Arlington National Cemetery.
Introduction
Women have played key roles in supporting the U.S. military, formally or informally, since the Revolutionary War. However, women could not serve as permanent, regular members of the U.S. armed forces until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.Even after 1948, they continued to face restrictions on their service and received different treatment than male service members. Yet, despite the restrictions they faced, women remained committed to supporting the military. Their stories demonstrate the resilience inherent in American women, who, despite their differences, have always advocated for themselves and worked to overcome gender inequality.Their efforts in each generation, while not perfect and often marked by various types of prejudice, are evocative of the larger American story — the attempt to make the ideals of our democracy equally applicable to all.
World War I Service
During World War I, women’s opportunities in the military expanded beyond those already available in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. The military needed skilled workers in predominantly female jobs, such telephone operators, physical and occupational therapists, and dieticians. Rather than train men who were needed in combat positions, the military hired skilled women in these professions to work in uniform and under oath.However, because of their gender, they were not allowed to actually join the military. These women remained civilian contract workers serving outside of the armed forces. Their civilian status meant that, after the war, these women were ineligible for any veterans benefits such as health care and burial in a national cemetery.
World War II Service
Just as in World War I, women supported World War II from both within and alongside the military. Soon after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, each military branch created new ways for women to support the armed forces so that more men could be available for combat. More than 350,000 women served in uniform, both at home and abroad. They filled roles traditionally considered to be “women’s work," such as secretaries and nurses, but they also flew and repaired planes, served as radio operators, rigged parachutes, and much more.While Congress created some avenues for women to officially serve in the military — for example, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) — many women remained in civilian contract positions. 432 women were killed during the war, and another 88 women were taken as prisoners of war. One such POW was Ruby Bradley (Section 21, Grave 318), an Army nurse who served in the Philippines and spent four years in a Japanese prison. Women’s service in World War II led to the passage of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act in 1948, which guaranteed women a permanent place in the armed forces — a major step toward equality.
Explore: Who Is A Veteran?
Members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were the first American women to officially fly military aircraft. Although they never received military commissions and remained civilians, the WASP proved women could fly and deserved a place in military aviation. In 1974, when the Navy and Army officially accepted their first female military pilots, Elaine Harmon and other former WASPs began advocating for their own recognition as World War II veterans. They succeeded in 1977, when Congress passed the GI Bill Improvement Act. This law included a provision stating that“the service of any person as a member of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots … shall be considered active duty for the purposes of all laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.”Despite WASPs’ change in status, its members did not receive military funeral honors until 2002. They were only entitled to receive honors as military spouses. Former WASP Irene Englund’s (Court 4, Section O, Column 3, Niche 4) family challenged this rule after her death, and Arlington National Cemetery's policy ultimately changed. In 2015, Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh reversed the policy, removing WASPs authorizations to be inurned at ANC and to receive military funeral honors. Soon after McHugh’s policy change, Arlington denied Elaine Harmon inurnment at the cemetery. Her family began a campaign to restore WASP inurnment rights, which soon gained support in Congress. In 2016, President Barack Obama signed H.R. 4336, which authorized the cremated remains of “persons whose service has been determined to be active-duty service pursuant to the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977” to be inurned above-ground at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. This meant that all WASPs were finally eligible for inurnment. Elaine Harmon was inurned at ANC on September 7, 2016.
Post-Vietnam Service
Toward the end of the 20th century, women still faced another significant hurdle to achieving equality in the military: they were prohibited from serving in combat positions. Women had been fighting this restriction for years, knowing that until they could serve side-by-side with men in combat, they would never be viewed by their leaders or fellow service members as equals and would be denied key opportunities for advancement. In April 1993, the Department of Defense announced its decision to permit women to serve in aerial and naval combat — the first in a series of new rules that opened some combat roles to women. When U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan began in the early 2000s, women found themselves serving in combat zones but unable to officially hold combat positions — in part because during the war on terrorism, combat zones were not as clearly defined than as in previous wars. The lack of official recognition for their heroic efforts hindered women’s ability to advance in their military careers. On January 24, 2013, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta lifted the ban on women serving in land-based combat. Finally, in December 2015, the Department of Defense announced that all combat positions would be open to women. Since 2015, service women have continued to honor the legacies of their predecessors by making critical advancements and integrating themselves into elite military communities.Many of the trailblazing women who helped open all combat roles for women are still alive, and many still serve in the military today. Arlington is the final resting place for their predecessors, women who sacrificed their lives on behalf of this nation and who fought for their right to serve in any position.
Peacetime & Cold War Service
The military did not immediately disband the various women’s corps after World War II, choosing instead to end recruitment and begin a slow demobilization effort. However, despite the military’s initial hesitation to accept women, many postwar military and government leaders (as well as women themselves who had served in various capacities) determined that the women’s corps were a successful experiment, and some advocated to retain the corps during peacetime. As women advanced through the ranks in the second half of the twentieth century, they continued to fight for the right to serve in the military on an equal basis with men. In 1948, Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, guaranteeing women the right to serve as permanent, regular members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the newly created Air Force. (That same year, President Harry S. Truman also desegregated the military with Executive Order 9981.) After decades of advocacy by women like Joy Bright Hancock (Section 30, Grave 2138-RH), women had finally achieved a major step forward in the fight for equality. Nonetheless, the act contained many gender-based restrictions. For example, women could not... Command men Serve in combat Comprise more than two percent of all service members The highest rank they could hold was lieutenant colonel or commander They were discharged if they became pregnantYet this act still marked a pivotal moment in women’s military history. For the first time, women could serve as full members of the military in periods of peacetime. They were finally entitled to the rights, benefits, and ranks befitting their work, and they could serve alongside men with recognized distinction and honor.
Conclusion
You've reached the end of the Women’s Military History Tour. We hope you enjoyed your time exploring the cemetery and learning about the lives of these groundbreaking women!You can explore additional content and resources on the Arlington National Cemetery Education Program website, or find more tours through Arlington National Cemetery's STQRY.
Additional Stories: Peacetime & Cold War Servicewomen
Section 45, Grave 245The first woman to serve as a major general in the U.S. armed forces, Maj. Gen. Jeanne Holm (1921–2010) had a long and distinguished career in the Air Force. She enlisted in the Army in 1942, soon after the establishment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). She transferred to the Air Force in 1949 and was appointed director of Women in the Air Force (WAF) in 1965.In a 2003 interview, she described her efforts to expand women’s career opportunities within and beyond the military:“I feel that women should be in any field that they can perform under any circumstances. And so I set about trying to open as many fields as I could, and using whatever gimmick it took to open up more fields to women.”During her tenure as director, policies affecting women were updated, WAF strength more than doubled, and job and assignment opportunities greatly expanded. Her awards include the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.After her retirement from the military in 1975, Holm accepted a civilian position as special assistant on women for President Gerald Ford. She proposed ways to remove gender bias from all federal laws. Jeanne Holm was a fierce advocate for women’s rights both in the military and in civilian life, and she spearheaded many policies that have resulted in greater equality for American women today.
Additional Stories: World War I Women
Section 30, Grave 2138-RHJoy Bright Hancock (1898–1986) began her naval career during World War I as a Navy Yeoman (F). She served at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey, and eventually rose to become chief yeoman at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Cape May. After the end of the war and the dismissal of women from naval service, she worked as a civilian employee for the Navy, eventually with the Bureau of Aeronautics. By 1934, she served as the civilian head of the bureau’s editorial and research section. She also earned a pilot’s license — not, she wrote in her autobiography, “because it was the smart thing to do in the 1920s, but because I was afraid of anything that flew,” and she wanted to conquer her fear. (Hancock’s first two husbands were naval aviators, and both were killed in dirigible crashes in the 1920s.)When the United States entered World War II, Hancock was determined to serve again. She joined the Navy Women’s Reserve, or WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) a few months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized it in July 1942. She began as a lieutenant and achieved the rank of captain by 1946. During and after the war, she served as a leader within the Navy and committed herself to advocating for women to become a permanent part of the Navy. Through her advocacy and persuasion, alongside that of other female military leaders, she helped to secure the passage of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act in 1948. This landmark legislation finally allowed women to serve in the regular and reserve components of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and made the Women’s Army Corps a permanent part of the Army. In 1948, Hancock was one of the first six women sworn into the regular Navy.
Additional Stories: Post-Vietnam Service
Section 6, Grave 5813-A-7In early 1973, the Secretary of the Navy announced a test program to train female naval aviators. Barbara Allen Rainey (1948–1982) applied that same year and was accepted into the U.S. Naval Flight Training School along with seven other women. On February 22, 1974, she became the first female naval aviator. She also became the first jet-qualified woman in the U.S. Navy.Rainey transferred to the Navy Reserve in November 1977, while pregnant with her first daughter. She was recalled to active duty as a flight instructor in 1981. On July 13, 1982, Rainey was killed in an aircraft accident while training another pilot. Rainey paved the way for female aviators in all services to take on roles outside transportation and/or training, opening opportunities for future women — like Kara Spears Hultgreen and many others — to follow in her footsteps.
Additional Stories: Nurses
Section 15C, Grave 709-710 Anna Etheridge Hooks (1839–1913) served in the Civil War as a “vivandiere.” Vivandieres, or Daughters of the Regiment, were women attached to a unit who provided support for its soldiers, most importantly by braving battles to care for the wounded. They wore uniforms, were often armed (Etheridge had a pair of pistols, though records indicate that she never fired them), and could earn military honors like any other member of the regiment; however, they earned no wage for their services nor were they actually in the military. Beyond the battlefield, vivandieres also cooked and washed soldiers’ clothing. Etheridge first saw combat on July 18, 1861, during the Battle of Blackburn's Ford in Virginia. Throughout the war, she served in 32 battles, saving hundreds of lives.Etheridge faced many dangers caring for soldiers on the battlefield. Confederate soldiers almost captured her during the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. During the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, a bullet grazed her hand after a U.S. soldier tried to hide behind her horse.For her service and bravery in battle, she was awarded the Kearny Cross in 1863, after the Battle of Chancellorsville. Etheridge is one of only two women decorated with this honor. She passed away on January 23, 1913, and was buried at Arlington with full military honors.
Additional Stories: World War II Women
Section 3, Grave 1632-CIn June 1942, Winifred Quick Collins (1911–1999), one of the first graduates of Radcliffe College’s Business Administration Program, was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). She was soon assigned to Washington, D.C. to help operate the Bureau of Naval Personnel, where her responsibilities included determining what skills women in the WAVES would need to acquire during training.In the fall of 1944, Collins was named district personnel manager for the 14th Naval District in Hawaii, where she organized the arrival of 5,000 WAVES. She received the Bronze Star for her service during World War II. After the war, she oversaw the enlistment of women into the regular Navy and, in June 1948, she became a commissioned Navy officer, along with eight other women. Promoted to commander in 1953, she served as personnel director for the 12th Naval District — at the time, the highest position held by a woman in the Navy. She retired from the Navy in 1963 at the rank of captain.
Tour Overview
This tour contains three types of stops: HONOR stops mark the gravesites of specific individuals. REMEMBER stops commemorate events, ideas, or groups of people. EXPLORE stops invite you to discover what this history means to you.
MEMORIALS TO NURSES
More than 1,500 women served as contract nurses during the Spanish-American War, and over 150 nurses died of disease during that conflict. After the war, the Society of Spanish-American War Nurses began a fundraising campaign to erect a memorial to these nurses at Arlington, where many of them had been buried. Dedicated in 1905, the memorial features the inscription “To Our Comrades”; it specifically aimed to memorialize these female nurses as wartime fatalities, just like men who died in combat. It was a memorial for women, created by their compatriots, intended to position women’s military nursing as equal to men’s military service.Compare this memorial to the Spanish-American War Memorial, the tall column down Lawton Drive. The latter memorial was erected in 1902 by another women’s group: the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, a hereditary organization of women who could trace their ancestry back to the colonial era. They created this memorial to honor those who died in the Spanish-American War. These two memorials were both created by women at the turn of the century: one by memory makers, and one by wartime participants themselves. This contrast demonstrates that just as women were working their way into new roles in the military, women were also using their more traditional roles as memory keepers to exert their influence in other ways.
