Honor and remembrance of America's women veterans

A feature article in the March issue of The American Legion Magazine, “For Gallantry in Action,” profiles the women who have earned the Silver Star, one of the United States’ most prestigious military awards. One recipient, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, has been immortalized as a bronze statue that stands as part of a recent set of monuments to women veterans in Florida.

The Women Veterans Monuments at Veterans' Park – on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach – were dedicated on Veterans Day 2021. Eight bronze statues feature real women who served in various U.S. conflicts, all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Janet Place, an initiative committee member who uploaded it to The American Legion’s online Memorial Database, stated on the entry that “the intent was to honor women who have served and made significant contributions in the U.S. military throughout history.”

While many military and veteran memorials don’t get particular in their names, and some explicitly honor both men and women – such as the Men and Women of Anson County WWI Memorial in Wadesboro, N.C. – memorials focusing on women can be found from coast to coast. Among the entries on the Legion database:

- the Female Veterans of Idaho Memorial in Idaho Falls, dedicated in December 2018

- the Women's Veterans Monument at Patriot Park in Del City, Okla., dedicated on Veterans Day 2014 with, according to the entry, “five life-size bronze statues of women servicemembers surrounding (the) pole, standing at attention, facing outward and holding hands in an unbroken circle around (the) flag”

- “In Honor and Remembrance of America's Women” in Memorial Park in Blue Island, Ill., installed in 1991 by American Legion Post and Unit 50, which “memorializes the contributions of American women in peace and war”

See the entire Memorial Database, with more than 3,300 entries, at www.legion.org/memorials.