General Ann Dunwoody and others - Maryland Women in Military Service Monument - North East, Maryland - Etched in Stone on Waymarking.com

The Maryland Women in Military Service Monument is on the east terrace behind the Chesapeake House Travel Plaza building in the Cecil County town of North East, Maryland. Its overall form is an elevated and curved trapezoid with an area of approximately 2,300 square feet. Four steps along the north boundary and a ramp hugging its west lead visitors to the collection of recognition elements. Most prominent, at the northwest corner and closest to the stairs, is a narrow metal pillar coated in brown with white text on its north and south faces. It reads:

North / Front:

MARYLAND
WOMEN
IN MILITARY
SERVICE
MONUMENT

DEDICATED 2014

HONORING WOMEN FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND, PAST AND PRESENT, WHO HAVE SERVED OUR NATION HONORABLY AND PROUDLY, IN WAR AND PEACE

Martin O'Malley - Governor

James T. Smith, Jr. - Chairman, Maryland Transportation Authority

Senator Katherine Klausmeier - Chair, Commission on the Establishment of a Maryland Women in Military Service Monument

Anthony G. Brown - Lt. Governor

Edward Chow. Jr. - Secretary, Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs

Ayers Saint Gross - Architect

Areas USA MDTP, LLC - Contractor

South / Back:

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF
WOMEN IN MILITARY SERVICE

[left column]

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Although women Have served as true volunteers in a variety of supporting roles during every armed conflict of the United States beginning with the American Revolution, some disguised themselves as male soldiers in order to contribute more directly.

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During the Civil and Spanish-American wars the most significant contributions made by women were in the fields of health care and medicine. These contributions led to the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901 and the Navy Nurse Corps in 1908.

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Harriet Tubman, born in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1849, is the first woman to serve with the Union Army as a nurse, spy, and scout during the Civil War

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During WWI the following numbers of women served in the various military departments. 21,480 Army nurses; 1,476 Navy nurses; 11,880 Navy enlisted women - Yeoman (F); 305 Marine women: and 2 Coast Guard. The Army also sent 233 bilingual telephone operators and 50 stenographers to France - all civilians.

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Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Congress authorized the following components: Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), May 1942 (served with the army but not considered a part of the Army); Navy Waves and Women Marines, July 1942; Coast Guard SPARs, November 1942; and WAAC reestablished to the Women's Army Corps, July 1943.

[right column]

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Military women during WWII performed duties across the United States and overseas as nurses, postal clerks, intelligence analysts, communication specialists, truck drivers, cooks, linguists, and much more. Of special note were a group of contract women pilots known as WASPs who ferried all types of aircraft across the United States relieving male pilots for combat overseas.

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Eighty-three women were held as prisoners of war in the Pacific Theater during WWII; 78 were held for nearly three years.

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The efforts of the women who served in WWII changed not only the place of women in the military services, but expanded the roles and opportunities for women in the civilian labor force as well.

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120,000 Women served during the Korean Conflict with some 1,000 serving in theater and more than 500 Army nurses with "boots on the ground" in Korea.

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197,500 women, all volunteers, served during the Vietnam War; some 7,500 were stationed in Vietnam, most of whom were nurses.

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The first women generals were appointed on June 11, 1970. In 1980 the first women graduated from the United States Service Academies.

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In 2013 the Secretary of Defense officially authorized women to serve in combat roles.

Five gingko trees, each in its own geometric plot, are aligned along two rows within an inner section paved with gray stone blocks. The plots are topped with bark mulch ground covering. Three of the plots feature low markers of polished black granite shaped in elongated and tapered prisms each engraved with a different quote from a service member. The dark stones are bisected to form unique angles according to the corner of the plot in which they are situated. The quotes are:

"I have never considered myself anything but a soldier."
- General Ann Dunwoody, First Female Four-star General

"Let the generations know that the women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom."
- Anne S. (Sosh) Brehm, 1LT, Army Nurse Corps (WWII)

"Duty. Honor. Pride. | These words reflect the spirit of generations of American women who have sought to | defend the rights and freedom of others."
- General (Ret) Eric K. Shinseki, 2011

"Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody (born January 14, 1953) is a retired general of the United States Army. She was the first woman in United States military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer rank, receiving her fourth star on November 14, 2008.

In 2005 Dunwoody became the United States Army's top-ranking female when she received the promotion to lieutenant general (three stars) and became the army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (logistics). She was nominated as Commanding General, United States Army Materiel Command, by President George W. Bush on June 23, 2008, and confirmed by the Senate one month later. She served in that capacity until August 7, 2012, and retired from the army on August 15, 2012." (Source: Wikipedia)

"Brehm had four brothers in the Navy during World War II, but she wanted to be "where the action was," so she joined the Army Nurse Corps, ultimately ending up in China. Hers is just one of the many, many stories about women in service to their country." (Source: Air Force News Service)

"Eric Ken Shinseki (born November 28, 1942) is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2009–2014). His final United States Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army (1999–2003). Shinseki is a veteran of two tours of combat in the Vietnam War, in which he was awarded three Bronze Star Medals for valor and two Purple Hearts. He was the first Asian-American four-star general, and the first Asian-American Secretary of Veterans Affairs. (Source: Wikipedia)

An aluminum square plaque mounted to the east wall and engraved with the names and positions of the Maryland Women in Military Service Monument Commission members.

Address:
Chesapeake House Travel Plaza
John F Kennedy Memorial Hwy - I-95
North East, MD

The centralized rest area is accessible along Interstate 95 when traveling both north- and southbound at mile marker 82 between Exit 80 (MD 543) and Exit 85 (MD 22).

For more information about the monument's background, please see: Commission on the Establishment of a Maryland Women in Military Service Monument and its Final Report (October 2, 2014).

Address: Chesapeake House Travel Plaza John F Kennedy Memorial Hwy - I-95 North East, MD Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/15/2014 Searcher28 visited it