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My grandmother, Elaine Danforth Harmon, was one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots Nonetheless, women like my grandmother wanted to serve the country and volunteered to fly planes in a civilian capacity while the bureaucrats did the paperwork, accepting this delay as a mere formality. Unfortunately, when the debate ended with a vote in Congress in the summer of 1944 against allowing women to serve as Army pilots, the women were already flying. She compensated for that particular regret by dedicating the rest of her life to sharing the history of the WASP and stories about her time flying military planes.

The psychology of the brain helps explain why the transition out of the military and into civilian life is such a tough challenge for so many veterans. She signed up to serve in the Navy in July 2001 and began preparing for boot camp when she graduated high school a year later. After graduating high school she attended Boot Camp and then went to Florida for technical school to be a Cryptologic Technician Administrative and was able to secure her dream assignment to Hawaii. After being a part of a culture where you can see everything you need to know about a person by looking at their uniform and having a get the mission done mindset it was hard to transition into civilian life.

Phyllis enlisted in the Army and then transitioned to become a Warrant Officer in the Army. The Women’s Memorial is the only memorial honoring the 3 million women who have served our nation since the Revolutionary War. Phyllis Wilson was struggling to pay for college in between two jobs and realized that at the rate she was going she would have her Associate’s Degree by the age of twenty-four. Today Phyllis is the president of the Women’s Memorial and is working to help share and preserve the stories of military women.

Women, who disguised themselves as men to serve their country and explore the world, not knowing that they would set a course into motion that would impact the lives of future women in the military for generations to come. Reflecting on her service to her country a few characteristics stand out that serve as an example for all women in the military. At the end of 2020, the Deborah Sampson Act was passed in Congress that would empower women in the military and women veterans. The Deborah Sampson Act eliminates many barriers to VA care to include requiring at least one woman’s health primary care provider and providing millions in additional funding to the VA in direct support of women’s care.