CHICAGO (WLS) — The U.S. Military is the nation’s oldest army department.
ABC7 talked to veterans in Chicago who say whereas a lot has modified since their time serving, there’s extra work to be finished, particularly for girls.
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It was an intimate however invaluable gathering on the SGT Simone A. Robinson Army Ladies Veteran’s Heart, 8620 South Pulaski, to have a good time feminine veterans, who say they have been ignored for too lengthy.
“It’s extremely emotional, regardless that it was a few years in the past, however it’s there,” U.S. Military veteran Barbara Norman mentioned.
Norman joined the Military in 1973. She misplaced a number of family members who additionally served, and now she is the only survivor of her household.
“The recollections won’t ever fade, after which they get much less and fewer vivid, however it’s at all times there,” Norman mentioned. “Younger folks would sacrifice a lot, and to be given so little upon their return.”
These recollections resurfaced Saturday as she joined the nation in celebrating 250 years because the because the U.S. Military was created on June 14, 1775.
Whereas President Donald Trump honored the nation’s oldest army department, many veterans are questioning if sufficient progress throughout the army has been made, particularly for girls.
“It is unacceptable that veterans are coming again who’ve served can’t get well being service for administration to chop veteran advantages, housing, clothes, these homeless on the road, begging for meals,” Norman mentioned. “The angle towards army has modified.”
Only a few months in the past, President Trump’s govt order to do away with photographs or phrases associated to range, fairness and inclusion, or DEI, led to the Pentagon taking down historic images on their web site, together with photographs of the primary all-female veterans flight out of Chicago in 2021.
“Though we put on the uniform, exterior of that uniform, folks do not at all times see us as ladies veterans,” U.S. Military veteran Margo Watson mentioned.
Watson, who at the moment serves within the U.S. Military Reserves, says it is extra necessary than ever to assist feminine military vets.
“I am right here to tear down these stereotypes and to let everybody know that we put on the uniform too,” Watson mentioned.
Her work on the Illinois Division of Veterans’ Affairs consists of providing ladies veterans assets to earned advantages and constructing communities of those that have served to really feel supported.
“In spite of everything my laborious work in 28 years, folks do not even acknowledge that I’m a veteran, or that I am nonetheless at the moment serving,” Watson mentioned. “So it is necessary to me to ensure that folks see that. In order that nobody ever forgets the sacrifices which have been made.”
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