Wednesday May 9 2:46 PM ET
Museum About Army Women To Open

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

FORT LEE, Va. (AP) - A nightgown sewn from a silk parachute. The dog tag of a World War I Army nurse. A dinner set of white china. A Soviet-made machine gun belt captured by a female MP from the Army. The personal papers and photos of the first black woman commissioned as an Army officer.

These and thousands of other artifacts on display at the new Army Women's Museum opening Friday bring alive the long, sometimes turbulent history of soldiering by American women.

``It gives you chills,'' says Celia Broyles, a museum staffer.

The museum was at Fort McClellan, Ala., for 44 years until McClellan was closed in 1999 as part of a Pentagon plan to consolidate military bases. For a time it seemed this slice of women's history might get shuttered, too. The Army figured that since McClellan was closing, so should the museum.

Figure again, said Bettie Morden, a retired colonel who served throughout the 36-year history of the Women's Army Corps, and other WAC veterans. They insisted that this showcase for WAC heritage - the only museum devoted exclusively to the history of women in the Army - be preserved.

``When the word got out that they were going to close us, it hit the fan,'' said Jackie Wolfe, a Vietnam-era veteran who is on the small civilian staff that runs the new museum on this Army training base about 20 miles south of Richmond. ``You get these women in a rile and they will get things done.''

They got things done, but not without engaging in some bureaucratic hand-to-hand combat.

They lost the first battle: The Army closed the museum in Alabama, even though it was built with $500,000 in private contributions from WAC veterans and supporters, and the 5,000 artifacts had been privately donated.

But they won the second: The Army agreed to open a new museum at Fort Lee, which was home of the first WAC training center from 1948 to 1954 before it moved to McClellan. Now, Fort Lee is home of the Quartermaster Corps, which trains soldiers in providing services and support to combat forces.

The museum has a colorful gallery portraying scenes from all major U.S. conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the Kosovo conflict. Among the artifacts on display are well-preserved WAC uniforms, recruiting posters, a Soviet-made machine gun belt that female Army MPs brought back from the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, and metal bunks from a World War II barracks at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

One of the most compelling additions to the museum since it left McClellan is a collection of artifacts that belonged to Harriet West Waddy, the first black woman commissioned as an Army officer.

Waddy, born in Jefferson City, Mo., in 1904, was an adviser to the Army on racial issues during World War II. She died in 1999, leaving her collection of documents, photographs and personal papers from a 25-year Army career with a friend, Barbara Connolly, who provided it to the museum.

Morden says the museum's name was changed from the Women's Army Corps Museum, as it was known at McClellan, to the Army Women's Museum because the Army wanted to broaden the museum's focus beyond the WAC, which was disbanded in 1978 to end gender separation the Army.

Since the demise of the WAC, the role of women has continued to evolve. Although women today are not allowed to drive tanks or fill other front-line combat positions, they do nearly every other duty, including fly Apache attack helicopters. The first WACs were limited to such jobs as clerks, typists and cooks.

Jerry Burgess, the museum director, said the Army initially wanted it built in the shadow of the Army Quartermaster Museum, but the women insisted their museum get its own plot - and it did.

``We had to fight a lot of battles,'' she says.

The official groundbreaking was in April 2000. Construction began last fall. Since then, Burgess and her staff have worked almost nonstop to get the gallery exhibits ready for Friday's dedication ceremony.

Looking back, Burgess says the battle for the museum was well worth fighting.

``For the future of the museum I think this is better, even though at first none of us wanted to move,'' she said.

Though pleased with their victory, the women are not letting down their guard.

``There are still a lot of men out there who think women shouldn't be in the Army, let alone have their own museum,'' Burgess says.

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On the Net: U.S. Army Women's Museum: http://www.awm.lee.army.mil/

 

 

 

"From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day".

 

 

From Henry V by William Shakespeare

 

Bruce "Doc". Melson

http://www.docmelson.com