OFF THE WIRE
Franz De Leon
Veteran Julie Weckerlein and her family are shown last weekend in the
Washington, D.C. area. She served in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 with the Air
Force. While in Iraq, she was a few yards away from another female service
member who was killed by incoming mortar round.
Julie Weckerlein vividly recalls the horrid sounds that filled her base - and
her head - after the incoming shell exploded: the radio call summoning the
chaplain, the whirling blades of the chopper evacuating the burned remains of
the Army sergeant killed in Iraq
Five years later, she still remembers the name of that dead soldier: Trista Morietti.
“Females died over there, too,” said Weckerlein, who served in Afghanistan as well. She works today as a full-time federal employee in Washington, D.C. “But there is a cultural disconnect in our society. People don’t know: What is a female veteran? What does she look like? What does she bring to the table? What did we do over there?”
Women compose 15 percent of homecoming U.S. troops and 15 percent of the U.S. armed forces, yet many Americans are unsure how to accept or view them, female veterans say. That applies to the job market, fueling a 19.9 percent unemployment rate among post-9/11 female veterans, while some VA hospitals seem unprepared to handle the heavy influx of women returning from war, contends a leading veterans group.
"I’m the first female veteran that a lot of people know personally, and I’m becoming more aware of this lack of understanding of who we are," said Weckerlein, who spent nine years in the Air Force. Now, 31, she is married with three children and, as an Air Force reservist, she also works part-time at the Pentagon. "There is no real example in society of a female veteran. In Hollywood, there's just the 'GI Jane' version – you know, like Demi Moore shaving her head. But that’s about it.
Five years later, she still remembers the name of that dead soldier: Trista Morietti.
“Females died over there, too,” said Weckerlein, who served in Afghanistan as well. She works today as a full-time federal employee in Washington, D.C. “But there is a cultural disconnect in our society. People don’t know: What is a female veteran? What does she look like? What does she bring to the table? What did we do over there?”
Women compose 15 percent of homecoming U.S. troops and 15 percent of the U.S. armed forces, yet many Americans are unsure how to accept or view them, female veterans say. That applies to the job market, fueling a 19.9 percent unemployment rate among post-9/11 female veterans, while some VA hospitals seem unprepared to handle the heavy influx of women returning from war, contends a leading veterans group.
"I’m the first female veteran that a lot of people know personally, and I’m becoming more aware of this lack of understanding of who we are," said Weckerlein, who spent nine years in the Air Force. Now, 31, she is married with three children and, as an Air Force reservist, she also works part-time at the Pentagon. "There is no real example in society of a female veteran. In Hollywood, there's just the 'GI Jane' version – you know, like Demi Moore shaving her head. But that’s about it.