Women’s Military Memorial president looks to fellow DAR members to help collect stories of women, past and present, serving our nation.
By Lena Anthony
The Women’s Military Memorial, located at the ceremonial entrance of Arlington National Cemetery, has a long-standing history with DAR. In fact, it traces all the way back to one of the DAR’s founding objectives: to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who achieved American Independence.
In 1898, the DAR Hospital Corps certified 1,081 nurses for service during the Spanish-American War, and those nurses became some of the first women to serve officially in the U.S. military. The Women’s Military Memorial’s founder and first president, retired Air Force Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught, is a DAR member. The memorial’s current president, retired Command Chief Warrant Office Five for the Army Reserve Phyllis Wilson, is as well.
It makes sense, then, that the Women’s Military Memorial would look to the DAR for help with its latest campaign: collecting, before the end of the year, 23,000 stories of women who have served or are currently serving our nation. That is 23K in 2023.
“When we set this ambitious goal, we knew that Daughters would be the perfect partners to help us reach it,” Ms. Wilson said. “Many Daughters have a history of military service in their own families. Many Daughters routinely volunteer in nursing homes or with veterans organizations where women veterans reside or are members. As Daughters, we’re all from Patriots, and it’s important that we continue to tell this very patriotic story for generations to come.”
In addition to a physical memorial at the gateway of Arlington Cemetery, the Women’s Military Memorial includes a 33,000-square-foot education center that houses the Register, a computerized database of military histories, photographs and individual stories of 306,000 women who have courageously served in or with the Armed Forces, beginning with the American Revolution. It is the only historical repository documenting all military women’s service.
While Ms. Wilson’s calendar is filled with speaking engagements and other “presidential” duties, one of her favorite parts of the day is filling a few unscheduled minutes browsing the Register.
“There’s so much to find in there,” she said. “Of course, the well-known stories are in there, but some of my favorites are about the ‘Any Woman USA’ who answered the call.”
She is referring to the stories of women like Lina Stratton, a World War II nurse from Memphis, Tennessee, whose handwritten letter is now part of the Women’s Military Memorial collection.
“It details all of the things she remembers about her time serving as a nurse, first in North Africa and then on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge,” Chief Wilson said. “When I came across it, I wasn’t having the best day at work. I made myself a cup of tea and read the whole thing and found it so fascinating. Had she not registered her story, I might not be able to tell it today.”
When Ms. Wilson became president of the Women’s Military Memorial in 2020, the stories in the database numbered fewer than 300,000. Despite the steady gains and the push this year to add 23,000 more, that still leaves 2.7 million women’s military service stories untold.
“Together, we can help them claim their place in history,” she said. “If each Chapter could commit to adding five women—women in their communities, in their families, maybe even their Chapter namesake, who served our country—we can easily reach our goal.”
Want to learn more about Ms. Wilson? She also was featured in the January/February 2021 issue of American Spirit.
