For Women Who Served

Three years ago, Arthur Lurgio realized that none of the more than two dozen memorials in the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter (pop. 6,045) paid tribute to women veterans.

“I thought maybe, since we are honoring veterans, we should be honoring (women) as well,” says Lurgio, who retired as administrator of the 275-acre cemetery in 2001.

Lurgio floated the idea of erecting a statue recognizing Rhode Island’s women soldiers to Jane Hayward, deputy director of the state’s Department of Human Services, which operates the cemetery. She, in turn, approached military officials. Lt. Col. Jeannine Vachon of the Rhode Island Army National Guard was tapped to head the project. Although Lurgio is reluctant to take credit for the idea, those involved say he planted the seed.

Unsure where to start, Vachon issued a call to all the nearly 5,000 Rhode Island women veterans to attend a meeting to help plan a memorial. Only 13 people showed up, most of them World War II veterans. But a second meeting a month later drew 30 people and interest escalated.

“We wanted everyone involved, not just the National Guard,” Vachon says.

To raise money, women veterans from World War II to the Gulf War stationed themselves at supermarkets and malls on weekends—in civilian garb, as military personnel are forbidden to solicit funds. Each time a story about the memorial appeared in newspapers or on television, a flurry of checks ranging from $15 to $25 arrived. One came with a note that read, “This is for my mother who served in World War II.”

Private donations, along with a $25,000 appropriation from the state Legislature, eventually provided $150,000 for the memorial statue.

Narragansett sculptor Mimi Sammis was commissioned to create the memorial, a 7-foot-tall woman in uniform holding an American flag and standing on a 4-foot diameter globe atop a granite base.

The bronze statue was unveiled last November during a dedication ceremony, which attracted more than 500 people, including veterans from across the state. It’s the first state memorial to be dedicated to women vets, and the only one in the country devoted strictly to women, with the exception of the national memorial to women vets, erected in 1997, at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

“You get the feeling of calm here and you know this is where it should be,” Vachon says. “We’re the first state to do this. It’s an idea we hope will catch on.”

They’ve Always Served

From the American Revolution to today, women have helped defend our nation, serving in many capacities, both civilian and military. Although not officially recognized until the Army Nurse Corp formed in 1901, nearly 2 million American women have since done active duty in the Armed Forces.

More than 500,000 American women served in World War II (some 200 of them died). The Korean and Vietnam conflicts saw women enlisting by the thousands, and during Desert Storm in 1991, close to 35,000 women saw duty in the Persian Gulf, according to the Center for Women Veterans at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Today, there are more than 1.2 million women veterans.

Gayle Goddard-Taylor is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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