Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Virginia Logan

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Virginia Logan

The history of women in the U.S. military goes back to the American Revolution, but they mostly served as clerks, nurses, seamstresses and cooks, said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Virginia Logan.
Occasionally, they found themselves in more dangerous roles. The story of Molly Pitcher, a woman who reportedly manned a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth after her husband was injured, is considered a folk tale by many historians, but lives on as a symbol of the American spirit.
That spirit has driven women to occasionally push the boundaries of what the military would allow and society considered acceptable. Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man so she could serve in the Continental Army.
Women such as Sampson usually were found out and sent back to their kitchens, but women developed other ways to serve, such as messengers and spies, Logan told the Masury-Brookfield Women’s Club on May 13.
The Industrial Revolution started bringing women into the workplace, and women were allowed to serve in the armed forces starting in World War I.
“When the war was over they went back home,” Logan said, a policy that persisted through World War II.
In 1948, a law was enacted assuring women a permanent place in the military, if still in a reduced role.
During the Vietnam era, the role of women in the military expanded, and Logan played a role in the transition. She joined the Air Force after graduating from college in her native Massachusetts with a math degree, and advised the higher ups at Dover Air Force Base as accommodations were brought on line to house women.
While she guided the renovation of bathrooms to make them more women-friendly and insisted that male officers address women who were not adhering to uniform regulations the same as they would a man, Logan also toughened up the women, telling them that menstrual cycles were no excuse to get out of duty, she said.
Logan’s jobs over 30-plus years in the Air Force included public affairs and logistics. She served at the Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station from 1973 to 1985.
“I was the first commander ever of a combat communications unit in the Air Force,” said the resident of Gustavus, who married a pilot she met while they both served in Laredo, Texas.
While Logan said she was never sexually assaulted while she served, sexual harassment was just part of the deal for women.
“We didn’t talk about it,” said Logan, whose daughter flew KC-135 refueling tankers for many years. “It was just a fact of life. It was: if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
promoAlthough the combat ranks were opened to women in 2016, it hasn’t led to an influx of enlistments by women. The percentage of women in the military stands at 16 percent, about where it was in the ’70s, Logan said. Women have a much harder time meeting the physical requirements of certain roles, and have not traditionally been interested in non-combat jobs such as mechanics, Logan said.
“Women have more opportunities in civilian life,” she said.
The policy concerning women in the military could change again in a significant way if a recent court ruling that an all-male draft is unconstitutional stands.
“The story of women in the military is not done,” Logan said. “There’s lots more changes to come.”