This week is Women Veterans Recognition Week.
Now in its 11th year, the week celebrates the accomplishments of women who served and raises community awareness about the challenges they face when transitioning from military to civilian life.
Recommended Videos
“I’ve served my country and that I am proud to be United States Marine,” Betty Lou Summers who served in the late 1950s, now happy to see a day that honors Women Veterans. “It was beautiful because so often women aren’t given the recognition that they deserve. We earned it just as well as the men. So, I’m glad to see it happen.”
For Veterans like Merel King, who was a jet engine mechanic in the United States Air Force, she says a day like this isn’t just a testament to all they’ve done, but all they can do after their service.
“They can do so many things and help someone else along the way. Just take another sister and help them. I taught high school 20 years after I retired from the Air Force, taught aerospace science and children, girls in particular, and that was the best thing to help them go out and do something else,” King said.
Not only is it a great recognition, but a way to be connected in the community and know those resources in the community.
“My daughter is Navy, I’m Marines, and she teases me. So it’s very important, because sometimes the services that are offered, women don’t think that they’re eligible for it, and they don’t take advantage of them, but those that do, I think, have had good experiences,” King said.
These women and the many who will come after them are the ones who will not only make a difference but now be honored every June 9 and all other days, in the city of Jacksonville.
“It doesn’t have to be the service, but you can do something to be just as good and create something for your life, and do something that you want to some people just don’t do it that way,” King said.
