ATHOL – Nearly 80 veterans and family members, Athol residents, and town officials attended Wednesday’s Veterans Day ceremonies in Memorial Hall at Athol Town Hall.

Master of ceremonies Scott Hume, president of the Athol Veterans Council, welcomed the audience and read the poem “Remember the Veterans,” written by the late Athol native and World War II pilot Gordon Briggs.

In an address titled “A Force to be Reckoned With,” guest speaker U.S. Army Sergeant (Ret.) Sheila Pelletier gave attendees a lesson on the contributions of women to the American military.

“From the battlefields of the American Revolution to the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, women have been serving in the military in one form or another for more than 200 years,” Pelletier said. “They have had to overcome decades of obstacles to get where they are today: serving in greater numbers, in combat roles and in leadership positions all around the world.”

“As the history of women in the military clearly shows, female service members are a force to be reckoned with.”

U.S. Army Sergeant (Ret.) Sheila Pelletier

Pelletier highlighted the contributions of Margaret Corbin, who “disguised herself as a man and traveled with her husband to the front lines of the Battle of Fort Washington” and helped load cannon, wounded three times and given a military pension. Deborah Sampson, who fought with the Continential Army in the Revolution, did so “disguised as a man for years before her true sex was revealed,” Pelletier said.

Pelletier noted that, during the Civil War, “nearly 20,000 (women) lent their skills and efforts in everything from growing crops to feed the Union troops to cooking in Army camps. Another 3,000 women also served as nurses for the Union Army during the conflict.”

During World War I, said Pelletier, the ranks of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps ballooned from 403 at the start of the war to more than 3,000. During World War II, she said, nearly 350,000 American women served in uniform.

In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, Pelletier said, President Harry Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which allowed women to serve as full, permanent members of all branches of the armed forces.

While a step in the right direction, she explained that, “The act actually restricted the number of women who could serve to only 2% of each branch and limited how many women could become officers.” Two years after the act was signed, the Korean War began and 120,000 women would go on to serve in that conflict.

Some 11,000 women “were stationed in Vietnam during the nearly 20-year war,” Pelletier said, adding that 90% were nurses in the Army, Navy and Air Force.

In the latter years of the 20th century and early 21st century, according to Pelletier, other firsts for women included “the first woman to become a Navy fighter pilot; the first female four-star general in the Army; and the first female rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard.”

There was also Leigh Ann Hester, the first woman since World War II to be awarded the Silver Star “in recognition of her brave actions during an enemy ambush on her supply convoy in Iraq in 2005.”

“More than 300,000 (women) have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11,” she said. “More than 9,000 have earned Combat Action Badges and today, women make up 16% of our nation’s armed forces, serving in every branch of the military.

“As the history of women in the military clearly shows, female service members are a force to be reckoned with,” she added.

Pelletier’s military career began in 1985 and ended in 2015 when she retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of master sergeant. She served a 15-month tour in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. Since retiring she has committed her time to helping veterans and served as a veterans services director for several nearby communities. A native of Indiana, Pelletier is married to Athol native Mike Euvard, AHS Class of 1980 and also a veteran of the U.S. Army.

Following Pelletier’s presentation, Elizabeth Hume sang the National Anthem. Bobbi Newman of the American Legion Auxiliary then laid the ceremonial wreath at the front of the auditorium, preceding the playing of taps.