Women in warfare (2000-present)

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v • d • e History of women in warfare

Ancient – Medieval – Early Modern – 1750-1799 – 1801-1901 – 1900-1939 (WWI) – WWII – 1945-1999 – 2000-present

1 2000
2 2001
3 2002
4 2003
5 2004
6 2005
7 2006
8 2007
9 2008
10 See also
11 References

[edit] 2000

September: West Side Boys, an armed group in Sierra Leone, are destroyed during Operation Barras, and subsequent operations by the Sierra Leone Army and the Royal Irish Rangers. The group had female fighters as well as male ones.^[1]

[edit] 2001

May: Coral Wong Pietch becomes the first Asian-American woman to reach the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army.

[edit] 2002

January: Yang Seung Sook becomes the first woman general in the history of the South Korean military.^[2]
March: Vernice Armour becomes the first African-American female combat pilot in the United States military. ^[3] She flew the AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopter in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and eventually served two tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.^[4]
May : Captain Philippa “Pip” Tattersall becomes the first woman to earn the Royal Marines green beret. She is not allowed to serve in combat, however.^[5]
September 26: Three female airforce officers are appointed as airforce fighter pilots in South Korea, making them the first women to become fighter pilots in the history of the country.^[6]

[edit] 2003

PFC Jessica Lynch, USA

2003 US Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal emerges.
SGT Jeanette Arocho-Burkart, USA, is reprimanded for her interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay.
PFC Jessica Lynch, USA, was embroiled in a controversy over differing accounts of her capture and rescue in Iraq.
March: Shoshana Johnson becomes the first black female prisoner of war in United States history.^[7]
March 23^[8]: SPC Lori Piestewa, USA, is killed in action. She is the first woman soldier to be killed in action in the 2003 Iraq Conflict,^[9] and the first Native American woman to be killed in action while serving in the United States Military.^[10]

April 7: Capt Kim Campbell, USAF, gains favorable notice when she successfully pilots her aircraft back to base despite extensive damage in a combat mission.
June: Maj Gen Trudy H. Clark, USAF, is appointed Deputy Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
June 26: Serbian politician Biljana Plavšić begins serving her sentence for war crimes.
November 2: SPC Frances M. Vega, USA, becomes the first female soldier of Puerto Rican descent to die in a combat zone.

[edit] 2004

MAJ Tammy Duckworth, USA

Melissa Stockwell, a U.S. soldier, becomes the first American female soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War.^[11]
American Iraq veteran Kelly Dougherty founds Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Brig Gen Dana H. Born, USAF, becomes the dean of faculty at the United States Air Force Academy, the first woman to hold that position.
January 2: CPT Kimberly Hampton, USA, becomes the first female military pilot to be shot down and killed by an enemy in United States history.
April 9: SPC Michelle Witmer is killed in Baghdad. She is the first woman from the United States National Guard to be killed in action in history.
October 30: SPC Megan Ambuhl, USA, is convicted of dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in relation to detainee abuse.
October 31: S/Sgt Denise Rose, British Army, becomes the first female British soldier to die in military operations in the Iraq War. Her death is ruled to be a suicide by an official inquest.
November 12: CPT Tammy Duckworth, USA, loses both legs, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.

[edit] 2005

SGT Leigh Ann Hester, USA

SGT Leigh Ann Hester, USA, received the Silver Star for her actions in Iraq during an enemy ambush on their convoy near the town of Salman Pak. She killed at least 3 of the attacking insurgents. Hester was the first female soldier to receive the award for exceptional valor since World War II and the first woman ever to receive the silver star for close combat.
Elizabeth Cosson becomes the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Brigadier in the Australian Army.
April 30: SPC Lynndie England, USAR, pleads guilty to inflicting sexual, physical and psychological abuse on Iraqi prisoners of war.
May 5: Janis Karpinski, USA, is demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel, although her demotion is not formally related to the abuse at Abu Gharib prison.
October 27: Major General (Promotable) Ann Dunwoody promoted to Lieutenant General, the second female to reach that rank in the US Army and the first female officer to be the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 (Logistics).
December: Brig Gen Susan Y. Desjardins, USAF becomes the first woman Commandant of Cadets and Commander of the 34th Training Wing of the United States Air Force Academy.

[edit] 2006

Major Nicole Malachowski

MAJ Tammy Duckworth, USA, became the first female combat veteran to be nominated by a major party to run for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
Vivien S. Crea becomes the first female Vice Admiral of the United States Coast Guard.
First public performance of Maj Nicole Malachowski, USAF, the first woman pilot selected to fly as part of the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (Thunderbirds).
January 1: Chai Hui-chen becomes Taiwan's first female combat-status general.
March: Major Margaret Witt is discharged from the United States Air Force on grounds of homosexual conduct. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit in her behalf.
May 17: Captain Nichola Goddard, (Canadian Forces Land Force Command), becomes the first Canadian female soldier to be killed in action.
June 16: Pte Michelle Norris, British Army, saves the life of her sergeant by climbing out of a vehicle and pulling him from the turret of the Warrior Patrol Vehicle that they were in while under heavy gunfire. She is eventually awarded the Military Cross for her actions, and is the first woman to receive one.
September 8: SFC Meredith Howard, USA, is killed in action in Afganistan. At age 52, she is the oldest American female soldier to be killed in combat.
September 23: Aviation Cadet Saira Amin wins the Sword of Honour at The Pakistan Air Force Academy, becoming the first-ever female to win the Honour in any Defence Academy in Pakistan.
December: The number of American servicewomen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan reaches 70, more than the total from the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. The 70 women represent less than two percent of the American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
December 6: Maj Megan McClung, USMC, becomes the first female Marine officer to die in Iraq.
December 15: CAPT Margaret Klein, USN, becomes the first female Commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy.

[edit] 2007

January 19: The United Nation's first all female peacekeeping force is set to deploy to Liberia. The peacekeeping force is made up of 105 Indian policewomen.^[12]

March: Botswana Defence Force begins recruiting females into military service.^[13] Tebogo Masire, the commander, states that they will not receive special treatment.^[14]

March: British sailor Faye Turney is captured by Iran along with fourteen other British sailors. While captive, she appears on television apologizing for trespassing in Iranian waters, and also writes a letter stating that she and her fellow sailors "apparently trespassed" on Iranian waters. It was reported that Iranian officials would release her, but they eventually refused to do so based on "wrong behaviour of those who live in London."

April: Spc Sorimar Perez and Spc Amanda Landers become the first women in the history of the United States military to become Avenger crewmembers. The positions were restricted to males until October 2006.

April: The fifteen British sailors captured by Iran are released. It is revealed that Faye Turney was separated from the other sailors and singled out for special treatment by the Iranians. In a news conference, some of the other sailors state that she was used as a propaganda tool by Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticizes the United Kingdom for sending Turney, the mother of a young child, into a war zone.

April: Monica Lin Brown, Specialist in the United States Army stationed in Afghanistan, saves the lives of her fellow soldiers by running through gunfire and using her body as a shield while mortars fell nearby. She earned a Silver Star medal for her actions. ^[15]

[edit] 2008

May 23: Lt. Col. Pi Woo-jin, one of the first female helicopter pilots in the South Korean military, is reinstated into the military after a legal battle over her forced medical discharge after she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer. She is the first soldier to ever be reinstated into the South Korean military after a forced medical discharge.^[16]
April: Melissa Stockwell becomes the first American Iraq War vet to be chosen for the Paralympics.^[17]
April 10: Squaw Peak is renamed Piestewa Peak in honor of Lori Piestewa. ^[18]