Women veterans honored for their service.

Ruth Hindman Balch was submerged in the cold, dark waters of the Mediterranean on Jan. 23, 1944, being pulled deeper and deeper by the suction of the hospital ship as it sunk. She was a member of the Army Nurse Corps, caring for American wounded from Anzio, when a German plane struck the vessel with a bomb. Unable to reach the surface, Balch thought, "I can't live. I'm going to die. That's all there is to it, because I have to have a breath of air."

The British hospital ship HMHC St. David had capsized with its mast shattering the lifeboat carrying Balch, plunging her beneath the cold water. At once she was caught in the undertow of the ship, released, only to be grabbed again. "Somehow, I wasn't frightened," she said. "I told myself that I was a goner. 'This is it, Ruthie. You might as well take a deep breath and be done with it.'"

At that moment, the undertow again released Balch and she bobbed to the surface like a cork. Gasping for air, her ordeal was far from over. She spent the night clinging to a floating plank from the St. David--her hands and arms nearly frozen in the choppy January sea. Finally, another British hospital ship, the Leinster, arrived and began picking up survivors. Pulled from the frigid water into the even colder air was a painful experience for Balch. "When I got in the lifeboat, I thought I would die," she said. "I just thought I wouldn't live, I was so cold." Once rescued and aboard the hospital ship, Balch was given a taste of British grog and promptly fell to sleep for the night, beneath a pile of warm blankets.

The harrowing experience was Balch's second sinking. She escaped the hospital ship Newfoundland when it was bombed and sunk on Sept. 13, 1943, near the Gulf of Salerno. With her that night was Army nurse Claudine "Speedy" Glidewell Doyle, a member of DAV Chapter 19 in Concord, N.H., who suffered facial wounds and a partially crushed chest by the bomb blast. As the ship was being evacuated, she remembers seeing a nurse stuck while trying to escape through a porthole. "She died as flames burned the parts other inside the compartment," said Doyle. "Another nurse was so affected by the sight that she quit eating do she could be slim enough to escape through a porthole."

It was near Anzio that Balch and Doyle were joined by Frances "Frenchie" Miemickle Plenert, who served with a Surgical team at Anzio for five months. "Anzio was very, very bad," she said.

Their stories aren't unique among women veterans of World War II, but are examples of the courage and dedication of women Veterans who served our nation.

Today, Balch is a member of DAV Chapter 10 ill Arlington, Va., and was interviewed for the DAV supported PBS documentary, "The National World War II Memorial--A Testament to Freedom." Balch, Doyle, and Plenert are among DAV members whose compelling stories are contained in the book And If I Perish, which relates the stories of frontline U.S. Army nurses during World War II. The book, released last Veterans' Day, was written by Evelyn M. Monahan, a member of DAV Chapter 1 in Jonesboro, Ga., and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee.

"The DAV is proud of the service and sacrifice of our women veterans, as well as all of our members," said DAV National Commander Alan W. Bowers. "Nearly two million women have served in uniform, and it is fitting that they be honored during March as part of Women's History Month."

"Women veterans have achieved remarkable accomplishments," said DAV Assistant National Legislative Director Joy J. Ilem. "The DAV is in the forefront of ensuring that their service be honored by our nation. This includes co-sponsoring the National Summit on Women Veterans Issues, which reaches out to women veterans."

The summit, scheduled for June 18-20 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., provides an opportunity for women veterans and others to discuss important issues and policies. "It has become the platform far the development of proposed legislation, new programs, and other initiative's designed to improve services offered to women veterans," Ilem said. Information and registration is available from the VA Center for Women Veterans, at [phone] or by visiting the web site at www.va.gov/womenvet. Registration for the summit is free, but space is limited. Woman veterans will be given priority, but Ilem recommends registering early.

The story of the service of women is long and hallowed. Their service begins with the founding of our nation. During the Revolutionary War, Deborah Samson disguised herself as a young Robert Shirtliffe to serve in the Continental Army. She was wounded twice and was discovered to be a woman when an attending physician treated her for a gunshot wound in the shoulder. Historical records show that more than 60 women were wounded or killed in Civil War battles. The bodies of two Confederate women were found clad in uniforms after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, and a woman Union flag bearer was killed facing the onslaught of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. During the Spanish-American War, women began officially serving as nurses and volunteers, and some died of fever along with men. By World War I, women wore uniforms forms, and during World War II, they had their own branches of the service.

During World War II, more than 400 military women lost their lives. Six Army nurses were killed by the German bombing and strafing during the Battle of Anzio, where Balch, Doyle, and Plenert served. Army medical teams were confined to a narrow area between the front lines in the hills and the ocean, while German guns rained down death from the high ground. Surrounding hospitals were supply dumps, making them both targets for German artillery and aircraft.

"Anzio was one big nightmare," said Doyle. "Those shells were terrible."

When the nurses came ashore, they were driven Lip the coast in a truck and began seeing shells explode, Doyle Bald. "The driver unloaded us and drove off. We ducked into a chicken house until the air raid was over, when we saw people crawling through the grass. We asked if they were there to take us to the hospital. A soldier said, 'We're on the front line, and you're in front of us.'" They finally got to the hospital and went right into surgery.

"We were bombed (lay and night," Plenert said. "All elf our hospitals were being bombed out. We were in tents operating when bullets and shrapnel would fly through. That's where many of us earned the Bronze Star."

Plenert remembers a bullet piercing her uniform jacket as she cared for a patient. The same round killed the patient instantly. A close friend, Army nurse Ellen Ainsworth was killed when a bullet struck her while she sat on her cot. It fell to Plenert to prepare her body for burial. "I put her in her uniform and applied her makeup and lipstick," said Plenert. "It was the worst experience I ever went through. I'd keep washing my hands because I couldn't get the feel of her off my hands."

"Our patients called the hospital Hell's half acre," said Doyle. "It was so dangerous that soldiers would run away front the hospital."

"There were so many killed at Anzio," said Batch. "Many of our doctors and nurses would be bombed in the hospital, and the bombs would even hit the tents they lived in and their mess tents. It was almost constant."

"Every time we had an air raid my knees would shake like the dickens," said Doyle. "I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I was bombed and shelled."

Balch and Doyle left the Army after the war. Frenchie Plenert made the Army her career. She got the nickname from a World War I song her father enjoyed. When Plenert was 72, she received orders for Operation Desert Storm. She was ready to go, but was medically disqualified.

"Our nation's proud women veterans have accomplished much in the less than 100 years in uniform, and today our young women are putting their lives on the line beside our young men," said Commander Bowers. "We all pray for their safety, but if they should ever need the DAV they can take comfort in knowing that other disabled women veterans are serving as outstanding National Service Officers, ready to help build better lives for them and their families."