ARLINGTON, Va. — Right next to Arlington National Cemetery, which draws about 4 million visitors a year, is a national memorial to military women.
It draws about 200,000 visitors a year.
The 33,000 square-foot (3,066 square-meter) memorial, known formally as the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend with a series of events.
Among those attending events this weekend is Rosemary Bryant Mariner, 64, a retired Navy captain who was one of the first women to earn her wings as a naval aviator in 1974. She’s now a resident scholar at the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee.
When she was breaking barriers, she said, feminism was in force and “we thought the doors were going to swing wide open.” Instead, progress has come only in fits and starts.
Not until 2016 did then-defense Secretary Ashton Carter remove all restrictions on women’s service in the military, making women eligible for all positions in all branches, including combat and special operations forces.
Asked about her thoughts on another potential milestone – a first female Navy SEAL – Mariner said it should be based on an individual’s ability and aptitude.
“If that person is qualified and wants to do that, I think it’s great,” she said. “We’ll get there.”
Roughly 3 million women have served in the U.S. military throughout its history, some going back to the Revolutionary War. A goal of the memorial is to have all 3 million included its official register, a database that includes facts about all of the individual women and their service.
