This is not a home-coming story. It is more a memory of service and my regrets. I am an Air Force Veteran ('76 through '85 AD & 1 year reserves). I believe I was the first female airman to work in the Vehicle Maintenance Compound on Kadena AFB, Okinawa in '77. I remember actually being told by someone that if you were a female military it was for one of three reasons - you were husband-hunting, promiscuous or a lesbian. Never because you felt a patriotic duty or you needed/wanted the college education benefits! That was how military women were often seen then.
I am proud of my service. To this day I wish I had stayed in the AF - I loved it and was a good airman with potential (according to APRs). Unfortunately, I let my husband convince me that he'd stay in (he didn't!) so we could both share his retirement benefits & we would always be married. (Ha!) So he persuaded me that I, as mother of two young children, shouldn't re-enlist in the military. To be fair to him, at the time there was also the very real possibility of losing my Vietnam Era GI Bill benefits if I didn't get out and use them for my college degree by 1990. So I got out & to this day I wish I had a do-over.
I also Karaoke a lot with my sister. She began singing "God Bless the USA" several years ago to celebrate my and other family members' (brother, my son, grandfathers) military service.
I persuaded her that no longer is it just "the men who died" but women also. So now she sings "those who died" to acknowledge ALL who have died to give that right of freedom to everyone.
Beverly, MA