Twenty years ago on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. The echoes of the fall of the wall were heard around the world that night and changed lives forever. As an Army lieutenant stationed in Germany, this is one historic event I was fortunate to witness. Along with several friends, we got to touch and see history in living color. We were no longer looking at black and white photographs in books and Army manuals.
This is the second installment in the weekly Honored Role Series.
As a junior high student in Franklin, Tennessee, Becky Kanis remembers the excitement and awe of fellow parishioners when they learned a young woman from St. Philip’s Catholic Church received an appointment to a service academy. Carol Anderson, a high school senior and St. Philip’s parishioner was entering West Point that summer.
Becky Kanis was in 8th grade when she first met Carol and learned of West Point, the military college in New York. As the eldest of seven children, Becky’s parents insisted on two things: she had to attend college, and she had to find a way to pay for it. West Point offered full scholarships in return for five years of active duty military service.
Between 1980 and 2008, 3,245 women graduated from West Point and have served selflessly in the Nation’s armed forces. Most of them, whether or not they still wear the uniform, are ordinary women with extraordinary stories of perseverance and integrity. They are soldiers and wives, mothers and daughters. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, clergy and entrepreneurs. They are athletes and artists, cancer survivors and coaches. And they are all volunteers.
Lt. Dan Choi and I co-authored an article published in The Daily Beast and Global Grind that gender and orientation are not relevant to the…