Women at War

Women Prisoners of War

When we talk about POW/MIA’s we presume we are talking about a Soldier or Airman the Combat Fighter.  We think Male in the sexual gender.  But we do not think of the Females who were taking Prisoner of War.

In the past 20 to 30 years we heard the arguments about Women in Combat.  Should Women Serve on the Front Lines, should Women be allowed to serve on Combat Ships.

Through out American History we have had women playing large roles in our Wars.  Spies, Nurses and Transport Pilots.  But we really had not look deep enough to see the dangers these ladies had place them selves in.  

During the early years of America we had 2 ladies named Nancy Hart who did a lot in American History. During the Revolutionary War, Nancy Morgan Hart single handily taken out several British Soldiers, Spied against them for the Americans.  During the Civil War Another lady by the name of Nancy Hart spied for the Southern States.  During the Civil War Dr. Mary Walker was held for four months in a Confederate prison camp, accused of being a spy for the Union Army. Doctor Walker is the only woman to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Belle Boyd spied for the Confederacy by carrying important letters and papers across enemy lines. She was imprisoned in a Union prison for her espionage activities.  Major Pauline Cushman was arrested and imprisoned by the Confederacy and sentenced to hang for being a spy. The arrival of Union troops saved her from the gallows.  Nancy Hart served as a Confederate scout, guide and spy, carrying messages between the Southern Armies. Nancy was twenty years old when she was captured by the Yankees and jailed. Nancy gained the trust of one of her guards, got his weapon from him, shot him and escaped  Florena Budwin, wife of a Pennsylvania soldier of the Civil War disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Union Army to be near her husband. They were captured and imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville Prison where her husband died. She was then transferred to Florence, S.C., where her identity was revealed. She remained at the prison to care for Union soldiers, finally dying of illness in 1865. She was buried at Florence National Cemetery and is believed to be the first woman buried in a National Cemetery.  Rose O'Neal Greenhow was a leader in Washington society and one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War. She is credited with helping General Pierre G.T. Beauregard win the battle of Bull Run. She spied so well for the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas. Rose O'Neal Greenhow was imprisoned for her efforts first on "house arrest" in her own home and then in Washington, D.C.s Old Capital Prison for five months. After her second prison term, she was exiled to the Confederate states where she received a heroines welcome by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

During World War One both Edith Cavell and Mata Hari were prisoners of war and were executed for being spies.

During WWII the Ladies back home took in the jobs of the men building the Weapons that their husbands would have to use.  Transported them to the different Services that would need them and some times taking them right to the Front lines.  Many volunteered as Nurses. To care for the wounded. Hospital ships and front line medical care stations 

Often ignored by history is the story of the women prisoners of war taken captive during World War Two. Sixty seven Army nurses and sixteen Navy nurses spent three years as prisoners of the Japanese. Many were captured when Corregidor fell in 1942 and were subsequently transported to the Santo Tomas Internment camp in Manila, in the Philippines. Santo Tomas was not liberated until February of 1945. Five Navy nurses were captured on Guam and interned in a military prison in Japan.

Two days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 5 Navy nurses on Guam were taken prisoner by the Japanese. Lieutenants (jg) Leona Jackson, Lorraine Christiansen, Virginia Fogerty and Doris Yetter, under the command of Chief Nurse Marion Olds. Later in 1942 their captors transported them to Japan. They were held for three months in Zentsuji Prison on Shikoku Island and were then moved to Eastern Lodge in Kobe. They were repatriated in August of 1942.

Clara Gordon Main, a stewardess on the SS President Harrison, captured by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, while rescuing U.S. Marines from China, was among the first American Prisoners of War.

In May of 1943 Navy Lieutenants (jg) Mary Chapman, Bertha Evans, Helen Gorzelanski, Mary Harrington, Margaret Nash, Goldie O'Haver, Eldene Paige, Susie Pitcher, Dorothy Still and C. Edwina Todd, under the command of Chief Nurse Laura Cobb, were sent to the prison camp at Los Banos. They established an infirmary although they had virtually no medicine or supplies and continued to nurse the sick until Los Banos was liberated in February of 1945.

In Europe Lt Reba Whittle, (later Tobiason), Army Nurse Corps, was flying on an air evac mission when the plane was shot down by the Germans in September 1944. . She and her crew were captured and imprisoned. Lt Whittle was wounded yet performed nursing duties for the prisoners in the camp. They were repatriated to Switzerland. Lt Whittle was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. At the time of her capture she had flown over forty missions. Her injuries subsequently disqualified her from flying and her status as a POW was not revealed until much later.

In Europe U.S.-born Mildred Harnack-Fish, a German Resistance fighter was captured, interned, and executed in Berlin's Plotzense Prison in 1943.

Agnes Newton Keith was imprisoned in several Japanese camps from 1941 until the end of the war. Her story was told in the movie "Three Came Home" starring Claudette Colbert.

The true story of the women who were the wives and daughters of British, Dutch and Australian colonialists and who formed a vocal orchestra while prisoners of the Japanese in Sumatra was portrayed in the film "Paradise Road" with Glenn Close.

During the Vietnam War Monika Schwinn, a German nurse, was held captive for three and a half years - at one time the only woman prisoner at the "Hanoi Hilton".

The following missionaries were POWs:
Evelyn Anderson, captured and later burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972. Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

Beatrice Kosin was captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972. Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

Betty Ann Olsen was captured during a raid on the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968. She died in 1968 and was buried somewhere along Ho Chi Minh Trail by fellow POW, Michael Benge.  She is still listed as a MIA, she has not been returned yet.

Eleanor Ardel Vietti was captured at the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, May 30, 1962. She is still listed as POW.

Operation Desert Storm saw the capture and imprisonment of an Army Flight Surgeon, Major Rhonda Cornum and an Army Transportation Specialist-Sp4 Melissa Rathbun-Nealy.

To be sure there are many more women who have been prisoners of war. Military women and civilian women from nations around the world, from wars long forgotten, and from covert operations never revealed. They have been denied recognition, denied awards and decorations, and denied their rightful place in history. The American military refuses to acknowledge their combat status. The American public thinks it never happened. The righteous radicals leave it out in their rhetoric against women in the military.

Although not prisoners per se three of the crewmembers on the EP-3E Aries II Surveillance Plane who were detained in China are military women.

Lt. j.g. Regina Kauffman, USN,
Warminster, Pennsylvania

Lieutenant Marcia Sonon, USN,
Lenharstville, Pennsylvania

Aviation Machinist Wendy Westbrook, USN,
Rock Creek, Ohio

Operation Iraqi Freedom

PFC Jessica Lynch, 19, a supply clerk from Palestine, W. Va., was taken prisoner in Iraq after her unit was ambushed. Ten days later, she was freed in a daring raid by U.S. Marines.

Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas was a U.S. prisoner in Iraq before she and six of her fellow soldiers were rescued on April 13, 2003.

Let history remember –

Women, while serving their country, have been wounded, have been imprisoned, and have given their lives!

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