By Maj. Kevin Boyd
1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office, 4th Infantry Division
Soldiers, civilians and Family members gathered to celebrate Women’s Equality Day at the Elkhorn Conference Center Aug. 26, 2016.
Women’s Equality Day was established at the request of Rep. Bella Abzug, a democrat from New York, in 1971. The date commemorated the ratification of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 26, 1920, granting women the right to vote.
“On this date 96 years ago, women were granted the right to vote, but it took a very long time for us to have the right to serve in the military,” said keynote speaker Darcy J. Etaugh, victim advocate, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team,4th Infantry Division, and former Air Force officer. “When I came into the Air Force in the 1970s, I had to break a lot of new territory, and women are still doing that, as (the Army is) just now integrating all jobs.”
Former Air Force officer Darcy J. Etaugh speaks to Soldiers, civilians and Family members about her experiences as a female service member in the 1970s, during the Fort Carson Women’s Equality Day observance Aug. 26, 2016, at the Elkhorn Conference Center. (Photo by Sgt. Benjamin Kullman)
Etaugh joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was the first female to commission as an officer out of the Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, ROTC in 1977. This was three years before any of the military service academies graduated a female officer.
Very few jobs were open to women in 1977. Etaugh commissioned as an aircraft maintenance officer and served 11 years. She said the biggest change she saw during that time was women being allowed into certain pilot career fields.
Command Sgt. Maj. Stephanie M. Price, 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 4th Inf. Div., spoke about her 29 years of service in the Army.
“We have come far ladies, and we have proven that we can get the job done,” she said.
Maj. Gen. Ryan F. Gonsalves, commanding general, 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson thanked the guest speakers for sharing their stories.
“Women’s Equality Day is an education of our history, and about an understanding of what women, as leaders in our military, have done for a long time, decades upon decades,” said Gonsalves.