Augusta to decide on monument for woman veterans

Maine women have fought for their country, but their contributions have often been overshadowed and overlooked, according to veterans who are working to change the situation.

If it is given funding approval, a bill before the Maine Legislature would establish a committee to look into building a monument to celebrate and remember what woman veterans in Maine have done.

“We served our country just like everybody else, but I think we’re the forgotten people,” Rosemarie Lane, a Vietnam War veteran from Lisbon, said Thursday. Lane retired in 1986 after 23 years in the U.S. Army, but she said she is still fighting now for recognition of women.

“The American people don’t realize the sacrifices that women have made,” Lane said. Military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have increased awareness of women in service, but such recognition is not where it should be, she said.

Lane said women haven’t fought only on the battlefields but also in the political fields to end the separation of women and men in military units. It wasn’t until 1978 that women were allowed to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars, of which she’s a member.

The bill, LD 829, would establish a committee to look at building a monument for women. It was passed by both houses on May 20. But because it has a fiscal note attached to it, $3,940 to cover the cost of the study, the bill has been placed with other study proposals for legislative review at the end of the session. The Legislature’s budget includes $30,000 for studies in 2005-06 and another $20,000 for the next year, but Lane and others worry that LD 829 will languish there on the table, placed on the back burner when Lane said it should be on the front burner.

The bill does have a broad range of supporters. It was co-sponsored by 16 legislators from across the state and from both parties, including Speaker of the House John Richardson, D-Brunswick.

Assistant Majority Leader Ken Gagnon, D-Waterville, said the bill may be amended to reduce the cost a bit, but he was optimistic it would go through. He said women voluntarily placed themselves in harm’s way and should be remembered.

“I’m pretty sure this one will be created,” he said earlier this week from Augusta.

That is welcome news to Nita Tupper, president of the 3rd District American Legion Auxiliary Department of Maine, and Don Simoneau, legislative chairman for the American Legion in Maine, who both were involved in the development of the bill and pressed for its passage.

“I believe the time is long overdue to honor all who are serving, have served and for those whose lives were sacrificed for our country and our state,” said Tupper, who lives in Boothbay Harbor.

There were 9,344 women veterans still living in Maine in 2001, according to the state’s Bureau of Veteran Services.

Tupper hit upon the idea for a monument for woman veterans last summer while pondering long-range projects for the American Legion Auxiliary she served. At the time, she was thinking about the women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That fall, she approached Simoneau to see if a monument was possible, and she said he ran with it.

Simoneau is a veteran of these projects having worked on a committee that got passage of a plaque for Vietnam War veterans in the Hall of Flags in the State House. He helped press for similar plaques for veterans of World War II and the Korean War.

Like others, he said the state has been remiss in honoring women and that such a monument could be placed at or near the Capitol, where he said many people, including schoolchildren on field trips, can see it.

“They deserve their day. They’ve earned it,” he said recently. “I think it’s an oversight.”