Advocate fights for fellow female veterans

0
90
U.S. Army veteran Mary Harris, right, is pictured with American Legion Department of Connecticut Commander Louie Robinson. –CONTRIBUTED

NAUGATUCK — U.S. Army veteran Mary Harris has a message she wants fellow female veterans to understand: You are a veteran and you deserve access to all the veteran resources.

Harris, a Naugatuck resident and member of the American Legion Post 17 in Naugatuck, said female veterans are often told they aren’t veterans because they are women.

“I found out there are not a lot of female veterans in the American Legion. The reason being that women don’t think they are veterans. They just don’t think they are qualified as a veteran, which they really are. There is a social stigma attached to that as well. If you look at a female, you don’t look at them as a veteran. A lot of people don’t even recognize them as serving,” Harris said.

Two years ago, Harris decided to begin fighting back against that notion.

The American Legion Department of Connecticut has run a Women’s Veteran Outreach Committee for a long time, Harris said, but for many years it was only staffed by one person. In 2015, the American Legion brought more women into leadership roles in the program, including Harris, who works as a coordinator for the lower Naugatuck Valley.

In her role, Harris reaches out to female veterans to let them know about services and benefits available and how to obtain them.

The program is one that is desperately needed as more women join the military, Harris said.

“We have more and more women being deployed overseas and are suffering from sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder. They need our help. We need to reach out to them and give them the assistance to go to the right resources to get help, whether it be counseling, medical, or just a group of us getting together and supporting each other,” Harris said.

Harris said the group has to battle the misconception that women can’t be veterans.

“I really think it is a shame that women are still being discriminated against,” Harris said.

Harris said years ago a job she was working at was distributing shirts to veterans for Veterans Day.

“I raised my hand and the supervisor walked up to me and said, ‘You’re not a veteran.’ It kind of hit me hard,” Harris said.

Harris, who served from 1997 to 2005 and left the Army with the rank private first class, said she even questioned her own veteran status at times until she joined the American Legion and Ron Fischer, commander of Post 17, assured her that she was indeed a veteran.

“If you served, you served. It doesn’t matter what your sex is and what you did in the military. I was attached to an infantry unit, but we have nurses that are on the front lines,” Harris said.

Harris said the Women’s Veteran Outreach Committee is working to spread that message to all female veterans throughout the state, whether or not they belong to the American Legion.

“It has been slow in identifying female veterans,” Harris said. “Part of the reason the program has had a harder time taking off is because women do not perceive themselves as veterans. The perception is women are not veterans. It is just a simple fact. It is just how it is.”

Although it is difficult now, Harris hopes there will be more programs geared toward female veterans in the future.

“It is going to take time, but we need to get out there in the public eye and really start promoting this and letting people know we are here,” Harris said.

“If you are a female veteran and need assistance, we are here to help,” she added. “You don’t have to be a part of the American Legion. We want to let our sisters know we are here for them, even if they just need somebody to talk to.”

For more information, contact Harris at admin@ctlegion.necoxmail.com or 860-436-9986.