Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CBS
June 19, 2008
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
RUSS MITCHELL: Now to the challenges of America’s women warriors. There are more of them than ever. More than 200,000 women are on active duty in the armed forces. Overall, there are nearly two million female veterans and about 250,000 of them use healthcare from the VA.
Tomorrow, the VA opens a summit to look at how it can care for this growing group of veterans – soldiers who face unique battles once they get home, as Kelly Wallace explains.
KELLY WALLACE: It's a weekend of firsts: the first camp just for women wounded in war, and the first swing for retired Army Sergeant Diane Cochran. After her Humvee rolled over in Afghanistan, doctors thought the mother of three would never walk again.
What does it feel like to be standing up and hitting balls today?
SFC. DIANE COCHRAN (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: It's humbling, and I'm overwhelmed.
WALLACE: It's okay to cry – here.
COCHRAN: Our whole career – at least my whole career – you want to not be prissy. You want to be like the guys. This is nice to be able to share this with another girl, you know, another female.
WALLACE: Danielle Green-Byrd, a former college basketball star, lost her left hand to a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.
SPC. DANIELLE GREEN-BYRD (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: I love ponytails. I have been trying to show my husband how to do a ponytail. Even putting on a bra. A bra – that could be a challenge, but I do it.
COCHRAN: Chicks love scars. I heard that at Walter Reed all the time. Well, do guys love scars? I don't know. (Laughter.)
WALLACE: At war, they try to be just one of the boys. At home, they struggle to be a woman again.
CAPT. LESLIE SMITH (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: I remember lying there and thinking I just want to be able to wear high heels and have painted toenails, but it was just wanting that part of that woman that you feel like you're going to lose when you're injured.
WALLACE: Nancy Schiliro lost sight in one eye and suffered a severe head injury after an explosion in Iraq.
[To Schiliro.] What's been the toughest part of this?
LANCE CPL. NANCY SCHILIRO (Ret.) [U.S. Marine Corps]: I guess seeing the reaction from my father.
WALLACE: It was so sad for him?
SCHILIRO: Yes, since I was the only girl.
WALLACE: It's no longer her father's military. Women were once confined to support roles; not anymore. And in the age of roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, everyone is on the frontlines. Six hundred women have been injured – some returning like Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq veteran who heads the Illinois VA.
MAJ. TAMMY DUCKWORTH [Director, Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs]: This is the first time in our nation's history that we've had this many females, and especially combat veterans who are females, entering the VA system. I don't think, overall, any of the systems are quite ready for that.
WALLACE: A recent study found that outpatient care for women lagged behind men in a third of the facilities, something the VA is working hard to correct. Currently, only a third of VA hospitals have separate clinics for women.
PATRICIA HAYES [U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs]: I think it's been a man's world in the VA. You know, that probably is the greatest challenge – that women will continue to be a minority of the veterans that we see.
WALLACE: Diane is working on healing her wounds of war: the ones you see and the ones you don't.
COCHRAN: Before I went into Afghanistan, if I wanted to relax, I'd close my eyes and I'd picture myself ice skating or spinning around in circles in my backyard. And now, when I close my eyes, I'm carrying an M-16. And that's not going to go away.
WALLACE: But now there are new memories from her weekend with her band of sisters.
Kelly Wallace, CBS News, Wyndham, New York.
June 19, 2008
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
RUSS MITCHELL: Now to the challenges of America’s women warriors. There are more of them than ever. More than 200,000 women are on active duty in the armed forces. Overall, there are nearly two million female veterans and about 250,000 of them use healthcare from the VA.
Tomorrow, the VA opens a summit to look at how it can care for this growing group of veterans – soldiers who face unique battles once they get home, as Kelly Wallace explains.
KELLY WALLACE: It's a weekend of firsts: the first camp just for women wounded in war, and the first swing for retired Army Sergeant Diane Cochran. After her Humvee rolled over in Afghanistan, doctors thought the mother of three would never walk again.
What does it feel like to be standing up and hitting balls today?
SFC. DIANE COCHRAN (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: It's humbling, and I'm overwhelmed.
WALLACE: It's okay to cry – here.
COCHRAN: Our whole career – at least my whole career – you want to not be prissy. You want to be like the guys. This is nice to be able to share this with another girl, you know, another female.
WALLACE: Danielle Green-Byrd, a former college basketball star, lost her left hand to a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.
SPC. DANIELLE GREEN-BYRD (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: I love ponytails. I have been trying to show my husband how to do a ponytail. Even putting on a bra. A bra – that could be a challenge, but I do it.
COCHRAN: Chicks love scars. I heard that at Walter Reed all the time. Well, do guys love scars? I don't know. (Laughter.)
WALLACE: At war, they try to be just one of the boys. At home, they struggle to be a woman again.
CAPT. LESLIE SMITH (Ret.) [U.S. Army]: I remember lying there and thinking I just want to be able to wear high heels and have painted toenails, but it was just wanting that part of that woman that you feel like you're going to lose when you're injured.
WALLACE: Nancy Schiliro lost sight in one eye and suffered a severe head injury after an explosion in Iraq.
[To Schiliro.] What's been the toughest part of this?
LANCE CPL. NANCY SCHILIRO (Ret.) [U.S. Marine Corps]: I guess seeing the reaction from my father.
WALLACE: It was so sad for him?
SCHILIRO: Yes, since I was the only girl.
WALLACE: It's no longer her father's military. Women were once confined to support roles; not anymore. And in the age of roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, everyone is on the frontlines. Six hundred women have been injured – some returning like Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq veteran who heads the Illinois VA.
MAJ. TAMMY DUCKWORTH [Director, Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs]: This is the first time in our nation's history that we've had this many females, and especially combat veterans who are females, entering the VA system. I don't think, overall, any of the systems are quite ready for that.
WALLACE: A recent study found that outpatient care for women lagged behind men in a third of the facilities, something the VA is working hard to correct. Currently, only a third of VA hospitals have separate clinics for women.
PATRICIA HAYES [U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs]: I think it's been a man's world in the VA. You know, that probably is the greatest challenge – that women will continue to be a minority of the veterans that we see.
WALLACE: Diane is working on healing her wounds of war: the ones you see and the ones you don't.
COCHRAN: Before I went into Afghanistan, if I wanted to relax, I'd close my eyes and I'd picture myself ice skating or spinning around in circles in my backyard. And now, when I close my eyes, I'm carrying an M-16. And that's not going to go away.
WALLACE: But now there are new memories from her weekend with her band of sisters.
Kelly Wallace, CBS News, Wyndham, New York.