Elizabeth DePompei

4 weeks ago | hometownfocus.us | Elizabeth DePompei

It’s been more than 75 years since women were allowed to officially serve in the armed forces. But restrictions on how they could serve persisted for decades. Until 1967, women could only make up two percent of the total forces. If they became pregnant or adopted a child, they could be discharged. The policy restricting them from combat wasn’t reversed until 2013, and not all military specialties were open to women until 2016.

1 month ago | dav.org | Elizabeth DePompei

One of the last memories Women’s Army Corps veteran Patricia Hendrix has of her brother is preserved in an old black-and-white photo that she often carries with her. In the photo, her two adult siblings, Billy and Jack Rodgers, cradle Hendrix, their 5-year-old sister, in their arms. Both men soon went on to serve in the military. Jack retired from the Navy and had a family. Billy chose the Army; his family never saw him again. For 70 years, Sgt. Billy V. Rodgers was considered missing in action (MIA).

1 month ago | dav.org | Elizabeth DePompei

It’s been more than 75 years since women were allowed to officially serve in the armed forces. But restrictions on how they could serve persisted for decades. Until 1967, women could only make up 2% of the total forces. If they became pregnant or adopted a child, they could be discharged. The policy restricting them from combat wasn’t reversed until 2013, and not all military specialties were open to women until 2016.

2 months ago | dav.org | Elizabeth DePompei

In 1892, Civil War veteran John Henry Murphy Sr. used $200 in venture capital from his wife, Martha, to buy a printing press. It was an opportunity that would have been impossible before the war, when he was still enslaved. The war gave Murphy—and nearly 200,000 other Black men—a pathway to freedom. As a free man, he created The Afro-American newspaper, now a media company known as the AFRO and the third-oldest Black-owned business in the country.

Jan 21, 2025 | dav.org | Elizabeth DePompei

When Navy veteran Jennifer Williams started working with DAV benefits advocate Don Inns, she suggested he put a note in her file. “I said, ‘You can put a little note on there that I will be 105 years old on my deathbed signing another appeal. I’m not giving up,’” Williams said. Williams had applied for disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder related to military sexual trauma, or MST, and been denied multiple times.