Kirsten Holmstedt Examines Women in War Time in "Band of Sisters"

Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq by Kirsten Holmstedt
Hardcover, 327 pages
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Price: $27.95
Published: 2007

This book review was originally published in MotherTown in November 2007.


For more than 200 years, women have served America in times of war. During the Revolutionary War, Deborah Samson of Plympton, Mass., disguised herself as Robert Shurtliff and enlisted in the Continental Army. (Samson was proclaimed the Official Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1983.) Irish-born Jennie Hodgers donned male clothing, renamed herself Albert Cashier,and joined the Civil War's Union Army. In World War I, 30,000 women served as nurses and support personnel in the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. In 1942, during World War II, the Women's Army Corps (WAC) was established. By 1944, the first WACs arrived in the Pacific Theater of Operations, and in July WACs landed on the beach at Normandy. At this time, there were over 100,000 women in uniform, and the WACs were the first women other than nurses to serve with the Army. Also, civilian women flew military aircraft under the direction of the United States Army Air Forces.

From 1964 to 1973 during the Vietnam War, approximately 265,000 military women aided the U.S., and an estimated 11,000 women performed combat missions alongside their male counterparts. More than 40,000 servicewomen participated in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and one out of five women in uniform moved with their units into combat zones.

The Gulf War became a defining moment for women in the U.S. military because it raised the long-neglected, controversial topic of women's assignment to combat duty. Women gained permanent status in the armed services in 1948, and the Department of Defense's military code has always banned them from engaging in direct combat. However, fundamental changes in the nature of present-day warfare and the technology used to wage war have blurred the front lines and the definition of combat. More and more women started performing duties that put them in the enemy's firing line. Their contributions to the nation's worldwide military conflicts could not be ignored. Subsequently, in 1993, the U.S. Congress repealed the exclusion of women from combat aviation and assignment to naval combatant ships, and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin ordered all armed services to open a selection of military positions to women, many of which involved combat. Since 1993, women have been eligible for roughly 260,000 positions, signifying that 80 percent of military jobs and 90 percent of the armed services' career fields can now be filled by the highest qualified person—man or woman.

A decade later, the American-led war in Iraq began—and continues. Nearly 26,000 of the 130,000 troops serving in Iraq are women. They are the direct recipients of the military's expanded opportunities, and their effectiveness is under scrutiny. Band of Sisters by Kirsten Holmstedt is "the first attempt to take a close look at how the experiment of women in combat is playing out . . . in Iraq."

On March 20, 2003, at the Al Jabar Air Base in Kuwait, 28-year-old Marine Captain Amy McGrath, a weapons' system operator on an F/A-18 fighter jet, suited up and walked to her jet. She was heading into combat with her squadron, the Green Knights. It was the start of the Iraq War, and McGrath would be flying in the first round of missions.

Holmstedt writes, "How [McGrath] and other women in the U.S. military performed in jets and helicopters, on aircraft carriers, in convoys and in surgical wards, and when they came face-to-face with enemy prisoners of war, would validate or refute one of the most radical, controversial, and public experiments in the annals of U.S. military history. The eyes of the enemy were on [McGrath] as she took off. So were the eyes of her countrymen. Would she be successful?"

Yes, McGrath was. Her squadron continued uninterrupted air combat for three months. In 24 days, McGrath flew 37 missions, dropping untold numbers of bombs to destroy the enemy and enemy targets in support of troops on the ground.

McGrath is one of 12 extraordinary women whose combat stories comprise Band of Sisters. The women's aptitude, courage, preparedness, and dedication to their duties and fellow soldiers exemplify what a highly trained and sophisticated military force ought to be. And as McGrath declares: " 'This is our job . . . . We're there, and we're there to stay.' "

In mid-2004, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Polly Montgomery took command of the 41st Airlift Squadron becoming the first female commander of a combat squadron. For 15 years, Montgomery—41, a wife, and mother of three—flew C-141s. Her new assignment required that she learn to fly C-130s, a Vietnam-era, 155,000-pound plane that transports cargo and troops. On one of Montgomery's first combat flights, she and her crew were targeted by service-to-air missiles—and the C-130E model she piloted wasn't outfitted with weapons. Montgomery had to make a split-second decision to maneuver the plane in a "completely unnatural move"—that is, to turn in to the missile to protect the engine. She succeeded, winning the respect of the 200 airmen under her command.

Marine Corps Captain Vernice Armour, 29, is the first African-American female pilot in Marine Corps history as well as the first black female combat pilot in the history of the Department of Defense. She flies Cobra attack helicopters, which carry Hellfire missiles, rockets, and 20mm guns and rounds. In an attack on the fedayeen, an Iraqi paramilitary group, Armour and her co-pilot fired off most of their ordnance to get out of range of the fedayeen's anti-aircraft artillery. The pilots made another pass and "Amour could still see the enemy on the ground so she fired flechette rockets . . . . Armour could see the fedayeen [sic] falling to the ground but couldn't tell if they were going down because she had shot them or because they were taking cover. She believes that she killed them and that's okay with her. Each time she destroyed her targets—military tank, ammunition site, or insurgent—she felt a great sense of accomplishment. In this situation, in addition to defending herself she was protecting the ground troops who otherwise would have walked into an ambush. Taking out the enemy is what she's trained to do. She wasn't thinking on a personal or emotional level. In the heat of the moment, she was using the tactics she learned in training and applying muscle memory to target, flip switches, and pull triggers."

These amazing feats of skill and bravery continue in the experiences of Navy Lieutenant Estella Salinas, 37, nurse division officer for Bravo Surgical Company; Army Sergeant Angela Jarboe, 28, whose leg was shattered when her convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED); Chrissy DeCaprio, a 21-year-old Marine gunner with 2nd Military Police Battalion, who operates a 50-caliber automatic machine gun—a 61½ " weapon, which is as long as DeCaprio is tall; Navy Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Handler (ABMH) Marcia Lillie, 23, who was assigned to the active flight deck of the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman, one of the world's most hazardous working environments; Marine Lance Corporals Carrie Blais, 28, and Priscilla Kispetik, 23, who provided combat service support to infantry Marines and was engaged in a firefight with insurgents on the streets of Haditha; Army Captain Robin Brown, 28, pilot of a Kiowa Warrior helicopter; Army Specialist Rachelle Spors, 23, a National Guard medic from Nebraska; and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Yolanda Mayo, 35, reservist and public affairs chief who's served in the Marine Corps for 18 years and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War.

Despite a few missteps in Holmstedt's prose Band of Sisters captures the sights, sounds and successes of women in combat in the Iraq War. To read this book is to show reverence to these women's achievements and to acknowledge their duty to country.