The Pittsburgh Press (October 22, 1945)
Eleazer: Gal veterans
By Frank Eleazer
WASHINGTON – It would be easy – but dead wrong – to conclude that the forgotten “man” in veterans’ affairs is the ex-servicewoman.
Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers (R-Massachusetts), an expert on such matters, said today that in some respects the 300,000 women veterans of World War II are better treated than men.
What they need, says Mrs. Rogers, is somebody to speak up for them.
According to Lt. Col. Mary Agnes Brown, women’s adviser on the staff of Veterans Administrator Gen. Omar N. Bradley, there is no separate organization of women veterans.
They can join some men’s groups – and take the inevitable gaff – or they can stay home and tend to their knitting. As far as the Veterans of Foreign Wars is concerned, that’s where they belong.
The VFW, for the third time, has turned thumbs down on women members. The consensus at the recent VFW convention apparently was that women are nice, but are they veterans?
The girls can, and some do, sign up with the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans and most other men’s organizations for which they are otherwise qualified. The Legion claims around 30,000 women members.
Mrs. Rogers pointed out that although they have no spokesmen, the girls get the same benefits under law as men. Pensions, free schooling, loan guarantees, hospitalization – all are provided without regard to sex.
In the field of hospitalization, Mrs. Rogers said, women get better than an even break. Whereas men needing treatment for non-service-connected ailments are sometimes turned down for lack of space, women rarely are.
That’s because men go in Veterans Administration hospitals, where space is limited. Women, because there are few women’s wards operated by VA, usually go in other hospitals with the government footing the bill.