Women In Military Service For America Memorial: 4 Key Collections Through The Years

Since opening to the public in 1997 at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery, the Women In Military Service For America Memorial (WIMSA) has operated as both a memorial and museum honoring U.S. military women veterans as well as active women service members from all branches.

Here are four key collections and exhibitions, past and permanent, that help fulfill the memorial's mission to relate "the story of women's service" and "the history of women in the military," as retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, the Memorial's foundation president, said in a 2013 video for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

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1. The Register
An interactive digital database called The Register contains the names and military histories of 250,000 women veterans, and counting, and is part of the permanent memorial collection available to the general public, according to the official WIMSA website.

2. World War II
"Overseas with the Military: World War II, 1941-1945," a permanent exhibit, chronicles the deployment of women to far-flung theaters including Europe, North Africa, Asia and Greenland, using words, pictures and artifacts such as mosquito boots worn in the Belgian Congo in 1942 by a member of the Army Nurse Corps.

3. African-American Servicewomen
"No Longer Forgotten: African-American Servicewomen During the Korean War Era" examines the aftermath of the Executive Order, 9981, signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1948 to officially desegregate the armed forces by establishing "equality of treatment and opportunity" for all who serve.

4. War on Terror
"American Servicewomen in the Global War on Terror" is described as "a chapter in the ongoing story" of U.S. military engagement in the Middle East since 9/11. This memorial exhibition premiered in 2005 and concentrates on the role of women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan "in nearly every rank and unit of the force."

One of the exhibit's highlights is "Baghdad Diaries," a compilation of the e-mail correspondence home from a Marine on a 2003 tour of duty in Iraq, U.S. Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Rosemarie Weber.

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