Only American military female POW in the ETO

[KASTAUFFER]

Here is her entry on the POW list which is from data collected by the US Army Adjutant General's Office between 1942-1947. At that time she had been considered a POW by the Army. I bet possibly the VA didn't even know this data existed.

 

[uplandmod]

Thanks Kat!

 

LF

[Strac]

OK, I read and re-read the article but don't understand why people are jumping to the conclusion that this is "discrimination" because she's female.

 

While I do not know enough about this individual case to know if it was discrimination that caused it (delays in recognition, pay, etc) or not, discrimination against females was widespread and instituionalized at that time. So it is certainly possible.

 

You may be unaware of the climate facing the women of the day, as I was. I am now in the middle of reading A Few Good Women, America's Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by Evelyn Monahan. And what I've read so far is troubling, it is a real eye opener (I'm still in the WWII section). I was going to cite some examples of discrimination (institutional and otherwise) from the book here but there are so many that I will just leave it up to those with an interest to check it out for themselves. Considering what those women had to endure then I would not call this "jumping to a conclusion" at all... my .02...