From serving in secret to delivering a key address, women are more visible in the military

Armed with snapshots from her days at the U.S. Military Academy and in Operation Desert Storm, Lori Tompos punctuated her recent speech to the West Point Society of Michigan about her experiences as an Army officer in combat and women in leadership.

Women have fought for America since the Revolutionary War, but not always openly — and not without struggle. Once barred from attending service academies and holding combat roles, women have been reaching higher and more visible leadership positions, and not just in the military.

Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris — who said when she was elected she "may be the first woman in this office" but "will not be the last" — is set to be the first woman in 221 years to deliver the institution's commencement speech. And on Memorial Day, we will honor and mourn the military personnel who have died, a risk for women that increases as they serve in combat zones alongside men.

More:Women have long served in the military, but many doors had been closed to them

Women hold leadership positions at all levels, including secretary of the Army, top brass, noncommissioned officers and graduating cadets who will soon be second lieutenants — and that's just the Army. Overall, women make up less than 20% of America's active-duty force, and some hope that if more women serve it can help ease the military's recruiting challenges.

Tompos, who arguably was among the first group of women to formally serve in combat, clicked through her PowerPoint presentation earlier this month, highlighting her key moments — learning to lead at the academy, fighting in war with the then-new Patriot missile system and founding a consulting firm in Chicago.

"I get to West Point, and it doesn't even dawn on me that they may not want women there," she told her audience, a group of about two dozen, mostly male West Point graduates, who had gathered for lunch May 11 at the Birmingham Athletic Club in Bloomfield Hills.

Soon, she said, she realized some folks felt that "women shouldn't be here."

Some even claimed, she said, that by letting women in, the academy was lowering its standards. But, Tompos — who graduated in 1989 and became an airborne, air assault, and air defense artillery officer ― said that she was determined to show they "weren't talking about me."

Service since the Revolutionary War

To put the role of women in the military in perspective, consider what the Army has to say about it.

"Women play a vital role in today's Army; they are the soldiers on the front line; they are leaders, officers and noncommissioned officers standing with our troops; they are members of the United States Army Civilian Corps, as well as employers, spouses, mothers and sisters who are critical members of our Army team." 

But as progressive as that may sound, to some, parts of it still could be considered sexist.

Would the Army as readily suggest that men have a role as supportive husbands, fathers and brothers?

On another website, the Army offers a historical summary, from America's fight for independence to now.

During the Revolutionary War, the Army noted that "women served the U.S. Army in traditional roles as nurses, seamstresses and cooks for troops in camp" and "some courageous women served in combat either alongside their husbands or disguised as men."

One woman, Deborah Sampson, donned men's clothes, adopted a fake name and enlisted — twice.

The first time, in 1782, she joined the Continental Army under the name Timothy Thayer. Her deception was uncovered. A few months later, she tried again, joining an elite light infantry company. This time, she became Robert Shirtliffe.

She led raids, was shot twice and removed one of the musket balls herself to evade detection of her ruse.

She fought for her country until the end of the war, when a doctor, who had helped conceal her gender, finally revealed it. But in a rare acknowledgement of her service, Sampson was honorably discharged at West Point, which was an Army post of great strategic significance, before it became the military academy it is today.

She was granted a partial pension and became an advocate for women's service, giving speeches about her own.

Enrolling at the military academy

But It wasn't until 1975, when President Gerald Ford signed a new law, that women were allowed to enroll in the U.S. service academies. The first women graduated in 1980.

Pat Locke, who grew up in Detroit, was among West Point's first class to include women, and the first African American woman to graduate by class rank. As cadets, Locke said, she and other women endured the crucible of the academy like the men, but also verbal and even physical abuse simply because they were women.

"I had no idea of the significance of what we were doing at the time," Locke said in a 2015 recorded interview about her West Point experience. "I just remember somebody, a reporter on the radio, that the Superintendent said, you know, 'If women come here I’ll resign,' or something like that, and it just didn’t mean a lot to me at the time. It meant a lot to other people."

Some of her male classmates, who now regrettably acknowledge they didn't want women there, admit they did what they could to make the first female cadets leave by making their lives at the academy so miserable that they would quit.

But Locke, and many of the other women never did, and that brings us back to Tompos.

By the time she got to West Point, she and one of her classmates said, there was still some resistance to female cadets. Some cadets experienced harassment, and were called, among other things, "good kittens." But, they added, their experience was much better than what the first class of women faced.

And, they said, if the first class of women could make it, their resolve would be no less.

They persisted to become part of the Long Gray Line, which represents both the itchy, gray wool uniforms cadets wear, and the straight path individuals — men and women — are duty-bound to follow. And while that line is deeply rooted in many traditions, the addition of women proves that it also can lead into a future wide with possibilities.

All positions are opened to women

As a young officer, Tompos was among some 37,000 military women who were deployed to the Persian Gulf, only a small slice of American forces there, for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s. The operation gave the Army, which succeeded in its mission to repel Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait, a boost.

It also opened the door for more women to serve in combat roles.

Tompos said she worked with what was then a new weapon, the Patriot surface-to-air missile system.

At the time, she added, the idea of a woman in combat was so new, few systems were set up for her to operate.

Yet only a few years later, a Pentagon rule came out that clarified what it meant to serve in combat and restricted women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such combat missions, even though they already had, in some cases, been doing so.

The ban was lifted in 2013, after the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff noted that "the time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women."

In 2015, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter went even further, announcing more explicitly that "all military occupations and positions will be open to women, without exception."

"They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat," he said. "They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers, and everything else that was previously open only to men."

And in 2021, the Deborah Sampson Act, named in honor of the Revolutionary War soldier who had urged Congress to allow her to collect her full pension for disabled veterans, became law as part of a sweeping measure to add protections for female veterans, student veterans and people struggling from the effects of the pandemic.

It has been a decade since women were allowed to serve in combat, and earlier this year, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the Chairwoman of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services Shelly Stoneman authored a column in The Hill newspaper that reflected on the change.

"Women continue to shatter glass ceilings," they wrote, adding: "We are proud that the Armed Forces and the United States represent the strongest fighting force on the face of the Earth. One of the reasons is that the opportunity to serve is open to all those qualified to fight for their country."

Helping shape the military's future

In addition to serving her country as an officer, Tompos said the lessons she learned in the Army have helped her serve her community as a civilian businesswoman. And like Sampson did more than 200 years ago, Tompos is now giving speeches to groups about her military experience.

Tompos' West Point classmate Kim Sokol is the first woman to be president of the West Point Society of Michigan.

The first class of women at West Point, Sokol said, "paved the way and endured different challenges than the women today do." There is, she added, "a level of acceptance today that is a result of those early pioneers" and groups like the West Point Society are encouraging women to seek appointments to the academy.

Rebecca Ufford, the president of the West Point Parents Club of Michigan, is one of the mothers that the Army counts among the women playing "a vital role in today's Army." Her son, Taylor, is a 2022 academy graduate. The club's aims include supporting current cadets from Michigan and recruiting new ones.

Among other things, Ufford said, the club is planning and raising money to host an All Academy Ball in December for cadets, midshipmen, graduates and their families. The event is an annual tradition, and one of a limited number of opportunities the future officers will have to treasure with loved ones during their four years.

At the same time, after Tompos' talk, memories of her experiences and struggles at the academy visibly stirred some deep emotions. She also acknowledged to the Free Press that the Army should continue to welcome and support women.

And what America's military will be like in the future depends on it.

Cadets like 21-year-old Alma Cooper, who Tompos has met, is among the highest-ranking cadets graduating Saturday. Cooper, a mathematical science major from Mason, is headed to Stanford University, where she has been awarded a Knight-Hennessy scholarship to earn a master's degree.

The scholars program for which she was selected is designed to prepare graduates to be "visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world."

While at West Point, Cooper researched the Army’s recruiting concerns and traveled across the country with West Point’s Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math program. And as an officer, she said, she plans to continue to open opportunities to others.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.