Woman Veteran’s Documentary Comes to San Angelo

Inspired by “ Project22”, which brought awareness to the increasing number of suicides committed by veterans, comes a new project. The documentary crew will be in San Angelo to meet with female veterans for a short time today.

The project is intended to show the rest of society the real process behind the transition into civilian life. They will be interviewing women veterans along with mothers, sisters and wives also impacted by military service.

The crew, which is led by producer and Gold Star wife Snejana Daily, will stop in 15 cities in 15 days.

These are some of the statistics that have inspired this project:

• Approximately 280,000 women served in the post 9/11 theater, and women represent the fastest growing segment of the military. (VA)

• Today, women make up 20 percent of new recruits, 14.5 percent of the 1.4 million service members on active duty, and 18 percent of 850,000 reservists. (VA)

• A series of events--such as the U.S. Army opening Ranger School to women, and as the lines between combat and noncombat roles became increasingly blurred in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, this year saw the repeal of a 1994 rule excluding women from combat--is expected to fuel a huge uptick of even more women enlisting in the armed forces.

• While the number of women who volunteer to defend our nation is increasing dramatically, the transition services that await them when they come home are woefully inadequate, according to a joint study by the VA/DoD/DoL/HUD, such as: higher unemployment rates; twice as likely to be homeless than their male veteran counterparts or women non-vets; rape, sexual assault and harassment (DoD reports of sexual assault increased by 50 percent in 2013); and gender-specific health care is lacking for women veterans.

The group will be riding to Dallas on Wednesday morning. All female veterans are encouraged to attend.