Veterans and trailblazers | DailyTimes.com

By Tim Sampson The Daily Time

Published March 1, 2010

Female soldiers and sailors have not always been given the same respect as their male counterparts, says Debbie Powell, a 20-year veteran of the Navy and Naval Reserves.

A searing letter-to-the-editor of a Virginia newspaper sticks out as the most infuriating instance. The letter appeared shortly after Powell and her fellow sailors on the USS Cole returned to their home port following a devastating suicide bomb attack on the ship by members of al-Qaeda in 2000.

“The basic point of the letter was that women sailors had been useless during the attack and said that ‘wannabe female warriors are a costly burden to the Navy,’” she said. “I was infuriated.”

Speaking to a crowd of several hundred female veterans, friends and family members at the Kathleen C. Cailloux City Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday for the 19th Annual Salute to Women Veterans, Powell set the record straight about the heroism and courage she saw from several fellow women sailors that day.

The attack occurred while the ship was refueling in Yemen. A small raft packed with explosives sailed up to the ship and detonated, putting a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull and leaving 17 dead and 39 injured.

One of the injured was a female sailor near the epicenter of the blast. Powell said the sailor had second and third degree burns on most of her body. She would have one of the longest medical recoveries of any of the Cole victims. Despite that, the same sailor swam back to the ship several times — through water contaminated by spilled fuel to help rescue other sailors still on board.

“That to me is the definition of heroism,” Powell said. “To swim back with those kind of injuries, takes real guts.”  Click here to continue