DelVal’s Pennycuick Hosts Ceremony Honoring Women Veterans
Sen. Tracy Pennycuick recently held the third annual Women Veterans Day event at the Capitol.
Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) spent 26 years in the U.S. Army. A combat veteran, she retired with the rank of colonel. Pennycuick authored the legislation establishing June 12 as Women Veterans Day in Pennsylvania.
Pennycuick described how women first fought for America during the Revolutionary War, albeit disguised as men and detailed how women have served in every war since.
“I was lucky enough to go to flight school in the early 80s, and I was told, You will never fly a combat mission,” said Pennycuick. She thought of that later while flying a Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We have shown we can be on the battlefield,” said Pennycuick. “We are a valuable asset on the battlefield, and we get the job done.”
“Being a veteran is part of who I am,” state Treasurer Stacy Garrity said. “As it is for more than 2 million other women nationwide, including 66,000 in Pennsylvania.”
While in the Army Reserves, Garrity ran Camp Bucca in Iraq and earned the nickname ” Angel of the Desert” for her humane treatment of the prisoners.
She served three deployments: in 1991 in Operation Desert Storm, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 2008 in Operation Enduring Freedom. She was awarded the Bronze Star twice for exceptional service and received the Legion of Merit before retiring from the Army Reserve with the rank of colonel.
“Service to others is such an admirable calling, and brave women across the country have answered that call, joining the 1 percent of Americans who will ever wear the uniform,” said Garrity.
Retired Brigadier General Maureen Weigl, now deputy adjutant general of the state Veterans Affairs Department, noted that the country is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.
“Women have continued to prove their worth,” Weigl said, noting the many positions women have held, including as admirals and four-star generals.
“We’re not asking for any favors as women,” she said. “But just let us do our job as we were trained, like our male counterparts.”
Navy veteran Celeste Brucklacher, one of the veterans honored during the event, joined the Navy in the 1990s. She said the male sailors had trouble accepting women aboard ships, so a superior sent her to a different vessel with more women. But eventually the men got used to female sailors.
She served during the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the plane that passengers downed in Western Pennsylvania.
“Everyone was united as Americans,” she said. “All were patriots.”
She left the service but was involuntarily recalled in 2005 and sent to Iraq, where she worked in customs, monitoring what was shipped back to the U.S.
Sherri Chippo served in the Marines during the Reagan era.
“I never felt different (than the men),” she said. “We are all green Marines. We did the job we were called to do…I was prepared to do whatever it took to stand up for this nation. I still am.”
Sarah Garcia was an Army combat medic deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia. While there, “we received all the combat casualties from Blackhawk down,” she said. From there, she served in Korea and then at Ft Lewis in Washington state, followed by two combat tours in Iraq, then a stint in Germany. She retired in 2016 and now works as a certified nurse assistant.
Amy MacKenzie recently lost a good friend from her VFW to suicide, so the phrase “22-a-day hits home,” she said. However, her talk was punctuated by humor.
She joined the Air Force at 17 years old in the delayed entry program.
“The recruiter told me a story (that) I bought hook, line and sinker,” she said.
“He told me I would be a translator,” she said. And that she could keep her prom dress because she’d be going to glitzy parties at embassies and would need it.
“But there were no prom dresses in basic training,” she said. “I knew I did not want to be outside camping; there was a prom dress waiting for me.”
But she became a linguist and was sent to Germany.
“I was assigned to West Berlin,” she said. “By this time, I had figured out there was no embassy, no prom dress. I was stationed in West Berlin when it was still West Berlin before, during, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. And I do have pieces of the wall that I hammered out myself.
“We were on the front line of the Cold War, and every day my work held something new and exciting and vital to national security. I worked in the intelligence field…It was spectacular, and I loved it,” said Mackenzie.
Witnessing the oppressive government of East Germany and the plight of the people who were trapped behind that wall was very sobering for a 19-year-old.
“And it made me appreciate all the U.S. has to offer us even more.”
