FORT HOOD (Now designated Fort Cavazos), Texas – Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center hosted its annual Women’s Equality Day observance, which celebrates the Aug. 26, 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. Guest speaker for the August 23 celebration was Althea Green, Ph.D.
Green, a former senior enlisted advisor to the Army Surgeon General, shared her journey to the voting booth after her family moved from Trinidad to the U.S. Virgin islands where she became a U.S. citizen. After discovering she could not vote in a presidential election, she moved to the mainland. It still would be 20 years before she could cast her vote in a presidential election because of her military assignments to Hawaii and Alaska, both of which require different residency requirements to vote.
Lt. Col. Liz Cain, commander, Warrior Transition Unit, opened the program and reminded the audience that “inclusion, not exclusion” makes for a better society. Sgt. 1st Class Quashanda Johnson performed a related poetry reading, while Col. Richard Malish, commander, CRDAMC, provided closing remarks.
