Woman Veteran Calendar

📣 Final Week to Vote!

With just 7 days remaining, we’re making one final push to support our founder, Amanda Mae, in the Phenomenal Woman of the Year competition with Women Who Served Magazine: Women Veterans

This nomination is more than an individual recognition—it helps bring visibility to the Woman Veteran Calendar and our mission to celebrate, connect, and empower women veterans.

Every vote makes a difference, and 50% of every dollar donated through voting is returned directly to the Woman Veteran Calendar, helping us continue to grow our community and expand our impact.

If you believe in uplifting women veterans and supporting the work of the Woman Veteran Calendar, we would be honored to have your vote and your help sharing this post.

Thank you for standing with us and for supporting women veterans everywhere. ❤️

Link to vote: https://phenomenalwomanveteran.com/pwv2026-2027

Women serve too 🙏🫡

In March 2025, Arlington National Cemetery removed its webpage dedicated to Women’s History, a resource that once made it easy to explore the names, stories, and resting places of servicewomen laid to rest there.

As we approach Memorial Day, we invite our community to honor the women who gave their lives in service to our nation. Their sacrifice protected our freedoms and paved the way for the rights and opportunities women have today.

Those stories are visible and accessible on our website. You can now explore the lives and locations of these remarkable women through our dedicated page.

For those able to visit Arlington National Cemetery, we encourage you to walk its grounds with intention, visit their graves, reflect on their service, and carry their stories forward.

If you’re unable to visit in person, you can still be part of this remembrance. Take time to read, learn, and share their stories. When we tell their stories, we ensure their legacy lives on and continues to inspire future generations.

Explore their stories here: https://foundationforwomenwarriors.org/the-women-of-arlington-national-cemetery/

Recognize these models? 🤩
Tune in and join this incredible and uplifting group!

Healing Happens Together

Every Wednesday at 7:30 PM, women Veterans from across the country gather for more than just a meeting, they come together as sisters in strength, healing, and hope.

Our Female Warrior Group is a safe, trauma-informed community where women who have served can connect with others who truly understand the invisible battles that often follow military service. Whether you’re navigating PTSD, transition challenges, isolation, anxiety, or simply looking for connection, you do not have to walk this journey alone.

This is a place where you can speak freely, listen quietly, laugh, cry, and heal alongside women who stand beside you with compassion and without judgment.

You are seen.
You are valued.
You are not alone.
You belong here.

Join us every Wednesday at 7:30 PM — in person or virtually
Zoom Registration: Register Here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Z8m7M_x7RdCWLPx06VW1WQ

Together, we heal stronger.

✨ Spotlight Model: Amy Pleasant ✨

This month, we are honored to spotlight Amy S Pleasant, Army Veteran, whose strength, resilience, and service continue to inspire those around her. 🇺🇸

Women veterans come from every background and every walk of life, but they all share a spirit of courage and dedication. Amy represents the heart of our mission: honoring the stories, sacrifices, and achievements of women who served.

Thank you, Amy, for your service and for helping us shine a light on the incredible women veteran community. ❤️

✨ Spotlight: Josey Garcia, 2026 WVC Trailblazer ✨

A Trailblazer is a woman veteran whose brave and selfless service helped pave the way for future generations of women in uniform.

From serving our nation in the United States Air Force to serving her community as a State Representative, Josey Garcia continues to lead with courage, compassion, and purpose. Through her tireless advocacy, she works to uplift underserved and unseen communities, including women veterans.

Her dedication to service did not end when she hung up the uniform — it evolved into a new mission of empowering others and creating meaningful change.

Thank you, Josey, for your tenacity, leadership, and unwavering commitment to our community. Your impact continues to inspire women veterans across Texas and beyond. 🇺🇸

A heartfelt THANK YOU to Freedom Behavioral Health Solutions for joining us as a PLATINUM SPONSOR of the Military City USA Dining Out! 🇺🇸✨

Your support helps us continue honoring and uplifting women veterans, service members, and our military community here in Military City USA.

We are grateful for organizations like yours that believe in service, community, and making a difference. Thank you for standing with us and helping make this unforgettable evening possible!

Women Veterans of San Antonio Women Veterans Network - WoVeN National Association of Black Military Women Friendship Is The New Pretty 2, INC Grace After Fire Camp SHiEld - After Military Service

Thank you Commander!!
Sisters and brothers, THIS IS WHY joining your local VFW, MATTERS!!
They are fighting for your benefits every single day, being the scenes and on the frontlines!!
If you aren’t eligible for VFW, you can also join the auxiliary, the DAV or American Legion!!

Carol Whitmore is the first woman to lead the VFW, and she took command during one of the most chaotic years veterans have faced in a long time.

Carol Whitmore biggest priorities as the VFW National Commander are advocating for veterans, fighting claims sharks, repatriating the remains of POW/MIA, and highlighting the service of women. But she took command of the VFW at a turbulent time for veterans: a VA secretary accused of moving against veterans’ hard-won benefits, thousands of veterans facing foreclosure, and a membership base in slow decline.

It’s a historic time, but she’s accustomed to that. In August 2025, she was elected National Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. She is the first woman and first Iowan to lead the 126-year-old organization in its history.

But Whitmore has been making history for nearly 50 years. She enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1977, one of the final cohorts of the all-female military branch that would be disbanded the following year. She served 36 years in the Army, deployed to Iraq, and received the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star before retiring in 2013.

The VFW is a congressionally chartered veterans service organization representing approximately 1.3 million members across more than 5,500 posts worldwide—and Whitmore has the opportunity to make history once again by leading it through an uncertain era for veterans.

It wasn’t long after her election to the VFW’s top post before there was a flashpoint for her constituency.

An interim final rule published by the VA on Feb 17, 2026, would have required medical examiners to factor in the effectiveness of medications or treatments when determining a veteran’s disability rating—a change veterans’ advocates warned would slash compensation for hundreds of thousands of people who rely on medication to manage their conditions.

The VFW mobilized immediately.

“We sent out over 20,000 emails to the secretary,” Whitmore said, “and he came to our conference personally and apologized for that and said, ‘I will rescind this immediately.’”

VA Secretary Doug Collins formally rescinded the rule just 10 days after its publication.

“When you send out 20,000 emails to the VA Secretary, he sits up and takes notice,” she said. “He told us his top three advisors were fired for advising him to do this.”

The issue Whitmore describes as her personal passion this year is the Major Richard Star Act. The legislation would end a longstanding offset that forces medically retired veterans (those discharged before 20 years due to combat-related injuries) to choose between their military retirement pay and their VA disability compensation rather than receiving both in full.

“They’re two different benefits, earned benefits for veterans,” the VFW National Commander said. “Yet if you’re not 100% disabled, that money is offset, and you can only choose one. And that is completely unfair to a veteran.”

Whitmore says, probably one of the biggest responses the VFW gets when they ask a prospective member to join is “what’s in it for me?”

“The Forever GI Bill, the PACT Act, and now going for the Major Richard Star Act,” she mentioned. “Advocacy is by far the most unseen thing the public knows about what we do, and that’s what we do. We advocate for every veteran, for every aspect of what a veteran deserves and needs.”

“We were founded on the earned benefits that Washington did not follow through with after the Spanish-American War in 1899,” she added. “We’re not going to take that. Our service officers are second to none.”

For all the legislative and institutional battles, Whitmore’s identity remains rooted in something simpler.

“I told everybody I’m a veteran first. I just happened to be female.”

Full story by Blake Stilwell found in the comments