CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the sixth time, Texas is observing Women Veterans Day on June 12. On Saturday, Corpus Christi honored coastal bend women veterans at a ceremony at Sherill Park. In attendance was Button Frizzell of Corpus Christi.
Frizzell served 24 years in the United States Navy. She said he often gets the question why is there a separate veteran’s day for women?
“There are still people that, I guess, have a hard time believe that there are so many veterans,” she said.
Frizzell served in the Navy from 1989 to 2013. Her service has taken her all over from Philadelphia to Japan to Guantanamo Bay.
Today she works with many women veterans, but often times, Frizzell hears them say they don’t consider themselves veterans. Frizzell said she understands because of the way women are still overlooked.
“When you go into a restaurant or Lowe's and they give veterans discounts, they look at my husband and thank him for his service," said Frizzell. "Look right over me. I love my husband to death, he didn’t serve a day.”
On one hand, she said a veteran is a veteran. On the other hand, some things need to change.
“We still, today in 2022, want to look over the females that served and automatically want to look to the man. That’s why I think Women’s Veterans Day is very important,” she said.
Frizzell now serves veterans as a career advisor with the Texas Veterans Commission.
“An infantry man in the army has more skills than just what an infantry man does," said Frizzell. "So, helping them use those skills writing that resume and getting their resume out there to different employers.”
And sometimes the job is tough, seeing veterans in need and not just helping them find work but a home too.
“There’s times where we’ve had families come in that are literally living on the streets and they have kids. That’s where it’s like oh my goodness what do we do? We reach out to our resources that we have,” she said.
Saturday's ceremony was coupled with celebration for Flag Day, which will be observed on Tuesday.
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