U.S. Senator Tim Scott to honor servicewomen at Veteran’s Day event

There is still time for female veterans in South Carolina to register to participate in an event honoring them hosted by U.S. Senator Tim Scott, R- South Carolina.

The recognition is at First Baptist Church in Columbia on November 11th. Participating female veterans will be presented with a Senatorial Certificate of Appreciation and a lapel pin so they are encouraged to register prior to attending.

“I wanted to take the time, stop and say, ‘thank you’ to the women who are willing to put it all on the line so the rest of us could sleep in peace and live in a country where liberty and justice for all is real,” Scott said. The idea for the Veterans Day recognition grew from the success of his Women in Leadership events.

“Thank you so much for your dedication and your service to the country,” he said to potential participants. “Please come out and let us celebrate you. We will have as our keynote speaker a combat veteran and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, (R – Iowa). She will talk about her time in combat, her time in the military.”

The Iowa Senator served more than 23 years in the military and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard. She was a driving force behind issues protecting female veterans such as the Military Sexual Assault Victims Empowerment (SAVE) Act, Female Veteran Suicide Prevention Act, Veterans E-Health & Telemedicine Support Act of 2015 and the Prioritizing Veterans’ Access to Mental Health Care Act of 2015.

Female veterans face a variety of issues, one of the most serious being mental health and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. According to statistics from the Veterans Administration, female veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as civilian women. Since 2001, the age-adjusted rate of suicide among U.S. civilian adult females has increased by 39.7%, the VA says. Suicide among veteran females has increased by 85.2% during the same time. Since 2005, VA has seen a 154 percent increase in the number of women veterans accessing VHA mental health services.

“We’re going to have a lot of enthusiastic supporters who thank God that there are people like you willing to do everything to keep us safe,” Scott said. “We don’t say ‘thank you’ enough.”

Scott said he has two messages for South Carolina’s female veterans.

“One of appreciation the other of continued service,” he said. “We are a nation that has to honor our promises. Promises made and promises kept and so for the veterans out there we should be sending a very strong clear signal that we are here to serve you for you have already served us.”

Scott says women veterans make up almost 2 million of our country’s 22 million veterans and that number is expected to grow substantially in the coming years. South Carolina is home to more than 43,000 female veterans.

To register to participate, click here. Veterans families and members of the public are welcome to attend.