This Sept. 22, 1942 black-and-white file photo shows Aviatrix Nancy Harkness Love, director of the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS), and Col. Robert H. Baker, commanding officer, inspect the first contingent of women pilots in the WAFS at the New Castle Army Air Base, Del. Women served and died on the nation's battlefields from the first. They were nurses and cooks, spies and couriers in the Revolutionary War. Some disguised themselves as men to fight for the Union or the Confederacy.

Kristen Auge, Deputy Director of Public Affairs, introduces soldiers from left, Army Sgt. 1st Class Katie Reed, Army Sgt. Cassie Mecuk, Army Staff Sgt. Andrea Drost, Army Sgt. Katie Warden, Air Force Maj. Ann Todd, and Air Force Master Sgt. Holly Caroon at the Inver Grove Heights, Minn., Training and Community Center following Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta's and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey's announcement regarding women in combat. The Minnesota National Guard says it will integrate female soldiers into previously all-male combat infantry units.