05/23/2026
They Have Always Been There. It's Time We Said So.
A message from Nancy Becher, Founder & Executive Director, Invisible Warriors
Let this sink in.
Women have fought for this country since before it was a country.
They were there at the Revolution. They disguised themselves as men, picked up muskets, and bled on the same ground as every soldier history decided to remember. Deborah Sampson fought for two years before anyone found out. Margaret Corbin took over her husband's cannon when he fell — and kept firing. She was the first woman in American history to receive a military pension.
History did not make room for her name in the headline.
That is not new.
Harriet Tubman didn't just lead people to freedom. She was a spy. A scout. She planned and led a military raid on the Combahee River during the Civil War that freed more than 700 people. She operated behind enemy lines. She never lost a soldier.
History mostly called her a conductor.
Mary Edwards Walker was a surgeon during the Civil War. She ran toward the gunfire. She treated the wounded behind enemy lines. She was captured as a prisoner of war. She is the only woman in American history to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
For decades, the Army tried to take it back.
During World War II, more than 1,000 women flew military aircraft as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots — the WASPs. They ferried planes across the country. They towed targets for live anti-aircraft training. They did it without recognition, without veteran status, without benefits.
For thirty-three years, the government pretended they hadn't served at all.
But they had. They always had.
This is not ancient history.
In 2008, Ann Dunwoody became the first woman in the history of the United States military to achieve the rank of four-star general. In 2015, Shaye Haver and Kristen Griest became the first women to graduate from Army Ranger School — one of the most grueling military training programs on earth. Senator Tammy Duckworth lost both legs flying a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq. She didn't slow down. She went to the Senate.
Women have always been in this fight.
They have always been willing to give everything.
And for far too long, they have come home to silence.
That is not acceptable. Not to me. Not to Invisible Warriors. Not on June 12.
On June 12 in Huntsville, Alabama, we are hosting the Silent No More 2026 Gala — an evening unlike anything this state has seen.
We are honoring Women Veterans Recognition Day.
We are marking a milestone that took 78 years to arrive: Alabama is now officially the 21st state to honor the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 — the federal law that first authorized women to serve as permanent members of our military. It took nearly eight decades for Alabama to say out loud what women veterans already knew.
We are saying it out loud.
This evening is a celebration of every woman who signed on the dotted line. Who said yes to something most people would never attempt. Who came home carrying things they were never given language for — because nobody built the systems, the support, or the community she deserved.
We are building that now.
The Huntsville Military Women's Community Center is coming. It exists because of women like the ones we are honoring on June 12. And on June 12, we are going to stand together and make clear: these women are seen. These women are known. These women are not invisible.
I need you at this gala.
Not just because the tickets help fund this mission — though they do. I need you there because your presence sends a message. It says: I know what you did. I know what it cost. And I am not going to pretend otherwise.
Bring someone. Tell someone. Share this post right now.
There is a woman in your life — maybe a mother, a neighbor, a coworker, a friend — who served and never heard the words thank you the way she deserved. June 12 is your chance to say it where it counts.
Get your tickets at InvisibleWarriors.org or visit Linktr.ee/nancybecher.
June 12. Huntsville. Be there.
Proverbs 16:3 — Depend on the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
You don't have to do it alone. Neither do they.
Seen. Known. Standing Together.
— Nancy Becher Executive Director & Founder, Invisible Warriors [email protected] | 269-319-6041
