- Wednesday, November 14th, 2018
Senator Tim Scott honors women veterans ahead of Veterans Day
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – Senator Tim Scott hosted a ceremony to recognize South Carolina Women Veterans Saturday morning at First Baptist Church of Columbia.
Alongside Scott, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a combat veteran also attended the ceremony and spoke about the sacrifice.
“Women gave up their families, they gave up life on the home front to join those ranks to provide a great service to our nation,” Ernst said. “When they first started joining ranks in the military they were not required, they were not even expected to serve in the military because it was a man’s domain.”
Saturday was a day to ultimately say thank you to the women veterans who selflessly sacrificed to defend our nation.
Women and men of all ages attended the ceremony. Some served back in World War II, along with others active duty, currently wearing the uniform every single day serving our country.
Each veteran attendee who attended the ceremony received a Senatorial Certificate of Appreciation and a lapel pin for their service.
Renita Berry, a colonel in the South Carolina National Guard said, “To be able to wear the uniform and give back to your country and to be one of those people that are helping to secure freedom for your country there’s no other feeling like it.”
“This Veteran’s Day weekend, we want to take the time to say thank you to the women veterans who selflessly sacrificed to defend our nation,” said Senator Tim Scott. “Nearly 2 million women have served this nation in our armed forces, and we are eternally grateful for all of their efforts on behalf of this country and the American people.”
Women veterans make up almost 2 million of our country’s 22 million veterans.
With South Carolina being home to over 43,000 of those veterans, Sen. Scott wanted to honor the women who have served our country.
“I decided to take my traditional veterans event and merge it with women in leadership and focus on the amazing sacrifice and willingness to pay the ultimate price for women who put on the uniform,” Scott said.
At the event, Senator Scott was asked about his feeling on this week’s midterm election results, including Democrats flipping the house of representatives along with what he’s looking ahead to for 2020.
“I think there are three very important takeaways. Number one, Joe Cunningham ran a good race it’s just undeniable that he did a really good job. Two, we did not perform like we should have, and number three, voters are listening to the messages presented to them and making the best decisions they can,” Scott said. “We hope to have a chance in 2020 to have a new conversation with the voters to the first district but you have to concede the fact that Joe Cunningham did a good job and unfortunately we didn’t match that so hopefully we’ll have a chance to do it again.”
Sen. Scott has hosted similar events for veterans since being elected to federal office, including a World War II honor ceremony in 2012, Korean War events in 2013, a Vietnam War event in 2014, and a Desert Storm and Desert Shield events in 2016.