CONTACT: For more information contact: Eric Durr, 518-786-4581

FOR RELEASE: Friday, Mar 14, 2008

ON SITE: Michael Russert at the Military History Museum, 518-581-5116

WHO:

A panel discussion and question and answer session in which the participants will discuss their wartime experiences and compare and contrast them with those of male Soldiers

WHAT:

Eight female Soldiers from the Capital Region who have served in Iraq with the New York Army National Guard and 100 Greenwich High School Students

WHEN:

10 a.m., Friday March 14

WHERE:

The New York State Military History Museum, 61 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs.

Members of the media are being invited to hear female members of the New York Army National Guard who have served in Iraq will discuss their experiences in a panel discussion hosted by the New York State Military History Museum for 100 Greenwich High School students. As Part of Women’s History Month the New York State Military History Museum, which tells the story of New Yorker’s participation in America’s wars, will bring together local female officers and non-commissioned officers who will share their stories with the high school students. The panel discussion takes it’s name ‘Band of Sisters” from a 2007 book called Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq by Kirsten Holmstedt and published by Stackpole books. More than 160,000 American women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 and the discussions, moderated by Michael Russert, the coordinator of the New York State Veterans Oral History Program, will focus on how the roles of women in the American military and the National Guard have changed. The participants will be available to speak to the press.