WASHINGTON--More women now serve on active duty in the U.S. military than at any other time in our nation's history. 

They make up 14 percent of all branches of the U.S. military, or about 400,000 troops, and represent an even higher proportion of the reserve and National Guard. In the Air Force, women are 24 percent of the population. 

More than 26,000 females are currently deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, and close to 195,000 have served there since the wars began.

They fill 90 percent of military roles, including duty on the frequently-targeted convoys and military police. Women have even acted as gunners atop humvees in Iraq, ready to shoot to kill at a moment's notice.

The nature of the Iraq war--with its blurred front lines, has expanded the role of women in the military.  They are in the direct line of fire, suddenly finding themselves in combat situations where they must react as an infantryman.  They are not, by law, allowed to play these roles, but they are doing so, according to a Rand National Defense Research Institute Study completed in 2007.

Defense Sec. Robert Gates said in a speech in early May that "irregular, asymmetric warfare" is likely the future nature the conflicts this country will have to face. That means women will continue to be in the direct line of fire, and policy may need to catch up with the new reality.

"This is the first time we've had women on the front lines," said Michelle Saunders, an Iraq war veteran and the executive director of Veterans Moving Forward, a non-profit organization engaged in medical and professional advocacy for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  "We have women gunners,” said Saunders. We have women with three-month-old babies.  We've never done this before." 

Returning home to frustration, disappointment

Wounded female veterans are returning home nursing unprecedented psychological pain and physical injuries. Like their male counterparts, some feel frustrated and disappointed by the complex bureaucracy of the Veterans Affairs health system and with their own branches of the military. 

Some complain of long waits to receive disability pay, to the point of nearly losing their homes. Others complain of long waits to receive health care. 

Many report troubles compounded by  sexual trauma. According to Veterans Affairs statistics, half of women seeking health care at Veterans Affairs medical centers reported experiencing sexual trauma while serving in the military. 

Little research  on female veterans

Little is known about the long-term health consequences of combat on women.

But legislators, women's veterans groups, and increasingly, women veterans themselves are saying that they need and want more health care tailored specifically to women.  They say they need better gynecological care in theatre,  more childcare options when they return home, and more military-women-only support groups for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and sexual trauma.

"We don't know whether women have different needs than men, as they go through different traumas, whether its PTSD or traumatic brain injury or even losing a limb," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, a co-sponsor of a new bill that would expand female veteran's health care.  "So we're starting at the beginning."

Murray is a co-sponsor of The Women Veterans Health Care Act of 2008, introduced in the Senate in April, seeks to fill the gaps in research and in services for women veterans.  The bipartisan proposal would authorize two long-term health studies on female veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It would also require full-time female to staff women veterans programs at all VA medical centers, and a training and certification program for mental health providers who treat women veterans with PTSD and those who suffered sexual abuse while in the military. 

In a nod to military mothers, the bill would also create a pilot childcare program, so female veterans could seek medical care. 

Female Veterans Population is Expanding

There are nearly 1.6 million women veterans in the United States today, and the number of women who will seek health care through VA hospitals and medical centers is expected to double in the next five years.

Female veterans are the second-fastest growing population in the VA health care system, aside from elderly veterans. 

And many women say that more needs to be done, not only for redeployed women of Iraq and Afghanistan, but also for those veterans who served in previous conflicts. 

"We fight harder to make rank in the military," said Wanda Story, an Army veteran and founder of the non-profit United Female Veterans of America. "And we fight harder for our benefits when we get back home."