{"id":46324,"date":"2021-06-11T20:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T02:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-veterans-day-honored-by-montezuma-county\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:30:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:57","slug":"women-veterans-day-honored-by-montezuma-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-veterans-day-honored-by-montezuma-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Veterans Day honored by Montezuma County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A proclamation honoring women military veterans was made by the Montezuma County Commissioners Friday. Women Veterans Day is June 12. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montezuma County passed a proclamation Friday to honor Women Veterans Day June 12.<\/p>\n

During a ceremony at the county commissioners meeting room, women veterans gathered to hear the proclamation be read, take photos, and talk about their military service. The Star Spangled Banner was played, and the Pledge of Allegiance, recited.<\/p>\n

More than 100 women veterans are in Montezuma County, officials said.<\/p>\n

They are not as well known as the men, but should be, said organizer Darla Sanders, who served in the Air Force from 1976 to 1999 and worked on aircraft maintenance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen don\u2019t talk about their military service as much. When they come home, they blend right back into society and contribute,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople need to know how important women efforts are serving the country. I\u2019ve had a veteran shirt or hat on, and people assume I\u2019m the wife of a veteran.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state of Colorado does not officially recognize Women Veterans Day as a holiday, said veteran Christine Dorcheus, so having Montezuma County officially observe it is meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that women veterans were not getting enough recognition in this county, and took action. We hope other counties and the state will follow Montezuma County\u2019s lead,\u201d said Dorcheus, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1980 to 1995 and worked as a government contractor.<\/p>\n

\"Veterans
Veterans gathered at the Montezuma County Commission Room to honor Women Veterans Day June 12. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe love our country and are ready to serve,\u201d said veteran Carol Hand, who served in the Army from 1976-81, and worked as a combat area radar repair technician. \u201cIt is nice to have a county proclamation recognizing us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confidence, discipline, stamina and hard work are values Hand learned during her military service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoman are just as capable as men, and we are proof of that,\u201d she said. \u201cThe military is a great education benefit, and you get to travel the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining the military is also a solid career opportunity for women, Dorcheus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to show women self-empowerment, that they can get control of life and go into military,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a good career foundation and built my confidence up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of county, thank you for your service, and everything you stand for and have done for us so we can enjoy our freedom. It means a great deal,\u201d said commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

veterans deserve more recognition, and \u2018are ready to serve.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,29,185],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-serving-veterans"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86833,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46324\/revisions\/86833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46324"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}