VIOREL FLORESCU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Few people would look at Angelica Jimenez and think war veteran. But when she walks down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the Veterans Day Parade this morning, at 5 feet 2 inches tall and with hair down to her shoulders, she will be a reminder of the growing contribution of women to current and future wars.
She also stands as the face of a rising female veteran population.
It's been nearly a decade since Jimenez, then a 20-year-old U.S. Marine from Dumont, was with 13 other female service members near Fallujah, Iraq, when their transport truck was rammed by a suicide bomber.
But that day, June 23, 2005, and today, Veterans Day, bring memories of service and tragedy for Jimenez.
'It's actually a very sentimental holiday for me,' Jimenez said. 'It's not just a day of sales.'
The 2005 blast killed six service members, three of them women. Most of the 14 female Marines inside the truck with Jimenez suffered burns and other injuries. The blast knocked her unconscious, and she awoke in the midst of an insurgent gunbattle.
Blood covered her face, and burns marked her hand, arm, face and leg.
'The shrapnel ripped half of my inner thigh out,' she said.
A female Marine helped carry her to safety and likely saved her life.
Despite that harrowing experience, civilians and some fellow veterans see her and don't think 'veteran.'
There is a popular veteran image in the American imagination: a graying white male with an insignia-decorated hat, jacket or vest. Or sometimes a younger male, still sporting the short haircut and shave that marked his military grooming.
'There is an image that a lot of people don't recognize,' Jimenez said.
More than 7,000 women served in the Vietnam War, according the Army Times. The publication counted 16 killed in service. In the Persian Gulf War, 33,000 women served and six were killed. So far, 143 women have died fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
And for female veterans, the growing combat experience comes with little recognition.
Veterans are increasingly younger, more diverse and more female, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Over the next 30 years, the U.S. veteran population is expected to decline from nearly 22 million to less than 15 million with the passing of the World War II and Korean War generations and the decreasing size of the nation's military.
At the same time, the percentage of female veterans will nearly double, from 9 percent in 2013 to 17 percent in 2043.
Black veteran numbers will rise from 11 percent to 17 percent, while Hispanic veteran figures will increase from 6 to 9 percent of the total veteran population.
The Department of Defense released updated figures Monday showing 4,412 U.S. military members died from fighting in Iraq while 31,949 were wounded in action. An estimated 1.5 million served in Iraq during the nearly nine-year war. In Afghanistan, there have been 2,210 U.S. military deaths and 19,924 wounded.
Military doctors at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, patched up Jimenez, but beneath the physical scars, the memories of acrid smoke, flame, gunfire and death linger.
Jimenez was honorably discharged from the Marines in 2006, moved to Florida and went to college. She fell into a mental fog of sorts. At times angry, at times depressed, she wasn't herself.
She decided to move home to New Jersey in 2011 and now lives in South Hackensack. After a short time, she tried out a Zumba dance exercise class. Bouncing around, surrounded by sweat and smiles, she felt energized in a way she hadn't felt since her time in Iraq.
'I feel like it saved my life in a lot of ways,' Jimenez said.
But, Jimenez said, her physical scars still weighed on her.
'I've been carrying this scar. ... I have not gotten used to it,' Jimenez said. She avoided the beach altogether until this past summer. She would throw away tight-fitting clothing that betrayed her disfigured thigh and resorted to always wearing black because it hid the jagged contour of her leg.
'When a man has a scar, it's a trophy,' Jimenez said. 'When a woman has a scar, it's about devastation.'
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