Women who made their mark at Fort Sill

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  • Martin and Ruth Ginsburg. The couple lived in Artillery Village while Martin Ginsburg was stationed at Fort Sill in the mid-1950s.
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FORT SILL - The Field Artillery community has long recognized the sacrifice and support of its spouses.

It began with “Molly Pitcher,” the nickname of a woman widely believed to be Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, heroine of the Battle of Monmouth Court House in New Jersey (June 28, 1778) during the American Revolution. 

Legend has it that during the battle Mrs. Hays, wife of artilleryman William Hays, toted water to cool both the cannon and the soldiers in her husband’s battery – hence the byname “Molly Pitcher.”

In addition, according to legend, when William collapsed or was wounded Mary took her husband’s place among the gun crew for the remainder of the battle. 

ARMY’S FIRST ‘MOLLY PITCHER’ TRAINED AT FT. SILL

Fort Sill’s first-ever Molly Pitcher was Pfc. Katherine Beatty of Inverness, Florida, who enlisted in 2015 and became the U.S. Army’s first female cannoneer in 2016.

After basic combat training she picked the military occupational specialty of 13B, cannon crewmember.

During her training she passed the Army’s new physical fitness test that included loading and unloading fifteen 155-mm artillery shells, which weighed nearly 100 pounds apiece, in 15 minutes; that was 3,000 pounds. Beatty finished at the top of her class, #12-16. 

‘CODE BREAKER’ BURIED AT FT. SILL NAT’L CEMETERY

World War II “code breaker” is buried at the Fort Sill National Cemetery near Elgin.

Evelyn Urich Einfeldt was one of 67 Naval Reserve WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) involved in Operation Magic. Einfeldt was recognized for her achievement in assisting with the assembly of the “Enigma” machine that was used to decode German and Japanese transmissions.

Sworn to silence, Einfeldt and other code breakers were able to discuss their experiences only since 1983, when the information was declassified.

Einfeldt lived in Oklahoma City for 30 years and was honored as the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year in 1996. She died in 2006.

SCOTUS JUSTICE WAS ARMY WIFE

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg married her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, immediately after graduating from Cornell. The couple then moved to Fort Sill, where he served as a field artillery officer in 1954-56, including a stint as an instructor at the Field Artillery School.

The Ginsburgs lived in Artillery Village at 1504 McLachlin Ave. Artillery Village was just south of the present Buffalo Soldier Acres. While the housing area has been torn down, some of the Ginsburgs’s favorite places to frequent remain, including the Officers’ Club swimming pool and golf course.

The Ginsburgs welcomed their first child, Jane, while stationed at Fort Sill.

While in Oklahoma, Justice Ginsburg experienced discrimination that would be unheard of today. “I qualified to work as a claims adjuster for the Social Security Administration at Fort Sill,” she said during the Zengerle Family Lecture Series at West Point in 2018. “I told the head of the office when I started that I was three- months pregnant. He said, ‘Well, we can’t place you as a GS-5 because you won’t be able to go to Baltimore for training. So, we will list you as a GS-2 and you’ll do the work of a GS-5.’ It was also expected that when my child was born, I would leave. You can see why I am exhilarated by the changes I have seen.”

Following Martin’s service at Fort Sill, Ruth started law school and ultimately graduated from Columbia University at the top of her class. She was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980, and to the United States Supreme Court in 1993.