LYNN — It’s been a long time since Molly Conlin served as a Navy nurse but she proudly accepted applause and salutes on Thursday during the city of Lynn’s annual women veterans’ appreciation ceremony.
Conlin, of Nahant, and about a dozen other women were among 20 veterans who attended the City Hall foyer ceremony. After graduating nursing school, Conlin, a western New York native, joined the Navy and spent part of the Vietnam War stationed in San Diego where she cared for injured soldiers.
“It’s a little emotional standing here today,” she acknowledged on Thursday after listening to state Department of Veterans’ Services Community Outreach Coordinator Gail Cavanaugh-McAuliffe talk about the struggles women veterans have endured.
Cavanaugh-McAuliffe said 22,000 women veterans in Massachusetts need support and strong veteran-to-veteran connections.
“Women vets — and men — face high suicide and homelessness rates,” she said. “Women veterans in the last few years have really stepped up. We are doing all kinds of things not envisioned years ago. Women can serve and serve well; we’ve risen to the challenge.”
Mayor Thomas M. McGee read a proclamation saluting women veterans and said, “It is important we recognize, support and thank women for their service.”
City Veterans Services Director Michael Sweeney said Lynn pioneered recognition of women veterans among Massachusetts communities when it erected a monument honoring women more than 20 years ago.
Other veterans in attendance included Army veteran and Lynn resident Lorrie Landry and Raymond Harris, father of Swampscott resident and Marine pilot Jennifer Harris, who was killed in Iraq in 2007.
