Proclamation 5904—National Women Veterans Recognition Week, 1988

Throughout our history, women have been among the patriots who have defended our land and liberty from every enemy. Many women have served in the military, in occupations from pilot to nurse and in both peacetime and war. We owe all of them a special debt of gratitude for their part in advancing the promise of freedom. We do well to recall that we owe appreciation to our many veterans of military service who are women.

Today, the number of women serving in the military, and thus the number of women veterans, continues to grow; women veterans now comprise 4.4 percent of the total veteran population. They continue to enrich our country in civilian life as they bring their skills and patriotism to bear in communities across America. Let us use the welcome occasion of National Women Veterans Recognition Week, 1988, to honor the service, sacrifice, and love of country so gladly given by our women veterans.

To create greater public awareness and recognition of the many achievements of women veterans, the Congress, by Public Law 100-514, has designated the week of November 6 through November 12, 1988, as "National Women Veterans Recognition Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of November 6 through November 12, 1988, as National Women Veterans Recognition Week. I encourage all Americans and government officials at every level to celebrate this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenth.

RONALD REAGAN