Veteran’s Day 2025

Honoring the Brave: Celebrating Veterans, Their Families, and the Women Who Served

Today, we pause to honor the incredible veterans in our community—along with the family members, caregivers, and allies who served alongside them. Your courage, resilience, and unwavering commitment continue to inspire everything we do at Write|Publish|Sell and the Women in Publishing Summit.

As someone who served in the U.S. military and alongside Canadian, British, French, German, Australian, and other Allied forces, my gratitude stretches far beyond borders. Service is a shared global effort. The bonds forged between nations and missions remain some of the strongest of my life.

Honoring the Contributions of Women in Service

Women have always served, but their leadership and sacrifices are now increasingly recognized as essential to modern military history. These achievements deserve to be celebrated.

Women’s Expanding Military Footprint

• Women now make up approximately 17–18% of active-duty U.S. military personnel.

• More than 2.1 million U.S. veterans are women.

• Since 2015, all military jobs—including infantry, armor, combat aviation, and special operations support—have been open to women.

• Women serve in every branch, every domain, and nearly every specialty.

Allied Women Who Serve

Women across Allied nations—including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia—serve in command roles, combat arms, cyber operations, aviation, intelligence, peacekeeping, and humanitarian missions. Their presence and leadership continue to break barriers worldwide.

Learning Through Story

Stories are how we preserve history and honor the lived experiences of those who served. Here are two powerful resources from our own community:

Lisa Carrington Firmin — Bronze Star Veteran, Author, Advocate, and WIP Summit Keynote Speaker
Keynote feature: https://womeninpublishingsummit.com/tag/keynote-speaker/

Lisa’s work shines a light on the realities and resilience of women veterans, and her voice is a powerful addition to the conversation about trauma, healing, and leadership.

If you’re a veteran in our community and have written books about your time in service, please let us know so we can include you in future lists!

Books by Women Veterans and Stories Featuring Women Who Served

Below is a curated reading list of books written by women veterans or about women who served. These titles help us remember, reflect, and better understand the complex, courageous experiences of servicewomen.

Memoir and Nonfiction by Women Veterans

These do include affiliate links.

Latina Warrior — Lisa Carrington Firmin
A powerful memoir from the first Latina to serve as a colonel in the United States Air Force, exploring trauma, discrimination, leadership, and resilience.

While They’re at War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront — Kristin Henderson
A moving exploration of the emotional impact of deployment on families, written by a Navy spouse who lived the experience.

Soldier Girls — Helen Thorpe
A deeply reported narrative following three women over 12 years of service, deployment, reintegration, and identity.

Fiction and Poetry by Women Veterans

Love My Rifle More Than You — Kayla Williams
A candid, unfiltered memoir detailing the complexities of serving as a woman soldier during the Iraq War.

Books Honoring Women Who Served (History and Biography)

The Women Who Wrote War — Nancy Caldwell Sorel
Profiles the groundbreaking women war correspondents who shaped wartime journalism and public understanding.

Code Girls — Liza Mundy
The extraordinary true story of the women codebreakers of World War II.

The Hello Girls — Elizabeth Cobbs
A long-overdue history of the first women to serve officially in the U.S. Army—WWI telephone operators who paved the way for today’s servicewomen.

In Honor of Every Veteran and Every Family

To every veteran in our community, to the spouses and partners who held things together at home, to the caregivers and children who served in their own way, and to the Allied friends who stood beside us:

Thank you.
Your courage is not forgotten.
Your contributions matter.
Your stories deserve to be honored, amplified, and preserved for future generations.