Today is National Women Veterans Recognition Day.

Over the weekend, close to 100 Kentucky women veterans gathered for an event designed to help empower, connect and foster a sense of community for a group that doesn't always get the recognition they deserve.

One more day, Army, go away.

We share a very unique bond, and that's the camaraderie is unlike any other.

It's very important in all the military, but especially female, that we connect through who we are, what we've done, especially as women veterans.

A lot of times people don't understand us.

A lot of times we are trying to make sure that we're not isolated.

So what I'm trying to do here at the conference is make sure that we're reaching out to each woman this opportunity to bring so many veteran women veterans together is an amazing opportunity for for not only to appreciate what we've done as service members, but to have us all come together and be like, wow, he's just a huge sisterhood of us.

Being able to say, I went through the same thing no matter what service we were in.

A support system is so valuable because it not only helps you adjust and transition to the civilian life, but it's also a community that understands the same lingo.

I mean, I spent 20 years in that environment and then suddenly I'm out of it.

It can be a real struggle to figure out where do I fit?

How do I function within this, and how do I get my needs met when it doesn't seem to exist in this new environment?

So this is that opportunity to reconnect in that same type of an environment and be reminded of these incredibly unique experiences we had that unless you were a woman veteran, you just it's it's too difficult to try to understand that we're proud of everything that we have done in the military because it being male dominated, you know, a lot of times we're not seen or recognized.

So I'm hearing a lot of the stories of their experiences and the roles that they played and who was around them.

Some of the other, I would say, not so great stories.

A lot of women have experience, military sexual trauma.

A lot of women have, experience a lot of different mental health issues just due to where they served and how they serve.

So in 1985, the numbers of women enlisting and serving in general were definitely increasing, but it was still very much the old school mentality.

All the things that you hear about, you know, it's a men's military.

It wasn't unusual to feel like you were not wanted.

Your presence was not wanted in a certain office or work environment.

It wasn't unusual to feel like you were the problem because you were asking for accommodations that you needed as a woman, because that was still the culture in the military.

Quite often we would become either one of the only women or one of a few women in a room full of our male counterparts.

The challenges we met with were mostly doubt from our male counterparts had the whether or not we had the capacity, the abilities, the skills to be able to handle the same challenges.

And you feel undressed.

But I, I took that as more of a, chance.

So I improved my strength and resilience.

And it was a growing opportunity more than anything.

There were women.

You kind of just dealt with what was coming at them and did the best they could with it.

But then there were also a lot of us who were like, okay, I have to deal with what's coming at me.

But this is not the way it should be.

So I need to do what I can to try to facilitate change.

That's the only way we were.

That was the only way the women coming behind us were going to not have to keep dealing with those same struggles.

So when we come together is so powerful, whether it's building one another up or whether it's helping out.

Yeah, coming together is it's vital we choose to serve because we love this country.

And always we proved to them that not only did we belong in the service, but we belong right along with them, making the strong decisions or the strategic decisions that leaders have to make, but also proving that we had the physical capabilities and the mental capabilities of being successful soldiers.

According to the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, there are more than 24,000 women veterans in this state.