A sea of camouflaged students poured into Phipps Auditorium to hear an Eastern graduate speak about women’s opportunities in the military through the past and in the future.

Members of Eastern’s ROTC program, along with a few other non-camouflaged individuals, listened as Sgt. Maj. Jane Begert chronologically laid out the turning points for women in the military.

Begert mentioned that during the American Revolution, women wanted to fight for their country so badly that they disguised themselves as men and entered battle.

During the Civil War, Begert said that women became nurses for wounded soldiers.

“Listen to the requirements: nurses had to be over 30, plain looking and had to wear dark clothes!” Begert exclaimed.

Begert expressed how far women have come since those times.

“During Desert Storm, I witnessed men holding their children and waving goodbye to their wives, who were the soldiers,” she said.

Begert said society has not paid attention to the uprising equality of men and women.

The Sept. 11 attacks also factored into the lecture.

“Our world will never be the same,” Begert said. “We, both men and women, have the opportunity to make a difference.”

Begert encouraged the audience to choose the “military road,” although it is “difficult and challenging.”

She also mentioned that no one should ever give in when times get tough, and mentioned a few key historical figures who never quit pursuing their dreams.

“President Hayes told Alexander Graham Bell, who just invented the telephone, ‘It’s a great invention, but who would want one?’,” she said.

“We need the cream of the crop in the military,” Begert concluded. “What difference will you make in history?”

Begert graduated from Eastern in 1973. She also became the first woman to become a master sergeant in the history of her division in North Carolina.