“Every year I get challenged, I get questioned about my medals being those of a male relative. I get asked why I’m wearing my grandfathers' medals or that I'm wearing my grandfathers' medals on the wrong side,” she told SBS.
“It can be quite disheartening but I just focus on the fact that there's an opportunity to re-educate that person and I'd correct them and let them know they're actually my medals.”
The RAAF Personnel Capability Officer has spent nine years in the Air Force and completed numerous deployments around Australia, as well as the Middle East.
“We need to break down those stereotypes and let the Australian public know that a veteran can easily be an 18- or 19-year-old female that's had multiple operational deployments to Afghanistan,” she said.
The Defence Force and the federal government are asking Australians to pay their respects to those who have served in all of Australia’s wars but also to recognise the veterans’ demographic is changing.
“I think we just have to understand that females now play a vital part in our defence force and have done throughout our history,” Veterans’ Affairs Minister Dan Tehan said.
“When you see female veterans marching in the Anzac Parade on this Anzac Day, go up and recognise them for their service.”
Of the 58,000 people making up the Australian Defence Force, about 9,000 are women. Participation rates are highest in the RAAF and Navy - 19.2 per cent and 19.1 per cent respectively - with the Army at 12.1 per cent, according the Department of Defence’s latest annual report.
With female participation rates slowly increasing, it means more and more women will be marching with their medals on Anzac Days.
Flight Lieutenant Cherry has some simple advice for those paying their respects on Anzac Day.
“Anytime you see someone wearing medals on their left side, that's their own medals. You can only wear the medals of a relative on your right side.”
