By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   A group of the first female cadets at Virginia Military Institute will meet and honor many of the female military pioneers who came before them at Arlington National Cemetery today.

    The female "rats" were invited to take part in the dedication of the national Women's War Memorial, which will honor the 1.8 million women who have served in America's armed forces.

    VMI Chaplain Jim Park, who helped orchestrate the trip, said the women's participation in the ceremony will help the pioneers of coeducation get through tough ratline training regimen by giving them a sense of pride in being part of "something much larger."

    The group of 15 VMI women will march in and be introduced at the start of the noon ceremony. All 26 of the female rats were invited, but some could not participate because of sports and band events.

    Tonight, the women will march in a candlelight ceremony and escort the older female veterans from one event area to another, Park said.

    The VMI women's participation was an incidental outcome of Park's interest in a commemorative calendar the memorial committee was distributing. He called and asked if the committee would donate some of the calendars to give to the first female rats. Park got the calendars and an invitation from the committee chairwoman, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, to join the festivities.

    Park said VMI has done an admirable job of treating the women the same as the men in the ratline. But as important as equality is at VMI, he thought it also was important to tell the women who broke VMI's gender barrier, "You are the first ... and there's something to be said for that."

Open house group includes 8 females

    Eight female prospective cadets showed up for VMI's first admissions open house of the year Friday, taking the school up on a chance to get a small taste of the ratline and have a no-holds-barred "bull session" with members of VMI's first coed class.

    Almost 100 men also showed up for the first of several open houses VMI will hold this year.

    "I just want to ask them what they've had to deal with," said Angela Johns, 17, of Fayetteville, N.C. She said she wants a military career and figures VMI will be good advanced training. It's the only school she's really considering at the moment.

    VMI also is at the top of Lindsay Moran's college list.

    "I've heard the women are really hanging in there," said the senior at Lee-Davis High School in Mechanicsville, whose uncle was the ranking cadet in VMI's class of 1973, "and that makes me proud."

    The open house participants got a tour of the campus, heard about the school's academic programs, and asked some current freshman about life at VMI.

    The school already has received 13,652 inquiries about admission for next year. More than 3,500 have come from women, which is almost 10 times the number of inquiries from women at this point last year.

    Three women have applied so far, compared with only one by this date last fall. The 58 applications from men, however, are down from 77 last October.