The speaker at the Goffstown High School assembly for Veterans Day was a familiar face to students and staff.

On an ordinary day, Brenda Fletcher-Kennedy is the school nurse, a position she has held for a decade, but on Nov. 10, she spoke about her experience in the U.S. Army. Fletcher-Kennedy, who is an alum of Goffstown High School, entered the Reserves after graduating from UNH with a degree in biology. She said she came to the military with the goal of becoming a nurse.

“I have to admit to you that initially I did not enlist for honor or glory,” Fletcher-Kennedy said. “I enlisted for quite self-serving reasons, and that was to fund an education.”

Fletcher-Kennedy entered the U.S. Army in 1979 when women made up about 3 to 4 percent of the armed forces. Now they are at 20 percent. Without women serving, she told her audience, young men would, in this time of war, face a draft.

She said the late 1970s was a time of “social experimentation” in the Army, when the training of men and women was integrated. As a result, when she headed to Fort McCullen in Alabama for her basic training, she had men under her command as a squad leader – something she said they resented.

“I was part of the first battalion that was integrated training, and it was no small task. Little did I realize at that time the significance of what I was doing and what I was a part of. Quite frankly, at that time, I was just trying to survive. In retrospect only did I come to realize that I really was part of history, and we all know history happens. It isn’t until you look back that you realize it is history.”

Thirty years later, she called on her audience to remember that women, too, are fighting in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I really stand before you today to represent all veterans, but I also ask you to allow me a little moment to recognize my special sisterhood of female veterans and women serving in the armed forces,” Fletcher-Kennedy said.

In theory, she said women do not have combat roles. But in Afghanistan and Iraq, she added, women are in harm’s way as well since there are no real “front lines.”

“So make no mistake about it, women are fighting alongside men in the current conflict,” Fletcher-Kennedy said. “They are dying in record numbers. They are being taken prisoner in record numbers, and they are coming home as injured veterans in record numbers.”

She called on her audience to be aware of the sacrifices those from their generation – both men and women are making.

“In this conflict, our troops are surviving injuries that only 10 to 20 years ago would have killed them, thanks to modern medical care and advances,” said Fletcher-Kennedy. “They are the real story of war – the ones that survive – and they will require services and support for the rest of their lives.”

After her speech and a brief performance from the school band, members of the student council lined up at the podium to name and summarize the military background of about 30 veterans who attended. “Thank you,” each student speaker said after recognizing an individual veteran. Each received a framed picture of the Marines raising a flag at Iwo Jima.

“I don’t know how to express it,” said Irving McDowell, of New Boston. “It means a lot to me.” McDowell served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.

Donald Caron, a Marine veteran who served from the 1950s to the 1970s, said he had been attending the annual Veterans Day assemblies at Goffstown High School for as many as 20 years. “I think the kids do a beautiful job of putting it together, and I know the veterans love it,” Caron said. “It’s heart-warming.”