Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at Women's Veterans Day Tribute Event

Earlier today at the Women's Veterans Day Tribute Event, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Good morning, everyone. I am deeply humbled to be recognized along with others who have literally put on a uniform, to go into harm's way, to protect our freedoms and our homelands. So thank you for this gift. Something that I'll cherish, I'll put in my office, so I'm always reminded of the people that we fight for, who fought for us. So to member Rebecca A. Seawright, I thank you for nominating me and presenting this. Also, I saw Assemblymember, Jennifer Rajkumar. I also want to acknowledge our fire commissioners here. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is here as well. Mary Barneby, the New York Red Cross as well. And Marian Pardo, who I saw just a few weeks ago is the Columbus Citizens Foundation. Many great individuals have stepped forward today, but we're also called to remember those who stepped forward in the past. And I'm going on a little hometown privilege here. There's also a significant woman who made a major contribution who has not been recognized the way I think she should. And that is someone from Buffalo, Mary Talbert, who was the founder of the NAACP, who also put on a uniform and led women into World War one onto the battlefield as a member of the Red Cross. And I think about this woman who's known for her work in social justice, equal justice, racial justice, but also stood among our soldiers in harm's way, doing everything she could to protect and help those heal who had been harmed on the battlefield. I just wanted to give a special tribute to her as well and make sure that she is in the annals of history as we talk about the brave soldiers, the female women who step forward.

As a member of Congress, I served on the House Armed Services Committee. In that role, I traveled to Afghanistan. I went to five bases in Helmand province in Kandahar, Kabul. Other places that you see only in the news, I had a chance to do something that was extraordinary, a unique experience. That was to sit down with the women in uniform, the women who signed up many of them after 9/11, who felt that patriotic surge of duty that she wanted to serve, they wanted to serve. But I will tell you my friends, it was the conditions that they were in, the threat of sexual harassment and assault. Something that are my good colleague, my great friend, Senator Gillibrand has championed for decades That still exists in the military today. So to me, it is a disgrace that these women are willing to do what they have to do to protect all of us. And I believe we have to do more to protect them. So let's honor those who serve now and performed a unique service to us. And what I did was go into the homes of the Afghan women with these women because the male soldiers were not allowed. The Afghan women told us intelligence gave us shared information that was vitally important to the success of our troops. The only reason they gave that information up that there were women in uniform. Men could not attain this information. They don't get the credit for that either. And I will live my entire days knowing that we need to do more to protect and serve those who protected and served us.

When they come home and they are supposed to blend into society, despite the scars, psychological and sometimes physical wounds they have, we have to do more. We have to do so much more for our recently returning veterans to make sure that they don't fall between the cracks and up on our streets, that they are provided a home, a job and education, because they are willing to give their entire life for all of us, the least we can do is make sure their lives when they return are more enriched and are better. And to the women who served throughout our history and more recently, on the front lines of battle. I say on behalf of 20 million New Yorkers, we are grateful. We are grateful, we want to honor you and not just call you heroes, but treat you like you deserve to be treated with respect, free from assault free, from harassment, so you can simply do your jobs. That's we're going to continue fighting for our work is not done, but in places like this, we can talk, but we also have to go out there and walk, and do the walk and show them that we are honoring them by our actions and our legislation. Thank you. My friends, thank you for this honor. And I will join you in fighting to honor the memory of those who are gone, but those who are still in harm's way, protecting all of us. Thank you.