More than 214,000 women serve our country, according to the Women’s Memorial website. Today in the July issue of Her Times, we honor local women who served and share their stories of how they got started.

When we began this story, I had heard from a lot of women in the military. We wish we could have interviewed everyone. One woman was a former high-school classmate. We reconnected by chance when she shared a few real estate stories with me. She also shared her exciting life in the military. She is a retired general — still teaching and helping out at the VA Medical Center.

Women — many of them moms — who serve are incredibly brave and lead lives that most of us can’t even imagine. Read the stories of three wonderful women here.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.