Double-amputee Sue Downes speaks at MTSU women veterans event

Middle Tennessee State University and the Department of Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System teamed up for a free public event to inform women veterans about health and educational benefits. It was held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 15, in the Keathley University Center Theater on the MTSU campus. The event honored and recognized women veterans with a documentary screening and informational session on VA health care and education benefits. Sue Downes, a Tennessee resident who is featured in the documentary "Service: When Women Come Marching Home," was the keynote speaker. The documentary, which also was shown, highlights the struggles and triumphs of returning home as a combat-wounded woman. Downes, who served as a driver and gunner in Afghanistan, had both legs amputated below the knee after her Humvee hit landmines in 2005. Women veterans were able to talk to staff from the VA and MTSU about maximizing their available education and health care benefits and to register for VA health care.