More than 180,000 American women have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "When Janey Comes Marching Home," which will open Friday in the True F. Luck Gallery at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, gives faces and voices to 40 of them.

The faces eyeball viewers in 40 large color portraits of female soldiers, sailors, Marines, guardsmen and reservists. The portraits were shot mostly at military bases on the Eastern Seaboard by Richmond freelance photographer Sascha Pflaeging.

One measures a whopping 50 by 60 inches. The others -- 30 by 40 inches -- command attention as they establish dialogues across the gallery spaces.

The 40 women speak in the texts of accompanying wall panels that present excerpts from extensive oral histories recorded by Laura Browder, the Virginia Commonwealth University playwriting professor who conceived the exhibition.

The women's stories are varied. They speak openly about motherhood, sexual harassment, day-to-day life "outside the wire" in Baghdad and the pressure to continually prove themselves in an arena that traditionally has been a male preserve.

"When Janey Comes Marching Home," subtitled "Portraits of Women Combat Veterans," grew out of Browder's 2006 book, "Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America."

"One of the book's themes was how controversial the idea of women in combat has been since Revolutionary War times," Browder said. "Here we are in the middle of two wars in which, to date, more than 180,000 women have been deployed to combat zones. Clearly something big is happening."

More than 100 American women have died in the current wars, and six times that number have been wounded.

Two years ago, Pflaeging and Browder began discussing a magazine article in which she would interview women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and he would photograph them.

Then Ashley Kistler, who organized "When Janey Comes Marching Home" as her swan song as the arts center's curator before becoming director of the Anderson Gallery, persuaded them to opt for a gallery show instead.

"I think this is a very timely topic to address," Kistler said. "Women in the military is a topic that is just beginning to be tackled in a concerted way, and the collaborative nature of this show is very special. Laura was very resourceful and tenacious in setting up contacts within the military, and that was an amazing feat in itself."

Browder conducted 46 interviews, 85 percent of them with active military personnel who were photographed in their uniforms. The rest, who were no longer on active duty, were photographed in civilian clothes in their homes.

"One of the women we approached became a stripper since she got out of the Army," Browder said. "She was very interested in telling her story and being photographed at first, then thought about it and pulled out."

"Most of the women wanted to get their stories out. A lot of women in the military feel that the civilian world doesn't understand their experience at all. They feel that the public doesn't realize the very hazardous conditions under which these women work."

Browder encountered some surprises.

"I was really surprised at the number of women who talked about how much they enjoyed being deployed," she said. "They found it easier and more meaningful to be working in a combat zone than to be working here.

"I was struck by how everyday they seemed and by the intense bonds they had with their fellow soldiers. Traditionally, we expect men in the military to develop intense bonds. To find that in women was eye-opening."

Pflaeging said he also was struck by the bonds between the women.

"Some of them probably didn't like this war, but they were eager to go back to be with their buddies," he said.

Browder found other similarities while interviewing the women. "A lot of the women started their interviews by saying they grew up in a poor family, often with a single mother," Browder said. "They made it clear that the military offered them a better life."

Several women showed up for the interview with their babies, and Browder was struck by the ease with which some of them compartmentalized motherhood.

"The mommy mentality left me as soon as we got on that bus and started flying to Cherry Point [Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina]," one told her.

Browder and Pflaeging said their show has no agenda.

"Doing this exhibition wasn't about having a pro-war or an anti-war stance," Pflaeging said. "Our approach was to give these women a voice and to document what their lives were like."

Browder added: "We wanted to show the wide range of these women. We talked with women ranging in age from 19 to their mid-40s."

Both stress the value of their teamwork.

"We could not have done this if both of us were men," Pflaeging said. "It was very important for a woman to do the interviewing because these women would feel much freer opening up to a woman."

"When Janey Comes Marching Home" was created with the help of five grants totaling $41,000. It will tour after it closes here Dec. 14, but the tour schedule has not yet been firmed up.
Roy Proctor, a freelance writer and theater director, retired in 2004 as the art and theater writer for The Times-Dispatch. He can be reached at royproctor@aol.com.