BUDA, TX – The military remains a male-dominated world even though the number of women enlisting has been increasing.

• Number of women in U.S. military continues to grow
• There are 181,000 women veterans in Texas
• Many continue to struggle when they finish their service

According to the Department of Defense, women now make up 20 percent of the Air Force, 19 percent of the Navy, 15 percent of the Army, and nine percent of the Marines. When active duty numbers go up, so does the veteran population – women make up 10 percent of veterans and they are the fastest growing veteran demographic.

Even though the numbers are there, two Texas women veterans say military servicewomen are still overlooked.

Army veteran Adria Garcia remembers the day a mortar dropped just feet away from her vividly. It was September 11, 2004. She was serving as military police (MP) in Iraq.

"I was running for cover, one landed about four feet away from me and just sprayed me with all the shrapnel at my back, my hand, and a little bit in my neck,” she said. "It was scary, you know, it was. I'm just grateful I'm here to tell the story."

Garcia received the Purple Heart for her injuries. But to her, it was more than a story of survival – her story also proves a point.

"There's a lot of people who don't believe that women have ever been in combat,” she stressed. “Well, that Purple Heart proves them wrong."

Even though there has been progress with getting more women to enlist in recent years, Garcia said public perception hasn't changed much.

"We're not just nurses or working in an office, which is great, but not all women who served in the military did that,” she said. "A lot of women who served get questioned about their service.”

“A lot of restaurants are giving free meals, right? And then they tell (us) 'Well, it's for a veteran,' I say, ‘Well, I'm a veteran,' because they automatically assume that the woman is the spouse of the veteran," Garcia added.

She adds that this type of indifference was the norm when she was still in the service and didn’t just start when she retired.

"Not to put the guys down, but sometimes for us, for women, it's a lot harder because we have to prove and work at a different level to prove ourselves because of the way that we're seen,” Garcia said. "Being an MP did bring some extra unwanted attention as well, especially being overseas in Iraq (and being) a woman in authority and telling you what to do."

Another veteran, Jay Gonzales, said home has proven to be another kind of battlefield.

"When we get home, our fight is even harder because some of us are mothers and some of us are not. But still, we have to work through our own battles,” she said. "It is hard to get back into a routine."

Gonzales enlisted in the Army when she was 17, but her military career was cut short after a back injury. Despite this, she found other ways to serve. She joined the American Legion to fundraise for fellow veterans.

"I think that's what the Lord has put me here for, to help people,” she said. "Because if I didn't, then I'll probably be out on the street and homeless like everyone else.”

Even after finding her purpose, Gonzales admits that some days are tough.

"You have to find that one person that you can lean on and they can lean on you to help each other out, to get through those battles that we have within ourselves. Because those battles for us are real," she said.

There are 181,000 women veterans in Texas. If you are one and are in need of support, the Texas Veterans Commission put this resource list together for you.