World War II
1939-1945
The Six Triple Eight (6888) Central Postal Directory Battalion.
One of the only female African American battalions to be stationed overseas during World War II. They initially served in Glasgow, Scotland where they encountered stock piles of undelivered mail. With the new system they developed nearly 65,000 pieces of mail were sorted for delivery on each shift which round the clock, completing their duty in half the initial projected time.
Photo Source: Women's Military Memorial
Kathleen Fargey, "6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion." U.S.Army Center of Military History. (February 14.2014) https://history.army.mil/html/topics/afam/6888thPBn/index.html.
Eight months after the last female returned home from WWI the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and women were given limited voting rights because African American women, Native American, and many immigrant women were still bared from voting. The onset of the Jim Crow era made voting even more difficult and another forty-six years would pass before all women could vote even when many had served both in the U.S. and abroad.
Once signs of World War II approached, the U.S put out the call for women’s participation to increase. Women were asked to fill positions that men had normally filled in factories and in the military. The Army struggled to find males who could fill the overwhelming need for positions because so many men were needed on the frontlines. Recruiting women for many of these positions was recognized by General Eisenhower. With the establishment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942 following the passage of Bill H.R 6293 a year after its introduction, women were still not officially members of the Army. Not until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was the Auxiliary Corp renamed Women's Army Corp (WAC), making women a part of the Army with the benefits, pay, and rank that male soldiers received.
Melissa Ziobro, “Skirted Soldiers”: The Women’s Army Corps and Gender Integration of the U.S. Army during World War II." The National Museum of the United States Army.(n.d) https://armyhistory.org/skirted-soldiers-the-womens-army-corps-and-gender-integration-of-the-u-s-army-during-world-war-ii/.
1944 - four female pilots leaving their ship named the Pistol Packin' Mama, in Lockbourne AAF, Ohio. They were Woman Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) trained to to ferry the B-17 Flying Fortresses. Left to Right, Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn.
WASPS went through rigorous training and at times dangerous service. One such job was to train male pilots by flying with canvas attached to their planes. The male trainees would then fly behind them shooting at the canvas target. These skilled pilots were civil service employees and not considered members of the military.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) of WWII, (2019): https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/women-airforce-service-pilots-wasps-wwii.
Woman with the Nurses Army Corps sitting for dinner between the frontline and the beaches of Normandy.
WAC ( Women's Army Corps) units were sent to serve behind frontline troops in 1944, 16 nurses lost their lives from direct fire near the frontlines serving with the Nurses Army Corp.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Army_Nurses_-_DPLA_-_805534da2ce9377906b1e63733eb0bd6.jpg
Barbara Erickson became the first Women's Army Service Pilot (WASP) to receive the Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement as a Pilot.
Photo Source: National Archives
The first African American female (WAVES) Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, to be commissioned. Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills, 1944.
Photo Source: National Archives
Women's Army Corps communications operators.
Many women won combat decorations, were POW’s in the Philippine’s, and were nurses in Normandy in the days following D-Day. When female veterans wanted to utilize the G.I. Bill which was enacted in 1944, often they were either not instructed upon discharge or universities and colleges limited the amount of women who were accepted because they were leaving space for primarily white male veterans
Photo Source: Wikipedia Commons
Melissa E. Murray, "Whatever Happened to Happened to G.I. Jane?: Citizenship, Gender, and Social Policy in the Post War Era." Michigan Journal of Gender and Law (2002)91-129.