The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (WR) was the World War II women's branch of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. It was authorized by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 30 July 1942, yet the Marine Corps delayed the formation of the WR until 13 February 1943. The law provided that members of the WR may be commissioned or enlisted in such ranks and ratings equal to the regular Marine Corps, and effective for the duration of the war plus six months. Its purpose was to release officers and men for combat and to replace them with women in shore stations. Ruth Cheney Streeter was appointed the first director of the WR. She was sworn in with the rank of major and later was promoted to a full colonel. After attending Bryn Mawr College, Streeter was involved in health and welfare work. The WR did not have an official nickname as did the other World War II women's military services although many unofficial and uncomplimentary nicknames were used to describe the women.
Young women were eager to serve in the military during WW II, and the Marine Corps wanted only the best. The overall qualifications for women who wished to volunteer for the WR were fairly stringent. The age requirement for officer candidates was between 20 and 49, and a candidate had to be a college graduate or have a combination of two years of college and two years of work experience. The age requirement for those who wished to enlist was between 20 and 35, and candidates had to have completed at least two years of high school. The WR did not accept African American or Japanese American women during World War II but did accept Native American women. The officer candidates first trained at the Navy's Midshipmen School for women officers located at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The initial training for enlisted women was held at the Naval Training School at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York City. Soon, the Marine Corps saw the advantage of having its own training schools. Effective 1 July 1943, all WR training was to be held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Members served at shore and air stations across the continental United States, including New York, Chicago, Paris Island, South Carolina, and El Centro and San Diego, California. The territory of Hawaii was the only overseas duty station where members were assigned. They served in occupations classified as professional, semi-professional, clerical, skilled trades, services, and sales. Although the Marine Corps listed more than 200 available job categories, over half of the WR members labored in the clerical field.
Early in the life of the WR, members were met with some degree of resentment and crude language. They accepted these indignities by demonstrating their competence, self-assurance, and pride and soon won over most of their detractors. For her stewardship of the WR, the Marine Corps presented Ruth Cheney Streeter with the Legion of Merit. On the occasion of the first anniversary of its establishment, the WR received a message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he observed, "You have quickly and efficiently taken over scores of different kinds of duties that not long ago were considered strictly masculine assignments, and in doing so, you have freed a large number of well trained, battle ready men of the corps for action." The one tribute that stood out more than any other was the plain words of General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the US Marine Corps, who had been so opposed to having women in the Marine Corps in the beginning. He said, "Like most Marines, when the matter first came up I didn't believe women could serve any useful purpose in the Marine Corps ... Since then I've changed my mind."
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Background
At the outbreak of World War II, the notion of women serving in the Navy or Marine Corps (both under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy) was not widely supported by the Congress or by the branches of the military services. Nevertheless, there were some who believed that women would eventually be needed in the military. The most notable was Edith Nourse Rogers, Representative of Massachusetts, and Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president, who helped pave the way for its reality. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed what would become Public Law 689 on 30 July 1942, it established a Women's Reserve as a branch of the Naval Reserve for the Navy and Marine Corps. The idea behind the law was to free up officers and men for combat, with women standing in for them at shore stations on the home front. Women could now serve in the WR as an officer or at an enlisted level, with ranks or ratings consistent with those of men. WR volunteers could only serve for the duration of the war, plus six months. The Corps delayed formation of the WR until 13 February 1943. It was the last service branch to accept women into its ranks, and "there was considerable unhappiness about making the Marine Corps anything but a club for white men". In fact, General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the Marine Corps, was a well-known opponent of women serving in the corps. But he later reversed himself, saying, "there's hardly any work at our Marine stations that women can't do as well as men. They do some work far better than men. ... What is more, they're real Marines. They don't have a nickname, and they don't need one." Holcomb rejected all acronyms or monikers for the WR; he did not believe they were compulsory. And there were many of them, including: Femarines, WAMS, BAMS, Dainty Devil-Dogs, Glamarines, Women's Leatherneck-Aides, MARS, and Sub-Marines. By the summer of 1943, attempts to pressure the WR into a nickname had diminished. WR was as far as Holcomb would move in that direction.
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Ruth Cheney Streeter
Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter was named the first director of the WR; commissioned a major and sworn in by the Secretary of the Navy on 29 January 1943. A year later, Streeter was promoted to colonel. She was not the first woman to see active duty in the Marine Corps during World War II. Weeks earlier, Mrs. Anne A. Lentz, a civilian clothing expert who had helped design the WR uniforms, was commissioned a captain. Lentz came to the corps on a 30-day assignment from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and stayed on. Streeter was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1895 and attended Bryn Mawr College for two years. She was the wife of a prominent (Morristown, NJ) lawyer and businessman, and the mother of four children; three sons in the military in World War II and a younger daughter. Although Streeter had 20 years of active civic work, she had never held a paying job. She was selected from a field of twelve outstanding women, all recommended to the corps by Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve of Barnard College, who had earlier recommended Mildred McAfee for the director of the WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. Streeter was 47 years of age when selected to head the WR. She was described as confident, spirited, patriotic, and a principled person, all qualities she had demonstrated. In 1940 she believed the United States would be drawn into World War II. Intending to be part of the war effort, Streeter had learned to fly, earning a commercial pilots license and purchasing a small airplane, and in the summer of 1941, she joined the Civil Air Patrol. Although her plane was used to fly missions, she was, unhappily, relegated to doing ... "all the dirty work". Then, when the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was formed, Streeter was twelve years over the age limit, but applied five times and was rejected five times. In January 1943, when she inquired about service with the WAVES, she was told that flying was out of the question but that she could be a ground instructor. Streeter turned it down, and a month later became the director of the WR. During her tenure as the director, she sent an open letter to all women recruits, saying, "It is not easy to Free a Marine to Fight (a recruiting slogan of the WR). It takes courage - the courage to embark on a new and an alien way of life.... Your spirit is a source of constant inspiration to all who work with you." Colonel Streeter resigned her commission from the WR on 7 December 1945. (She was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Katherine A. Towle.) A few months later, the Marine Corps presented her with the Legion of Merit. It was the highest award ever made to a woman marine as a result of World War II service. The Marine Corps also dedicated the headquarters building of the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion at Paris Island, South Carolina, to her. Ruth Cheney Streeter died on 9 September 1990, two days before her 95th birthday.
Recruiting
The qualifications for women who wished to become members of the WR were quite stringent. The eligibility requirements for officer candidates and enlisted women were similar: United States citizenship; not married to a marine; either single or married but with no children under 18; height not less than 60 inches; weight not less than 95 pounds; good vision and good teeth. For enlisted members, the age limits were from 20 to 35, and an applicant was required to have at least two years of high school. For officer candidates, the age limits were from 20 to 49, either a college graduate, or having a combination of two years of college and two years of work experience. Later, the wives of enlisted marines were allowed to join, and enlisted women could marry after boot camp.
By way of agreement, the Navy and the Marine Corps designated the Navy's procurement offices as recruiting centers for both the WAVES and the WR. This helped to avoid competition in the recruiting of women for either naval service. Women applicants for either service would go to one office to enlist and to receive physical examinations. (Later on, the WR established its own recruiting capability.) When reservations surfaced about whether male marine recruiters could properly select female applicants for the WR, the call went out for women recruiters. Nineteen WAVE officer candidates volunteered; they were transferred and assigned to procurement offices. Still in WAVE uniforms, they began recruiting the first members of the WR. Lucile E. McClarren of Nemacolm, Pennsylvania, appears to have been the first enlisted woman recruited. The WR did not accept African American women or Japanese American women during the war years. The first Native American woman to enlist in the WR was Minnie Spotted-Wolf of Heart Butte, Montana. Early recruiting was brisk, so much so that in some cases women were sworn in and put to work in procurement offices, delaying their training until later.
The slogan "Free a Marine to Fight" proved to be a strong drawing card for the WR, stronger than any fashioned by the WAC, Waves, or SPARS. Young women were eager to serve in the military during World War II, often in defiance of their family's wishes. Marian Bauer's parents were so upset when she joined the corps that they did not see her off. Jane Tailor's father, a World War I veteran, gave her this advice: "Don't ever complain to me. You're doing this of your own free will. You weren't drafted or forced. Now, go - learn, travel, and do your job to the best of your ability." And there were those parents who asked special consideration for daughters who were too young to enlist. The minimum age of 20 years, set by law, remained the same throughout the war for the WR. Some parents wondered why 18-year-boys were sent into combat and 18-year-old girls could not even serve. Aside from patriotism, Colonel Streeter was interested to learn the reasons why young women joined the WR. A survey of 1,000 new enlistees was conducted at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which asked this question. The results of this survey showed that the 750 enlistees had had positive reasons for enlisting. Some had male relatives or friends in the armed forces, and some wanted revenge against the enemy, while others wanted the experience it would bring to their lives. The remaining 250 acknowledged they were trying to escape from something: a bad home life, a broken marriage, boredom, or some personal disappointment. Indications were that Streeter was not displeased with the findings. The WR met its recruitment goal by 1 June 1944, and then stopped all recruiting. It began again on 20 September 1944, but on a limited basis. The peak strength was 17,640 enlisted and 820 officers.
The first group of six women officers recruited was given direct commissions in the WR. They were recruited for their abilities and civilian experiences, considered key to the success of the fledgling program. In charge of public relations was First Lieutenant E. Louise Stewart; training, Captain Charlotte D. Gower; classification and detail, Captain Cornelia D. T. Williams; West Coast activities, Captain Lillian O'Malley Daly (who had been a marine in WW I); Recruit Depot, Captain Katherine Towle; and Assistant to the Director, Captain Helen C. O'Neill. These women were assigned to active duty immediately, without any military training or formal indoctrination in the corps.
To capitalize on the enlisted women's experience, commissioned status was open to them beginning in July 1943. To be eligible, the applicant had to have completed six months of service, be recommended by her commanding officer, and be selected by a board of male and female officers. After October 1943, the majority of women officers came from the ranks; only civilian women with specialized skills or exceptional leadership qualities were accepted for officer training.
Uniforms
The wardrobe of the WR was a matter of genuine importance to the Marine Corps, so much so that a circular released in late 1943 stated the following:
The Marine Corps wants you to look your best at all times. The uniforms you will wear have been designed to be comfortable, practical and extremely attractive. When you don them you will know the pride of wearing a uniform that is a symbol of valor and bravery everywhere.
WR recruits were promised uniforms upon reaching boot camp, but that was not always the case. In fact, during the summer of 1943, some recruits had to train in civilian clothing until uniforms were available. When the new uniforms arrived, they turned out to be winter uniforms. The seersucker summer uniforms had yet to be designed. Disputes about fabric, cut, and production had a delaying affect upon delivery. In time, these issues were resolved, and most WR members felt their uniforms were much better looking than those of the other women's military organizations.
The winter service uniform for both WR officers and enlisted was designed along the lines of the men's uniform. It was a forest green and consisted of a skirt, no higher than the bottom of the kneecap, and an unbelted jacket with three bronze buttons, a green cap trimmed with a scarlet cord. Marine Corps emblems were placed on the cap and on the uniform lapels; scarlet chevrons were sewn on the jacket's sleeves. Under the jacket, a khaki shirt and matching field scarf was worn. Added to the ensemble were dark brown gloves, shoulder bag, and shoes. For inclement weather, there was a green overcoat or a Khaki trench coat, a red muffler, and black boots, or rubbers. Neither officers nor enlisted members had dress uniforms although officers were able to modify their winter service uniform into a dress uniform by substituting a white shirt and forest green tie in place of the regular khaki. The enlisted members were without such freedom.
The summer service uniform was a two-piece green and white outfit made of washable seersucker material. It had two pieces, a skirt and a short-sleeved jacket with a V-neck. The cap was green and decorated with a white cord, buttons were white, chevrons were green, and emblems were bronze. The shoes were brown, the gloves were white, and the handbags were light green. The summer dress uniform was made of white twill. It had short sleeves and a V-neck, worn with gilt buttons on the jacket and cap, with dress emblems and white pumps. The officers could choose between three summer dress uniforms. The first was the white one worn by enlisted women, but with added green shoulder straps. The other two were made of white twill or palm-beach material. One was a short-sleeved blouse, and the other was long sleeved and collarless.
Slacks of covert material were worn for certain duties, although the most common work uniform was the olive-drab, cotton utility outfit, worn with high topped shoes. The trousers had a bib-front and crossed straps, and were worn over a short sleeve, matching shirt, and topped by a long-sleeve jacket. For recreation, field nights, and physical conditioning, women Marines wore the peanut suit, so called because of its colored appearance. It was a tan, seersucker, one-piece bloomer outfit, with ties at the bottom of the shorts. In keeping with the propriety of the times, the women covered their legs with a front-buttoned A-lined skirt when not actively engaged in sports, exercises, or work details.
Training
Mount Holyoke College
The WR officer candidates first trained at the Navy's Midshipmen School for women officers, located at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, later branching out to nearby Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. On 13 March 1943, the first group of 71 Marine officer candidates arrived at the Midshipmen's School, Mount Holyoke College. Officer candidates joined as privates and after four weeks, if successful, became officer cadets. Those who did not meet the requirements had two choices: transfer to enlisted basic training or await discharge. Cadets who completed the eight-week course but were not recommended for a commission were asked to resign. They were eventually discharged and allowed to join the enlisted ranks. The curriculum for officer candidates was the same as for the WAVES, except for drill, which was taught by Marine drill instructors (non-commissioned officers who provided instruction and indoctrination for officer candidates and enlisted recruits). Candidates studied naval organization and administration; naval personnel; naval history and strategy; naval law and justice; and ships and aircraft. The second part of the training was specifically on Marine Corps subjects taught by male Marines. It included Marine Corps administration and courtesy; map reading; interior guard; safeguarding military information; and physical conditioning. On 4 May 1943 members of the first class received their commissions in the Marine Corps. A total of 214 women Marine Corps officers completed training at Mount Holyoke College.
Hunter College
Shortly after the first officer class reported to Mount Holyoke College, enlisted women of the WR were ordered to the US Naval Training School at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York City. Between 24 March and 26 March, 722 recruits arrived for training. On 26 March 21 platoons of women Marines began training with the WAVES and graduated on 25 April 1943. Because the school was designated for WAVE instruction, the curriculum was geared for the Navy. Some subjects were not relevant for Marines, so modifications were made and Marine drill instructors were added. Training sessions included drill; physical training; customs and courtesies; history and organization; administration; naval law; map reading; defense against air attack; identification of aircraft, and safeguarding military information. Between March and July, 3,346 women trained at Hunter College, 3,280 of whom graduated.
Camp Lejeune
Originally, the Marine Corps planned to use existing Navy facilities for all of the WR training, but it soon realized the advantage of having its own training schools. Although joint training with the Navy proved satisfactory, it did not engender the famed Marine esprit de corps that was expected. Consequently, Marine Headquarters decided to consolidate all WR training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The Marine Corps opened its own schools for officer candidates and recruit training at Camp Lejeune in July 1943, under the command of Colonel John M. Arthur. Officer candidates and recruits in training at Navy facilities were transferred to Camp Lejeune, where nearly 19,000 women became Marines during the remainder of World War II. The camp was named for John A. Lejeune (1867-1942), a distinguished Marine officer. The 200-square-mile (520 km2) area was completed in 1943, with a headquarters building and facilities for transient and permanent Marine Corps personnel. At Lejeune, the curriculum for both officer candidates and enlisted recruits moved beyond classroom lectures on combat weapons to actual weapon demonstrations. WR personnel observed demonstrations in hand-to-hand combat; use of mortars; bazookas; flame-throwers; an assortment of guns; and landing craft.
Leaving the college campuses for the Camp Lejeune training center was a change, but it introduced the officer candidates and recruits to the real Marine Corps military environment. What did not change from the time at Mount Holyoke and Hunter was the shoddy behavior of the drill instructors towards the women. At Lejeune they did not try to hide their resentment, often referring to the women as BAMS (Broad Assed Marines) and using other crude references. In the early days of the WR, the women were subjected to considerable verbal and psychological abuse. This took a toll on the WR and its director, causing General Holcomb (Commandant of the Marine Corps) to take steps to end it. In time, the open hostilities subsided, and before long the women's competence, self-assurance, sharp appearance, and pride won over many of their detractors.
Assignments
Assigning jobs in occupations that women had never held before was a daunting task. By social custom, working women did not work in the trades and rarely supervised men. Women worked mainly in offices, classrooms, hospitals, retail stores, libraries, and beauty shops. In 1943 Marine Corps manpower was in short supply, and members of the WR were available to pick up the slack, but the corps had to select, train, classify, and assign the women to jobs where they could contribute and do so in the shortest amount of time. After completing their Marine Corps indoctrination training, selected women received advanced schooling in a variety of specialties. By the end of the war 9,641 members of the WR had attended more than 30 specialist schools run by higher educational institutions, the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. Colonel Streeter's philosophy was to let them try anything, except heavy lifting and combat. The WR strength on 1 June 1945 was 17,672. Of this number 1,342 were engaged in occupations classified as professional or semi-professional; 10,279 in clerical; 741 in sales; 587 in services; 344 in skilled trades; 1,305 as semi-skilled; 14 as unskilled; 35 as students; and 6 as unaccounted for. Marine Corps recruiting literature indicated there were over 200 types of jobs available in the WR. While this may have been correct, the fact was that well over half the women were assigned to and worked in clerical fields. The first duty posts and stations for the WR included places such as Washington, D.C.; New York; Philadelphia; Chicago; San Diego; and Quantico, Virginia. Marine aviation was the fastest-growing unit of the Corps. Both officers and enlisted women served at Marine Corps Air Stations including Cherry Point and Edenton, North Carolina; Paris Island, South Carolina; El Centro, El Toro, Mojave, and Santa Barbara, California.
While Public Law 689 authorized the creation of the WR, it also prohibited its members from serving outside the continental United States. This impediment changed on 27 September 1944, when Public Law 441 amended 689 to allow WR members to serve in the Territory of Hawaii. Some thought the enactment of Public Law 441 was anticlimactic. Director Streeter believed that sending WR members to Hawaii "was not worth all the trouble and cost". Nevertheless, the Marine Corps did deploy women to Hawaii. Hawaiian duty was on a volunteer basis. Many members applied, but only the very best of them were accepted. The requirements were stringent, inasmuch as the members had to have been on active duty for at least six months; commit to an 18-month tour; have a clean record; be in excellent mental and physical health; agree not to request leave to visit the mainland, and verify they had no dependents whose care might necessitate a trip back to the states. In addition, members were expected to have a stable personality, sufficient skill to fill one of the billets for which women had been requested, and motivation to do a good job. San Diego, California, became the staging area, where a short yet intense physical conditioning course was given.The first contingent of women arrived in Hawaii on 28 January 1945. At mid-year, there were about 1,000 women serving in Hawaii. By January 1946, they were all back in the states.
Demobilization
The task of demobilization fell to Colonel Towle, the second director of the wartime WR. In December 1945 the WR was down to about 12,300 members, with expectations of reducing this number by 2,000 each month thereafter. The demobilization plan called for mandatory resignation or discharge of all WR members by 1 September 1946. Separation centers were set up at San Diego, San Francisco, El Toro, Paris Island, and Lejeune. In early 1946 there was speculation that legislation to give women permanent status in the military was pending, prompting the Marine Corps to relax its demobilization policy. Then on 15 June 1946 the wartime office of the WR was closed when Colonel Catherine Towle returned to work at the University of California. The outgoing director proposed that Julie E. Hamblet replace her. Three months later, Hamblet was appointed as the third and final director of the wartime WR. When August 1946 came around, some 300 women had been asked by the Marine Corps to stay on, even as the last WR barracks was being closed. For the next two years, these women served the Marine Corps in an undetermined status. But on 30 July 1948, the Women's Armed Services Act (Public Law 625) was signed into law, allowing these and other women to serve in the regular Marine Corps.
Women of the WR
Wanting to serve their country in time of need was strong incentive for young women during World War II, so much so that thousands of them saw fit to volunteer for the WR. The Corps' recruiting scheme of forming platoons of about 40 women each to be recruited from the same area, and sending them as a unit to WR training together caught on quickly. The first platoon was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, followed by Albany, Buffalo, and Central New York; Johnstown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Green Bay, Wisconsin; the state of Alabama; and northern and southern New England. The members of the WR came from all across the country and from varied backgrounds. For most of them, this was their first time away from home. A few of their comments are listed below, showing how they coped with life in the military:
- A recruiter from SPARS told Inga Frederiksen that she would be smart not to join the WR because they were a lot rougher; Inga knew she had to be a Marine.
- Lorraine Turnbull wrote her family, saying, "This is the best organization in the world and I am so proud to be a member of it."
- While in boot camp, one enlisted member observed that she thought the male, Marine Corps drill instructors resented the women, ... more than a battalion of Japanese troops.
- Josie Pracht said this about boot camp, "The first two weeks were miserable. I was ready to go home. I went to bed crying one night. The next day when I awoke, everything looked good to me. I found myself in a new world - a world of new friends, patriotism, and pride in serving my county as best I possibly could."
Between February 1943 and September 1946, eighteen women reserve members were killed, the majority of them in off-duty automobile accidents. Only three members were killed while in the performance of their duties. One accident that stands out happened in October 1945, when four members from the El Toro Air Station died when the automobile they were riding in was demolished by a train near Irvine, California.
On the WR first anniversary, it received a message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
The nation is proud of you as of your fellow Marines - for Marine women are upholding the brilliant traditions of the corps with a spirit of loyalty and diligence worthy of the highest admiration of all Americans. You have quickly and efficiently taken over scores of different kinds of duties that not long ago were considered strictly masculine assignments, and in doing so, you have freed a large number of well-trained, battle-ready men of the corps for action....
The women Marines of World War II received its share of accolades, but one that stood out more than any other was the uncomplicated words of General Holcomb, the commandant so opposed to having women in the Marine Corps in the beginning.
Like most Marines, when the matter first came up I didn't believe women could serve any useful purpose in the Marine Corps ... Since then I've changed my mind."
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