From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve
(USMCWR), established in 1942 as a part of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, was a Reserve
unit which provided women for shore duty in the Marine Corps to
take over jobs so men could be released for combat duty.[1]
Historical
context - women in the Marine Corps
In 1918, the Secretary of the
Navy allowed women to enlist for clerical duty in the Marine Corps. Officially, Opha Mae
Johnson is credited as the first woman Marine. Johnson enlisted
for service on August 13, 1918; during that year some 300 women
first entered the Marine Corps to take over stateside clerical
duties from battle-ready Marines who were needed overseas. The
Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established in February 1943.
Beginnings; World War II
service
The first director of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was Mrs.
Ruth
Cheney Streeter from Morristown, New Jersey. By the
end of World War
II, 85% of the enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters U.S.
Marine Corps were women.
The first group of women officers was given direct commissions
based on ability and civilian expertise. These women were given no
formal indoctrination or schooling, but went on active duty
immediately. Women Marines were assigned to over 200 different
jobs, among them radio operator, photographer, parachute rigger, driver, aerial gunnery
instructor, cook, baker, quartermaster, control tower operator,
motion picture operator, auto mechanic, telegraph operator, cryptographer, laundry operator, post exchange manager, stenographer, and agriculturist.
After the war;
Retention for active duty
On June 7, 1946, Commandant of the Marine
Corps General Alexander A. Vandegrift approved the
retention of a small number of women on active duty. They would
serve as a trained nucleus for possible mobilization emergencies.
The demobilization of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 17,640
enlisted and 820 officers, was to be completed by September 1,
1946. Of the 20,000 women who joined the Marine Corps during World
War II, only 1,000 remained in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve by
July 1, 1946.
June 12, 1948, the United States Congress passed
the Women's Armed
Services Integration Act and made women a permanent part of the
regular Marine Corps.
In 1950, the Women Reserves were mobilized for the Korean War and 2,787
women were called to active duty. By the height of the Vietnam War, there were
about 2,700 women Marines served both stateside and overseas. By
1975, the Corps approved the assignment of women to all
occupational fields except infantry, artillery, armor and pilot/air
crew. Over 1,000 women Marines were deployed in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-1991.
Timeline
- 1918 -- Private Opha Mae Johnson becomes the first
woman to enlist in the Marine Corps
Reserve
- 1943 -- Colonel Ruth
Cheney Streeter first Director of Women Marine Reservists
- 1943 -- Captain Anne Lentz, first
commissioned officer
- 1943—Private Lucille McClarren first enlisted woman
- 1945—First detachment of women Marines arrives in Hawaii for
duty
- 1947—First female warrant officer in the Corps — Lotus Mort[2]
- 1948—Colonel Katherine A.
Towle first Director of Women Marines
- 1948—First group of women sworn into the regular Marine
Corps[3]
- 1960—First woman Marine is promoted to E-9 — Master Gunnery
Sergeant Geraldine M. Moran[4]
- 1961—The first woman Marine is promoted to Sergeant Major (E-9)
— Bertha Peters Billeb[2]
- 1965—The Marine Corps assigns the first woman to attaché duty.
Later, she is the first woman Marine to serve under hostile
fire.
- 1978—Colonel Margaret A. Brewer was the first
woman Marine general officer
- 1979—The Marine Corps assigns women as embassy guards.
- 1985—Colonel Gail M. Reals, the first woman selected by a board
of general officers to be advanced to brigadier general
- 1992 -- Brigadier General Carol A. Mutter assumed command of the 3d
Force Service Support Group, Okinawa, the first woman to command a
Fleet
Marine Force unit at the flag level
- 1993—The Marine Corps opens pilot positions to women.
- 1993—2nd Lieutenant Sarah Deal became the first woman Marine
selected for Naval aviation training[5
]
- 1994 -- Brigadier General
Mutter became the first woman major general in the Marine Corps and the senior woman on active
duty in the armed services
- 1995—The first female Marine pilot — Sarah Deal — pins on Naval
flight wings[5
]
- 1996 -- Lieutenant General
Mutter became the first woman Marine and the second woman in the
history of the armed services to wear three stars
- Today—Women serve in 93 percent of all occupational fields and
62 percent of all billets. Women constitute 6.2 percent of the
Corps end strength and are an integral part of the Marine
Corps.
See also
- Minnie Spotted-Wolf, first Native
American woman to enlist in the Marine Corps; enlisted in USMCWR in
1943
Notes
- ^ Stremlow, Colonel Mary V , USMCR (Ret).
Free a Marine to Fight: Women Marines in World War II.
History Division, United States Marine Corps.
- ^ a
b
Lacy, Linda Cates (2004). We are Marines!.
Women Marines Association. p. 43. http://books.google.com/books?id=eMoxYZgan28C&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Bertha+Peters+(later+Billeb)&source=web&ots=TG9mmBybEd&sig=8eNlmht8GbND2QRH3qQ9By5DYmE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result. Retrieved December 21,
2008.
- ^ Lacy, Linda Cates (2004). We are Marines!.
Women Marines Association. p. 44. http://books.google.com/books?id=eMoxYZgan28C&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Bertha+Peters+(later+Billeb)&source=web&ots=TG9mmBybEd&sig=8eNlmht8GbND2QRH3qQ9By5DYmE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result. Retrieved December 21,
2008.
- ^ Wilson, Captain Barbara A., USAF (Ret). "Military Women "Firsts"".
American Women in Uniform. http://userpages.Augustcom/captbarb/firsts.html. Retrieved December 21,
2008.
- ^
a
b Williams,
Rudi (March 19, 2003). "Women Aviators Finally Fill
Cockpits of Military Aircraft". DefenseLINK News. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2003/n03192003_200303193.html. Retrieved February 10,
2007.
References
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