FREE A
MARINE TO FIGHT:
MCAS Ewa Women Marines in World War II
By MCAS Ewa historian John Bond
World War II changed for all time the notion of proper women's work. In the US Armed Forces as in civilian life, necessity caused the rules to be rewritten and while an effort was made to fit the women into jobs related to their former occupations, there was, by wartime necessity, openness to new ideas. -Colonel Mary V Stremlow, USMCR (Ret)
This
particular MCAS Ewa history chapter like so much of MCAS Ewa history, is
largely unknown, especially in Hawaii. This is an important part of the WW-II story
in the Pacific that should be remembered. This was the advancement of women
into the Marine Corps and the first military women trained into combat arms,
serving on the forward Pacific War airbase of MCAS Ewa.
MCAS Ewa Front Gate 1945 and Geiger Road Today As Part Of HCDA Kalaeloa
US Marine Corps B-25J Training At MCAS Ewa 1944
National Register site 1944 MCAS Ewa Ramp Added For Larger Aircraft
Aviation
Women's Reserve Squadron 12, Compound,
Marine Corps Air Station Ewa
During WW-II this northeast corner of MCAS Ewa was also the threshold of the main runway where fighter planes, bombers and transports took off or landed, depending on the wind direction. Most of the time the trade winds would mean that planes were at full throttle for takeoffs passing directly over the women Marine compound, day and night.
Creation of the Marine Corps Women Reserve
(MCWR)
It was a long
battle to get women into the Marine Corps. The other military branches had
already brought women into the military, especially the nurse corps, and in
fact Army women nurses were captured and held as POW by the Japanese after the
invasion of the Philippines in early 1942. Marine aviation units trained at
MCAS Ewa provided the air support for the daring 1945 end of war Philippine POW
camp liberations by Army special forces. (This is the subject of another MCAS
Ewa blog post.)
Lt. Gen. Holland Smith and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal
The outcome was new legislation, Public Law 441, 78th Congress, signed on 27 September 1944, which amended Section 504, Public Law 689, 77th Congress, 30 July 1942 by providing that:
Members of the Women's Reserve shall not be assigned to duty on board vessels of the Navy or in aircraft while such aircraft are engaged in combat missions, and shall not be assigned to duty outside the American Area and the Territories of Hawaii and Alaska, and may be assigned to duty outside the continental United States only upon their prior request.
Women Marines unlike other women military branches provided
combat arms training during boot camp
The official
announcement finally came on Saturday, 13 February 1943, and women
enthusiastically answered the call to "Be a Marine . . . Free a Man to
Fight!"
Recruiting for the Marine Corps Women Reserve (MCWR) was almost
too successful and one procurement officer, cautioning that the number of
applicants so far exceeded the quotas that he feared a backlash of ill will,
suggested that publicity be curtailed.
Within one
month of MCWR existence, while Marine forces regrouped after the campaign for
Guadalcanal where MCAS Ewa planes and pilots established Henderson Field, it
was reported: "The women of the country have responded in just the manner
we expected . . . . Thousands of women have volunteered to serve in the Women's
Reserve and from them we have already selected more than 1,000 for the enlisted
ranks and over 100 as officers."
How soon are
they going to learn how to shoot?
The MCWR met
its goal on schedule and reached strength of 18,000 by 1 June 1944. Then, all
recruiting stopped for nearly four months and when it was resumed on 20
September 1944, it was on a very limited basis with MCWR basic training consolidated at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina. Up until the establishment of the MCWR, other military
branches had not been training their Army WACS and Navy WAVES in military
combat arms. It may have been the president’s wife, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt asking
on her first visit to early MCWR training, “how soon are they going to learn how
to shoot?”
Not
too much
later, WRs (who were not given a cute name like WAVES, WACS and SPARS)
attended half-day sessions observing demonstrations in hand-to-hand
combat, use of mortars, bazookas, flame-throwers, guns of all sorts,
amtrac tanks
and landing craft. Then this evolved into full training involving hand
to hand
combat and standard issue weapons like the 45 cal. Colt M1911 pistol and
the 30
cal. M-1 carbine.
Officers
were paid a uniform allowance and gratuity of $250 and enlisted women received
$200. With this the women bought two winter uniforms, hats, shoes, summer
outfits, a purse, wool-lined raincoat, specified accessories, and
undergarments.
The MCWR uniform mirrored what was worn by all Marines in color
and style, but was cut from a lighter-weight cloth. Generally, officers and
enlisted women wore identically styled uniforms of the same fabric: this was
not true of male Marines.
Women officers wore green, detachable epaulets on the
shoulder straps of summer uniforms and had additional dress uniforms. For
dress, they wore the Marine officers' traditional gilt and silver emblems and
the enlisted women wore the gilt emblems of enlisted Marines. Both wore the
bronze eagle, globe, and anchor on their service uniforms, but positioned it
differently. Enlisted women wore the same large chevrons as the men.
Women
Marines attended some 30 specialist schools and the variety is a testament to
the dramatic shift in thinking in what women could do: first sergeant,
paymaster, signal, parachute rigger, aerographer, clerical, control tower
operator, aerial gunnery instructor, celestial navigation, motion picture
operator/technician, aircraft instruments technician, radio operator, radio
material teletypewriter, post exchange, uniform shop, automotive mechanic,
carburetor and ignition, aviation supply, and photography.
Women
Marines To Be Sent to Hawaii
The Marine
Corps laid out the criteria for selecting volunteers for duty in Hawaii:
satisfactory record for a period of six months military service subsequent to
completion of recruit or specialist training; motivation, the desire to do a
good job, rather than excitement or hope of being near someone they cared
about; good health; stable personality; sufficient skill to fill one of the
billets for which Women Reservists had been requested; and age. Not having been
a significant factor for success in the WACs, age was not specified, but since
the minimum tour was to be two years with little hope for leave, the health and
status of dependents and close family members was considered.
In June 1944,
a test of vocational and job interests was added, and finally in December 1944,
when the decision was made to send selected women Marine volunteers to Hawaii,
personality and adjustment tests were added.
This
settled, in October 1944, woman Marine commanders Colonel Streeter and Major Dryden
flew to MCAS Ewa to prepare for the arrival of the women and most of all to
inspect the proposed living arrangements. Major Dryden, the senior woman
officer serving in aviation, accompanied the director because half the women
were to be stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa.
There was no
shortage of volunteers to go to Hawaii and on 2 December 1944 an advance party
of four officers — Major Marion Wing, commanding officer; First Lieutenant
Dorothy C. McGinnis adjutant; First Lieutenant Ruby V. Bishop, battalion
quartermaster; and Second Lieutenant Pearl M. Martin, recreation officer — flew
to Hawaii to make preliminary living arrangements at Camp Catlin, Pearl Harbor.
Not long
after, they were followed by the advance party for MCAS Ewa, Captain Helen N.
Crean, commanding officer; First Lieutenant Caroline J. Ransom, post exchange
officer; Second Lieutenant Bertha K. Ballard, mess officer, along with Second
Lieutenant Constance M. Berkolz, mess officer.
Meanwhile, a
staging area was established at Marine Corps Base, San Diego, where the
women underwent a short but intense physical conditioning course that included
strapping on a 10-pound pack to practice ascending and descending cargo nets
and jumping into the water from shipboard. In the classroom, they learned about
the people of Hawaii, how to recognize Allied insignia, shipboard procedures,
and the importance of safeguarding military information.
On 25
January 1945, with Captain Marna V. Brady, officer-in-charge, the first
contingent of five WR officers and 160 enlisted women, with blanket rolls on
their backs, marched up the gangplank of the S.S. Matsonia to sail from San
Francisco to Hawaii. Their shipmates were a mixed lot of male Marines, sailors,
WAVES, military wives, and ex-POWs, and because of the lopsided ratio of men to
women, the WRs were restricted to a few crowded spaces on board ship.
Women Marines Troop Off SS Matsonia To "March of the Women Marines"
Two days out
to sea, they changed to summer service uniform, and on 28 January, they
disembarked in Honolulu as the Pearl Harbor Marine Barracks Band played
"The Marine's Hymn," the "March of the Women Marines," and
"Aloha Oe."
"March
of the Women Marines," written especially for them by Musician First Class
Louis Saverino of the Marine Band. U.S.
Marine Band plays "March of the Women Marines."
The WAVES went ashore first — dressed in their best
uniform. Then came the WRs — astonished that their no-nonsense appearance in
dungarees, boondockers, and overseas caps seemed to please the crowd of curious
Marines who had gathered to look them over and welcome them to Hawaii.
Major Wing,
the commanding officer, knew how to get their MCAS Ewa Quonset huts up quickly
after the arrival. The WR were temporarily housed in former SeaBee barracks at Moanalua
Ridge Area adjacent to the Marine Corps Sixth Base Depot and Camp Catlin.
No Seabee could pay for a coke. As many cokes a day as he wanted and he
couldn't pay for them. We got more work out of those Seabees than you could
ever imagine.
The Aviation Trained Women Marines Immediately Went To Work At MCAS Ewa
More than a
third of the women at MCAS Ewa came from the Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry
Point, a major Marine Corps aviation training base, and once quartered at Ewa, lost
no time before picking up their tools and working on the planes. By this period
in the Pacific War MCAS Ewa was a major training and logistics hub for
fighters, dive bombers, B-25J bombers, C-47s and large C-54 transports.
The WRs ran
the motor transport section for Pearl Harbor and MCAS Ewa, serving nearly
16,000 persons a month. Scheduled around the clock and with a perfect safety
record, they maneuvered the mountainous roads of Hawaii in liberty buses,
jeeps, and all types of trucks carrying mail, people, ammunition, and garbage.
Marines easily became accustomed to the sight of women drivers, but never quite
got used to grease-covered female mechanics working on radial aircraft engines or under the hood of two-and-a-half-ton trucks.
At MCAS Ewa the
seersucker fabric summer service uniform nicknamed the "peanut suit,"
was selected for comfort for indoor jobs, and for outdoor work on vehicles and
aircraft the uniform was dungarees and snap brim hat. Lipstick and nail polish
could be worn, and in fact were encouraged, but the color absolutely had to
harmonize with the red cap cord of the winter cap, regardless of the season.
The favorite color was Montezuma Red, designed in their honor.
Women
Marines Fit Well Into The Marine Corps Aviation Culture
The most
open-minded military units throughout the war to the concept of a more female workforce
in technical and ground support roles were the aviation components of all the
services. Presumably because they were relative pioneers themselves, aviation
leaders were less tradition-bound, and they enthusiastically asked for large
numbers of women and were willing to assign them to technical fields.
The Marine
Corp aviation units were no exception and right away asked for 9,100. Eventually,
nearly one-third of Women Reservists served in aviation at Marine Corps
Aviation Depot (MCAD) in Miramar, Marine Corps Air Stations (MCAS) Cherry
Point, Edenton, Santa Barbara, El Toro, Parris Island, Mojave, El Centro,
Quantico and at MCAS Ewa.
Aviation
Women's Reserve Squadron 12, MCAS Ewa
MCAS
Ewa was
the only “overseas” Marine Corps air station, the most forward in the
Pacific war and a vital central hub for all manner of aviation training,
including
fighter squadrons, medium bomber squadrons and air transport squadrons. Most of the women Marines were trained in
aviation specialties at MCAS Cherry Point, NC after basic training. Women
Marines were the only military women to receive combat training during basic boot
camp.
Because of
the large number of women posted to air commands, Aviation Women's Reserve
Squadrons were formed: Number 1 at Mojave; Number 2 at Santa Barbara; Number 3
at El Centro; Numbers 4 and 5 at Miramar; Numbers 6-10 at El Toro; Number 11 at
Parris Island; Number 12 at Ewa; Numbers 15-20 at Cherry Point; and Number 21
at Quantico.
By the
summer of 1945, there were 21 officers and 366 enlisted Women Reservists at MCAS
Ewa, and 34 officers and 580 enlisted women in the Women's Reserve Battalion,
Marine Garrison Forces, 14th Naval District.
Woman Marine
Rules And Regulations At The MCAS Ewa Compound
Women
Marines were organized into squadrons with women line officers in command. If a
WR did not perform her work satisfactorily, or arrived late, her male work
supervisor did not discipline her but reported the problem to her commanding
officer for action.
On the other hand, if a WR requested leave, her commanding
officer did not grant it without first clearing it with the work supervisor. It
often happened that unit obligations in the barracks area, such as mess duty,
training, parades, "field days," and inspections conflicted with work
schedules, and this created some animosity between female commanders and male
work supervisors.
At MCAS Ewa women
Marines had a commanding officer who reported to the post commander. However,
there was a new wrinkle in that the women were an autonomous entity — proud to
run their own outfit, handling general administration, barracks area
maintenance, and mess halls.
When women
joined the Marine Corps they elevated the quality of barracks living up a notch
or two. Stark squad bays were sometimes softened with pastel paint and stuffed
animals could be found resting on tightly made bunks. Dressers were lined up to
provide a little privacy, shower curtains were hung, and doors closed off
toilet stalls. Day rooms set aside to entertain dates and were furnished with
board games, pianos, record players and space was found for cooking appliances,
hair dryers, and sewing machines in lounges reserved for women only.
Little time
was wasted on female offenders, and fortunately, there were relatively few
problems. Because of their communal, intense desire to be accepted by Marines
and approved by the general public, women Marines were their own severest
critics and peer pressure to walk a tight line proved very effective. Unlike
earlier policies governing female military nurses, marriage was a cause for
neither discharge nor punishment, and pregnancy was considered a medical rather
than disciplinary case.
A galling
but unchallenged rule was that women on board a base, unlike men of equal rank,
could not have an automobile. It added to the allure of assignment to the motor
pool that the drivers of trucks, jeeps, and buses were more mobile than their
sisters.
At Wars End,
40 percent of the women Marines held jobs in aviation
The end of
WW-II in the Pacific came fairly suddenly. Expecting a two year overseas deployment in Hawaii with
the widely assumed invasion of Japan in 1946 (because the Manhattan A Bomb
project was top secret,) the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused
the Japanese government to quickly surrender unconditionally in September 1945.
The war was suddenly over and everyone wanted to go home. Women Marines were
immediately eligible to return home, as most service members at the time wanted
to do.
However,
they did find the time to be in the large Victory over Japan (VJ Day)
parade held in downtown Honolulu, marching with Navy WAVES and Army
WACS.
Although
nearly everyone expected the women Marines to return home quickly, they were
needed more, not less. Policies regarding the discharge of women — not only
from the Marine Corps, but also from the other services — changed daily. Even
while acknowledging their own opposition to women in uniform, a lot of men were
anxious to keep female clerks on the job to process separation orders, cut
paychecks, distribute medals and decorations, arrange transportation, assist
surviving dependents, and otherwise settle the accounts of thousands of
Marines.
Because
women serving overseas accumulated credits for discharge at the rate of two per
month, compared to one per month for those in the United States, most were
eligible for discharge soon after V-J Day. However Some WR’s stayed to process the men being shipped
through Hawaii on their way home for demobilization, however they were all back
in the States by January 1946.
In the
spring of 1946 there was a steady stream of correspondence among the Services
exploring various proposals to give women permanent status in the military. The
Commandant of the Marine Corps endorsed a plan for a small women's reserve to
be led in peacetime by a director with three officers at Marine Headquarters in
Washington, DC and six in recruiting.
In the midst
of a determined drive to demobilize the Women's Reserve, 300 women were asked
to stay, and even as the last of the WR barracks was being closed, a new unit,
Company E, 1st Headquarters Battalion, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, commanded
by First Lieutenant Regina M. Durant, was activated on 19 August 1946 with 12
officers and 286 enlisted women. Women Marines existed for nearly 30 years
until the all-female units were finally disbanded in the mid-1970s.
FREE A
MARINE TO FIGHT: Women Marines in World War II
by Colonel
Mary V Stremlow, USMCR (Ret)
Women Marines and Navy WAVES in WW-II
Women Marine Reenactor Kaila Wang at MCAS Ewa Field Commemoration
