Women
- Jewish Women in the Military
Women have unofficially
served in the American Army since the birth of the United States.
In the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, women often fought disguised as
men. During World War I, women were finally accepted by the Navy, the
Marines, and the Coast Guard. The Army, however, only admitted women to
serve in the Nurses Corps. Several thousand women also served as
drivers, secretaries, clerks, and telephone operators during World War
I, but they worked under civilian contracts, and were not officially in
the Army.
When World War II broke out, women were deperately needed by the Army to
fill important administrative jobs in order to release men for combat.
All branches of the armed forces conducted massive publicity campaigns
urging womne to volunteer and "Free a Man to Fight." In addition, the
Army and Navy Nurses Corps heavily recruited civilian nurses to meet
their own expanding needs.
Today, women are involved in all aspects of the military, from nursing
to combat.
Nurses
Army
Navy
Air Force
Chaplains
Nurses
In all of America's wars, nurses have worked near the front lines of
battle. Under frequent enemy fire in field hospitals, evacuation
hospitals, hospital trains, hospital ships and medical transport planes,
military nurses in wartime are faced with daily situations of grave
danger.
Military nurses are involved in a broad range of activities. They are
expected to adopt innovative solutions to a broad range of medical
problems with limited support, to move and set up field and evacuation
hospitals amidst enemy fire, and to teach and supervise new trainees and
medical personnel to save lives under dire circumstances.
The work of the following women encompasses the many tasks assumed by
military nurses throughout the last 150 years:
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember (Civil War)
Ethel Gladstone (WWI)
Yetta Moskowitz (WWII)
Frances Slanger (WWII)
Gertrude Shapiro (WWII)
Marita Silverman (Vietnam)
Army
In May 1941, a bill was introduced in Congress to create the Women's
Army Auxiliary Corps. The bill languished for several months until the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) signaled the need for
a dramatic mobilization effort. On May 14, 1942, The Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps was officially established.
From the outset, the WAAC was beset with problems: Not officially part
of the Army, WAAC's did the same jobs as soldiers but did not receive
the same pay, rank, legal protections, injury benefits, or other
military entitlements. While women were anxious to serve their country,
these inequities severely inhibited the Army's ability to recruit. By
the spring of 1943, many WAAC training facilities were sitting idle.
In July1943, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the
establishment of the Women's Army Corps with full military status. In
the ensuing months, thousands of American women - Jew and Gentile alike
- answered the call to serve. By the war's end, the glowing record of
achievement and dedicated contributions toward victory on behalf of
America's women motivated President Harry Truman to establish the WACS
as a permanent part of the United States Army and Reserve.
Twelve Jewish American women were included among the first graduating
class of WAAC officers at Fort Des Moines, Iowa on Augus 29, 1942. Other
women active in these corps include:
Matilda and Bernice Blaustein (WWII)
Vicki Lewis (1980s)
Navy
The history of women serving in the United States Navy began in the
Civil War when nuns of the Roman Catholic religious orders came aboard
hospital ships to assist the wounded. While the first trained nurses
served in the Navy during the Spanish-American War, it was not until
1908 that the Navy Nurse Corps was officially established and produced
over 12,000 women who served during World War I. The Navy "WAVES" or
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service force was officially
established on July 30, 1942. The WAVES were created to initiate a rapid
buildup of Navy personnel at the outset of WWII to address an acute
shortage of manpower. With the establishment of a women's reserve force,
Congress hoped to enlist a total of 10,000 women and 1,000 officers to
aid in the war effort.
Women in the Navy have included:
Bernice Sains Freid (WWII)
Bebe Koch (WWII)
Miriam "Mimi" Miller (WWII)
Miranda Bloch (WWII)
Cindy Gats (Desert Storm)
Air Force
Of all the branches of the armed forces, the Air Force has been, from
the beginning, the most receptive toward recruiting women.
In World War II, the Army Air Force recruited an astounding 40 percent
of all women in the armed forces! Under the AAF, women were assigned to
highly responsible positions including jobs as weather observers and
forecasters, cryptographers, radio operators and repairmen, sheet metal
workers, parachute riggers, link trainer instructors, bombsight
maintenance specialists, aerial photograph analysts and control tower
operators. WACS in the AAF were also assigned flying duties.
In today's Air Force, women regularly pilot bomber planes and are
permitted to engage in strategic air strikes.
Selma Cronan (WWII)
Lisa Stein (Desert Storm)
Chaplains
In 1984, Reconstructionist Rabbi Bonnie Koppell became the first woman
officially endorsed as a chaplain in the United States military, while
serving in the Army reserves. It was not until 1992, however, that the
late Rabbi Chana Timoner was appointed the first full time active duty
female chaplain in the United States military.
Bonnie Koppell (Desert Storm)
From:
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Back to Women
|
|
