Women+In+WWII-dc

While Hitler was skulking around Europe pretending to save Germany the erstwhile military minds in Washington were stonewalling womens organizations, patriotic pressures, and anyone who had the temerity to suggest that women should be in the military. The politicians, in typical gerrymandering fashion, made flimsy promises of considering an auxiliary of sorts while quietly hoping it would all go away and secretly trying to figure out how to stop it. Congresswoman Rogers introduced a bill on May 28 th, 1941, to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps for service with the Army of the United States. By virtue of its being an auxiliary corps there was no hint of full military status for women. Fortunately Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers and Eleanor Roosevelt thought otherwise.Four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and twenty three years after the idea of women in the military was born, the Bureau of the Budget stopped objecting, planners began to plan and cooperation suddenly became the watchword. The bill was amended, reintroduced, stuck in committees, and stalled. The search was on for a director, a training center and the appropriate equipment. The military men in charge of logistics searched for ideas for no regulations existed. Finally on May 14th 1942 the bill to "Establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps" became law and Oveta Culp Hobby, wife of the former governor of Texas, was named director. Military nurses were very much involved in the turmoil at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, working under tremendous pressure during the aftermath of the morning's raids. The Japanese attack left 2,235 servicemen and 68 civilians dead. Eighty-two Army nurses were serving at three Army Medical Facilities in Hawaii that infamous December morning. Hundreds of casualties suffering from burns and shock were treated by Army and Navy nurses working side-by-side with civilian nurses and doctors. Nurses at Schofield Hospital and Hickam Field faced similar overwhelming numbers of wounded personnel. The Chief Nurse at Hickam Field, 1st Lt. Annie G. Fox, was the first of many Army nurses to receive a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

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