Of course, that certificate wasnot mentioned in announcing passage of the recognition bill.
Thestory, consequently that made the papers across the country, was thatthis was a benevolent concession on the part of the Congress that hadpreviously issued its certificate of gratitude to the ten women who hadrisked their lives in the combat-zone. In 1978 Congress finally passed a billto recognize the 223 women as veterans, albeit NOT retroactive. The fire wasput out, or they would have been the first women casualties in combat inthe U.S. It took sixty years for these fighting women to be recognized asveterans, but it was not retroactive in the sense of their always havingbeen veterans - they only "became" veterans as a condecension in 1978.When one of the buildings, in which these ten women were installed, wasset on-fire, GHQ ordered them to leave and the women refused because thecalls were pouring in from the trenches and communications could not beinterrupted for their personal safety at the height of the battlebecause of the order issued in consideration of their sex. Therefore these women had to be lying about their experience, as werethe male officers who had sworn them in! Even the affidavits of alltheir commanding officers, including Pershing's emergency-call itself,were conveniently lost and they were told they had been"contract-employees" although the Army was never able to produce asingle contract. For Congress, it was unthinkable to add 223 womenwho had served overseas to the men they had ordered to be brutallydispersed by mounted police with billy-clubs. The stock-marketbust and one-third unemployment had forced a show-down with the menveterans camped on the lawns before Congress asking only for afifty-dollar bonus. When these women finally took a bill into Congress in 1930, theysuffered from the worst of all timing - the Federal Government (it isstill kept a secret) was on the verge of bankruptcy. Although these women were sworn into the Army (my mother twice, thefirst timebeside her brother in Detroit) before leaving New Jersey to set sail inMarch and June 1918, and although ten of them actually received acommendation "In Grateful Recognition" from Congress, when they returnedthey were told they could NOT have been sworn into the Army because onlymen were allowed to be sworn in according to Army regulations. Of the 300 selected and trained in New Jersey for "self-defense" in casetheir behind-the-lines position were over-run, five contingentstotalling 223 women were dispatched to Chaumont, when the astonishingnews of Victory arrived on November 11, 1918. She had been given the onlysupervisorial position open to women at that time, when she graduated fromhigh school at sixteen. She has yet another unrecognized contribution thatqualified her for the first one. My mother was, I believe the youngest as I recall from the roster,accepted when she volunteered because she was the only one who bothspoke French and had had three years' Bell-Telephone experience fortraining long-distance operators. Several of them were under 25 -these exceptions having been made because so few were fluent in French. They also received their mail in thesame way as all soldiers and were hospitalized with them when ill.
Signal corp plus#
Army regulations plus ten more thatpreserved the virtue of women. They were addressed as "soldier," subject toCourt-Martial and to all U.S. These 300 women were selected for their fulfillment of the requirements,which included the minimum age of 25 - they were to be given theequivalent to the men's rank of lieutenant, "same as Army Nurses," whichgave them the 'privilege' of buying their own uniforms, unlike theenlisted men. Army as volunteers inresponse to General Pershing's emergency call for bilingual(French-English) long-distance operators to run the switchboards in thefirst effort in the history of warfare to connect the foot-soldiers inthe trenches to their generals behind the lines. Three hundred women were sworn into the U.S. Army Signal Corps, - the only military women not nurses - to serve overseas during World War One, are stillunheard of in the history books and on the world wide web. "Twenty years after they were finally recognized by Congress as the veterans they had been for sixty years, the first women in the U.S. Here is an excerpt from Michelle's fascinating piece about her Mother - Oleda Christides. Many thanks to her daughter Michelle Christides for writing this information - which unfortunately had to be condensed because of space limitations. WWI Signal Corps Women The Unsung Women of World War One
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