June 12, 2023 - By Jeff Jardine - President Harry S. Truman changed the American military forever with the stroke of a pen on June 12, 1948.
President Harry S. Truman and women servicemembers.
The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act enabled women for the first time to become permanent members of the United States Armed Forces and its Reserve components; ultimately enabling them to merit veteran status as well as accessing their earned benefits.
CalVet will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its signing on June 12, during its annual Trailblazer Awards reception at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel.
“The Act officially recognized the outstanding service of women, who have always answered the call to serve their nation,” said CalVet Secretary and Navy veteran Lindsey Sin. “The last 75 years of women’s service has been distinguished by courage, sacrifice, and exemplary leadership. We are a better nation because of their service.”
Women have served in unofficial or temporary capacities in every conflict since the American Revolution. During the Civil War, they served as nurses, as spies, and some disguised themselves as men in order to bear arms. The only woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor—Dr. Mary Walker, a Union surgeon—at one point became a Confederate prisoner of war.
Women’s Army Corps members.
Six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill to create the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), later changed to the Women’s Army Corps (WACs). The WACs, along with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service in the United States Navy (WAVES), United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARs), and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), comprised the 350,000 women who served during World War II. They served in a variety of duties, from nursing to clerical work in an effort to free men to fight.
Yet, while 543 women died, including 16 killed by enemy fire, they didn’t qualify for the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill benefits) or any others accorded to men until after Truman signed the legislation.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion of the Women’s Army Corps.
It gave the WACs permanent status in the Army and allowed them to promote through the ranks all the way up to general. The first WAC Training Center at Camp Lee, Virginia, opened on October 4, 1948. The center was led, staffed, and operated solely by women, and more than 30,000 trained there until basic training was moved to Fort McClellan, Alabama, in 1954.
More than 120,000 women served during the Korean War. They were engineers and clerks, and their roles expanded even more so during the Vietnam and Gulf wars. They became part of the regular Army in 1978. In 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta determined that women would be allowed to serve in combat roles, and today they can do so in all branches of the military.
It wasn’t until 1977, however, that those who had served as a WASP during World War II received veteran status and limited veterans benefits. They received special recognition in the form of a Congressional Gold Medal from President Obama in 2009.
Today, women comprise more than 17 percent of the active-duty force and 21 percent of the National Guard and Reserve components, according to the Department of Defense.
There are now two million women veterans in the United States, with more joining the ranks every year.
“We are soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines,” said Virginia Wimmer, CalVet deputy secretary for Women Veterans Affairs and who served 26 years in the Air Force. “We are veterans.”
June 12, 1948, became a signature moment, indeed.
California is home to nearly 163,000 women who served in our U.S. military. CalVet recognizes the unique needs and challenges faced by women veterans and provides specialized services and assistance. For more information visit www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/women-veterans.
Source: CalVet
