[Attachment 2] Women in the Armed Forces - 1952

Three years after the war began, the British organized women into military components. General Pershing borrowed several thousand of them for a time, but Britain found she needed them and called them back.

Pershing then asked for units of American women to be enlisted and organized in our own Army. But, because of a legal technicality, he didn't get them. He received civilian women workers instead, under contract. There were no contracts. We were "sworn in."

The Navy, however, could legally do what the Army couldn't. Laws covering the Army permitted it to enlist and commission-only "men,"; but Navy legislation said "persons"—sex not specified.

So the Navy took advantage of the "persons" clause and enrolled several thousand women volunteers as Yeomen (F), popularly called "Yeomanettes."

The Marine Corps enrolled a few hundred female Reservists who were known as "Marinettes." They were and are fully entitled to World War I veterans' benefits.

"[Attachment 2]: Women in The Armed Forces," Excerpt from Armed Forces Talk, 7 November 1952, in Hearing before the Committee on Venteran's Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session on S. 247, S. 1414, S. 129, and Related Bills, Washington DC: US Government Print Office, 25 May 1977, p. 311.