U. S. Signal Corps Unit at Headquarters - 1918

Telephone Operators that Form the Third Unit of the US Army Signal Corps' "Hello Girls," Shown at the Headquarters Building in New York.

Telephone Operators that Form the Third Unit of the US Army Signal Corps' "Hello Girls," Shown at the Headquarters Building in New York. Miss Nellie F. Snow is the Operator in Charge. War Work Bulletin, 26 April 1918. GGA Image ID # 19bba83086

Uncle Sam's soldiers are going to have their "Hello's" said to them in good old American by real American "Hello Girls" when they get across the ocean.

The third telephone unit of the signal corps of the United States Army is ready to start for "Someplace in France."

While the twenty-eight girls who comprise the unit await their sailing orders, they are being billeted in the National Training School of the YWCA, next door to the national board offices on Lexington Avenue, New York City.

Beds were fitted up in every conceivable space to make room for them. Even the drying room on the twelfth floor was turned into an emergency dormitory, which the girls have christened "The Barracks."

They wear navy blue uniforms with Norfolk style coats, blue “trench caps” for every day and sailor shapes of blue felt for “dress.” White armbands with a telephone mouthpiece embroidered in blue tell the story of their work.

On one corner of their coat collar, they have the two metal letters "U. S." of the army, and on the other corner are the crossed flags that form the insignia of the signal corps.

Miss Nellie F. Snow, who for seven years has been the chief operator of the New England Telephone Company at Lowell, Mass., is in charge of the unit. The supervisors are Miss Marie L. Beraud, a French-born woman from New York City, and Miss Elizabeth R. Roby of Chicago.

Many of the girls are native French women. One of them, Miss Bertha Wuilleumier, was born in Switzerland. All speak French. All have been recruited from the switchboards of the United States.

They don't know when they will sail, but they're "at home" at the YWCA until the order comes.

The rest of the unit includes:

From New York City:

  • Miss Suzanne M. Beraud
  • Miss Louisette H. Gavard
  • Miss Margaret Hutchins
  • Miss Frances Des Jardins

From San Francisco:

  • Miss Lucille De Jersey
  • Miss Miriam De Jersey
  • Miss Bertha M. Hunt
  • Miss Margaret H. Milner
  • Miss Martha Steinbrunere
  • Miss Hope Kervin
  • Miss Marie L. Bousquet

From Chicago:

  • Miss Marie Flood
  • Miss Dorothy L. Sage
  • Miss Bertha J. Verkler
  • Miss Lillian V. Verkler

From Lowell, MA:

  • Miss Yvonne M. Gauthier
  • Miss Eugenie Racicot

From Other Locations:

  • Miss A. Maude McMullen, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Miss Michele F. Blanc, France/Boston, MA
  • Miss Marie B. Belanger, Rochester, NY
  • Miss Suzanne Coheleach, Astoria, Long Island, NY
  • Miss Blanche Grand-Maitre, Minneapolis, MN
  • Miss Adele L. Hoppock, Seattle, WA
  • Miss Janet R. Jones, Newark, OH

"U.S. Sugnal Corps Unit at Headquarters," in War Work Bulletin, New York: The National Board of the Young Womens Christian Associations, No. 29, 26 April 1918, p. 4.

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