•HRES 41 EH
Whereas General Eisenhower stated, ‘‘During the time I have
had WACs under my command they have met every test
and task assigned to them; their contributions in effi-
ciency, skill, spirit, and determination are immeas-
urable’’;
Whereas at the end of the war 657 women were honored for
their service in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and
the Women’s Army Corps, receiving medals and citations
including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of
Merit, the Air Medal, the Soldiers’ Medal for heroic ac-
tion, the Purple Heart, and the Bronze Star;
Whereas in 1946 the Army requested that Congress establish
the Women’s Army Corp as a permanent part of the
Army, perhaps the single greatest indication of the value
of women in the Army to the war effort;
Whereas during World War II women served with the Army
Air Forces in the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron
(WAFS), the Women’s Flying Training Detachment
(WFTD), and the Women Air Force Service Pilots
(WASPs);
Whereas women serving with the Army Air Forces ferried
planes from factories to airfields, performed test flights
of repaired aircraft, towed targets used in live gunnery
practice by male pilots, and performed a variety of other
duties traditionally performed by men;
Whereas women pilots flew more than 70 types of military
aircraft, from open-cockpit primary trainers to P–51
Mustangs, B–26 Marauders, and B–29 Superfortresses;
Whereas from September 10, 1942, to December 20, 1944,
1,074 WASPs flew an aggregate 60,000,000 miles in
wartime service;
•HRES 41 EH
Whereas, although WASPs were promised military classifica-
tion, they were classified as civilians and the 38 WASPs
who died in the line of duty were buried without military
honors;
Whereas WASPs did not receive official status as military
veterans until March 1979, when WASP units were for-
mally recognized as components of the Air Force;
Whereas during World War II women in the Navy served in
the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service
(WAVES);
Whereas approximately 90,000 WAVES served the Navy in
a variety of capacities and in such numbers that, accord-
ing to a Navy estimate, enough men were freed for com-
bat duty to crew the ships of four major task forces, each
including a battleship, two large aircraft carriers, two
heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and 15 destroyers;
Whereas WAVES who served in naval aviation taught instru-
ment flying, aircraft recognition, celestial navigation, air-
craft gunnery, radio, radar, air combat information, and
air fighter administration, but were not allowed to be pi-
lots;
Whereas, at the end of the war, Secretary of the Navy James
Forrestal stated that members of the WAVES ‘‘have ex-
ceeded performance of men in certain types of work, and
the Navy Department considers it to be very desirable
that these important services rendered by women during
the war should likewise be available in postwar years
ahead’’;
Whereas during World War II women served in the Marine
Corps in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve;
•HRES 41 EH
Whereas more than 23,000 women served at shore establish-
ments of the Marine Corps, and by the end of the war,
85 percent of the enlisted personnel assigned to Head-
quarters, Marine Corps were women;
Whereas during the war women were assigned to over 200
different specialties in the Marine Corps, and by per-
forming these duties freed men for active duty to fight;
Whereas during World War II women served in the Coast
Guard in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARs);
Whereas more than 10,000 women volunteered for service
with the Coast Guard during the period from 1942
through 1946, and when the Coast Guard was at the
peak of its strength during the war, one out of every 16
members of the Coast Guard was a SPAR;
Whereas the SPARs who attended the Coast Guard Academy
were the first women in the United States to attend a
military academy, and by filling shore jobs for the Coast
Guard SPARs freed men to serve elsewhere;
Whereas by the end of World War II more than 400,000
women had served the United States in military capac-
ities;
Whereas these women, despite their merit and the recognized
value and importance of their contributions to the war ef-
fort, were not given status equal to their male counter-
parts and struggled for years to receive the appreciation
of the Congress and the people of the United States;
Whereas these women helped to catalyze the social, demo-
graphic, and economic evolutions that occurred in the
1960’s and 1970’s and continue to this day; and
•HRES 41 EH
Whereas these pioneering women are owed a great debt of
gratitude for their service to the United States: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Honoring American
Military Women for Their Service in World War II Resolu-
tion’’.
SEC. 2. COMMENDATION AND RECOGNITION OF WOMEN WHO
SERVED THE UNITED STATES IN MILITARY CAPAC-
ITIES DURING WORLD WAR II.
The House of Representatives—
(1) honors the women who served the United States
in military capacities during World War II;
(2) commends these women who, through a sense of
duty and willingness to defy stereotypes and social pres-
sures, performed military assignments to aid the war ef-
fort, with the result that men were freed for combat du-
ties; and
(3) recognizes that these women, by serving with
diligence and merit, not only opened up opportunities for
women that had previously been reserved for men, but