page_title: Puerto Rican women in the military
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Rican women in the military / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Puerto Rican Army nurses, 296th Station Hospital, Camp Tortuguero, Vega Baja, PR, 1945
context_page_description: Two of the least-known roles played by Puerto Rican women and women of Puerto Rican descent have been that of soldier and that of revolutionary. This is a brief account of some the Puerto Rican women who have participated in military actions as members of either a political revolutionary movement or of the Armed Forces of the United States.
context_section_description: When the United States entered World War II, the military was in need of nurses. Puerto Rican nurses wanted to volunteer for service, however they were not accepted into the Army or Navy Nurse Corps.  As a result, many of the island's women work force migrated to the mainland U.S. to work in the factories which produced military equipment.
  In 1944, the Army sent recruiters to the island to recruit no more than 200 women for the Women's Army Corps (WAC).  Over 1,000 applications were received for the unit which was to be composed of only 200 women.  The Puerto Rican WAC unit, Company 6, 2nd Battalion, 21st Regiment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, a segregated Hispanic unit, was assigned to the New York Port of Embarkation, after their basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. They were assigned to work in military offices which planned the shipment of troops around the world.
  Among them was  PFC Carmen García Rosado, who in 2006, authored and published a book titled Las WACS: Participacion de la Mujer Boricua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial (The WACs: Participation of Puerto Rican Women in the Second World War), the first book to document the experiences of the first 200 Puerto Rican women who participated in said conflict.
  According to García Rosado, one of the principal hardships endured by Puerto Rican military women was racial discrimination, which was rampant throughout the U.S. at the time.
  That same year the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) decided to accept Puerto Rican nurses. Thirteen women submitted applications, were interviewed, underwent physical examinations, and were accepted into the ANC.  Eight of these nurses were assigned to the Army Post at San Juan, where they were valued for their bilingual abilities.  Five nurses were assigned to work at the hospital at Camp Tortuguero, Puerto Rico.
  The Navy also recruited a small number of Puerto Rican women as members of the Navy Women's Reserve known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II. Among the women who served in the military and distinguished themselves were:
  Tech4 Carmen Contreras-Bozak (1919 – 2017) who was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico, was the first Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Women's Army Corps as an interpreter, and in numerous administrative positions. She arrived in Northern Africa on January 27, 1943 and rendered overseas duties in Algiers within General Dwight D. Eisenhower's theatre headquarters. Her responsibilities included the transmission of encoded messages to the battlefield.
  Second Lieutenant Carmen Lozano Dumler (1921 - 2015) who was born in San Juan, was one of the first Puerto Rican women to become a United States Army officer. In 1945, Lozano Dumler was assigned to the 359th Station Hospital of Ft. Read, Trinidad & Tobago, British West Indies, where she attended wounded soldiers who had returned from Normandy, France.
  Lieutenant Junior Grade Maria Rodriguez Denton (United States Navy), born June 14, 1909 in the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico, was the first woman from Puerto Rico who became an officer in the United States Navy as member of the WAVES. The Navy assigned  Denton as a library assistant at the Cable and Censorship Office in New York City.  It was Lt. Denton who forwarded the news (through channels) to President Harry S. Truman that the war had ended.
  Sylvia Rexach. one of Puerto Rico's greatest composers of boleros, dropped-out of the University of Puerto Rico in 1942 and joined the U.S. Women's Army Corps where she served as an office clerk. She served in the military until 1945, when she was honorably discharged.
  Marie Teresa Rios was a writer of Puerto Rican descent who also served in World War II. Rios is the mother of Medal of Honor recipient Capt. Humbert Roque Versace and author of The Fifteenth Pelican, which was the basis for the 1960s television sitcom "The Flying Nun." She drove Army trucks and buses, and also served as a pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. Rios Versace wrote and edited for newspapers in Guam, Germany, Wisconsin, and South Dakota, and the publications Star & Stripes and
caption: Puerto Rican Army nurses, 296th Station Hospital, Camp Tortuguero, Vega Baja, PR.
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