Wednesday, February 15, 2012

What military jobs would women have held in Honolulu during the Pearl Harbor attack?

I'm researching, and would like to know if women would have held any military support jobs other than nurses (such as secretaries, pilots, etc...)? If so, did they belong to a special branch of the military, or would they have been hired as civilians. Specifically posts held BEFORE the breakout of war.What military jobs would women have held in Honolulu during the Pearl Harbor attack?Only military nurses served at Pearl Harbor prior too, and during the bombing on 7 Dec 1941. It was during 1942 that women began to enter the Army WAACS %26amp; Navy WAVES in other job classifications. Don't overlook Cornelia Fort, she was a civilian pilot in the air teaching a student during the attack. She later was a member of WAFS, the predecessor of what became the WASP.

Cornelia Fort is said to be the first woman pilot to die in the service of our country.What military jobs would women have held in Honolulu during the Pearl Harbor attack?While I know during the war women did become pilots (though in the US they didn't become combat pilots, though they did serve as ferry pilots and in at least one instance as test pilots of a sort), I'm not aware of any female military pilot in the US prior to Pearl.



Women would join as WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), WACs (Women's Army Corps), and WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during the war. The last two came into existence in '42 and the WASPs in '43. However, the WASPs actually had been proposed in the summer of '41 and had two predecessors which came into existence in '42 which would be combined in '43 to form the WASPs. These were the WFTD (Women's Flying Training Detachment) and the WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron).

No comments:

Post a Comment