WW2 Photo WWII Female US Marine with Gas Mask MCWR 1944 USMC World War Two/1466

Description

Female US Marine with Gas Mask
USMC MCWR 1944
This is a nice
reproduction of an original WWII photograph of a female member of the US Marine Corps Womens Reserve preparing to don a gas mask for training in 1944.  Great photo, but a very cumbersome looking gas mask!   Size of photo is about 5" x 5".
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The
United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve
(MCWR), was the
World War II
women's branch of the US Marine Corps Reserve. It was authorized by the
U.S. Congress
and signed into law by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
30 July 1942. Yet, the Marine Corps delayed the formation of the MCWR until 13 February 1943. This law allowed for the acceptance of women into the reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for combat and to replace them with women in shore stations.
Ruth Cheney Streeter
was appointed the first director of the MCWR. She was sworn in with the rank of
Major
and later was promoted to a full
Colonel
. Streeter was a graduate of
Bryn Mawr College
and had been involved in health and welfare work. The MCWR did not have an official
nickname
, as did the other World War II women's military services.
The women were assigned to over 200 different jobs, among them: radio operator,
photographer
,
parachute
rigger, driver, aerial gunnery instructor,
cook
, baker,
quartermaster
, control tower operator, motion picture operator, auto mechanic,
telegraph
operator,
cryptographer
,
laundry
operator,
post exchange
manager,
stenographer
, and
agriculturist
. They would serve as the trained nucleus for possible mobilization emergencies. The demobilization of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve of 820 officers and 17,640 enlisted was to be completed by 1 September 1946. Of the 20,000 women who had joined the Marine Corps during World War II, only 1,000 remained in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve on 1 July 1946.
On 12 June 1948, the
United States Congress
passed the
Women's Armed Services Integration Act
, and made women a permanent part of the regular Marine Corps.
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1466