Related Research Articles
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, which took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members – the only earlier award being the obsolete Fidelity Medallion. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York.
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the West Coast because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage. As the war progressed, many of the young Nisei, Japanese immigrants' children who were born with American citizenship, volunteered or were drafted to serve in the United States military. Japanese Americans served in all the branches of the United States Armed Forces, including the United States Merchant Marine. An estimated 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II, of which 20,000 joined the Army. Approximately 800 were killed in action.
The Seventh Air Force is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, South Korea.
The United States Naval Reserve , better known as the WAVES, was the women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. It was established on July 21, 1942 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 30. This authorized the U.S. Navy to accept women into the Naval 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 sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments. Mildred H. McAfee, on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. She was commissioned a lieutenant commander on August 3, 1942, and later promoted to commander and then to captain.
The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942 by Pub.L. 77–554, and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States as the WAC on 1 July 1943. Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby, a prominent woman in Texas society. The WAC was disbanded in 1978, and all units were integrated with male units.
Edith Nourse Rogers was an American social welfare volunteer and politician who served in the United States Congress. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Until 2012, she was the longest serving Congresswoman and was the longest serving female Representative until 2018. In her 35 years in the House of Representatives she was a powerful voice for veterans and sponsored seminal legislation, including the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, which provided educational and financial benefits for veterans returning home from World War II, the 1942 bill that created the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), and the 1943 bill that created the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was also instrumental in bringing federal appropriations to her constituency, Massachusetts's 5th congressional district. Her love and devotion to veterans and their complex needs upon returning to civilian life is represented by the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford Massachusetts that is named in her honor.
The 100th Infantry Battalion is the only infantry unit in the United States Army Reserve. In World War II, the then-primarily Nisei battalion was composed largely of former members of the Hawaii Army National Guard. The 100th saw heavy combat during World War II, starting in September 1943 and continuing after being attached as a battalion of the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team in June 1944. The unit was unofficially nicknamed the Purple Heart Battalion, with the motto "Remember Pearl Harbor".
GeneralJohn Reed Hodge was a highly decorated senior officer of the United States Army. His final assignment before retiring was as Chief of Army Field Forces from 1952 to 1953.
United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (Reserve) was the World War II women's branch of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. It was authorized by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 30 July 1942. Its purpose was to release officers and men for combat, and to replace them with women in U.S. shore stations for the duration of the war, plus six months. Ruth Cheney Streeter was appointed the first director. The Reserve did not have an official nickname, as did the other World War II women's military services.
Frederick Carlton Weyand was a general in the United States Army. Weyand was the last commander of United States military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1973, and served as the 28th Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1974 to 1976.
The Army Service Forces was one of the three autonomous components of the United States Army during World War II, the others being the Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces. They were created on 28 February 1942 by Executive Order Number 9082 "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department" and War Department Circular No. 59, dated 2 March 1942.
The United States Army Air Forces was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and de facto aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II (1941–1945). It was created on 20 June 1941 as successor to the previous United States Army Air Corps and is the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force, today one of the six armed forces of the United States. The AAF was a component of the United States Army, which on 2 March 1942 was divided functionally by executive order into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the United States Army Services of Supply, and the Army Air Forces. Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Army Chief of Staff.
Asian Americans, who are Americans of Asian descent, have fought and served on behalf of the United States since the War of 1812. During the American Civil War Asian Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Afterwards Asian Americans served primarily in the U.S. Navy until the Philippine–American War.
The United States Army Nurse Corps was formally established by the U.S. Congress in 1901. It is one of the six medical special branches of officers which – along with medical enlisted soldiers – comprise the Army Medical Department (AMEDD).
The Businessmen's Military Training Corps was a white and part-Hawaiian militia unit to prevent collaboration of Japanese-Americans as a result of a Japanese invasion of Hawaii. The militia was made up of 17 companies, two thirds of which were World War I veterans. Their main activates were patrolling, security, and battle planning. In response to their bias toward whites the Hawaii Defense Volunteers a predominantly Chinese-American militia formed.
The Hawaii Defense Volunteers was a predominantly Chinese-American militia in Hawaii and one of three in Honolulu during World War II. The militia also had Filipinos, Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, and Whites.
The Hawaii Air Depot Volunteer Corps (HADVC) was a civilian Paramilitary unit at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii during World War II. The HADVC took on a wide variety of roles helping in the routine operations of the airfield. Along with the Businessmen's Military Training Corps (BMTC), Hawaii Defense Volunteers, Women's Army Volunteer Corps (WAVC), 1st Oahu Volunteer Infantry, and 2nd Oahu Volunteer Infantry, they formed the Organized Defense Volunteer Regiments. Surprisingly for a civilian militia, they had anti-aircraft guns in their arsenal.
This is a timeline of women in warfare in the United States from 1900 until 1949.
American women in World War II became involved in many tasks they rarely had before; as the war involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale, the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable. Their services were recruited through a variety of methods, including posters and other print advertising, as well as popular songs. Among the most iconic images were those depicting "Rosie the Riveter", a woman factory laborer performing what was previously considered man's work.
Oleta Lawanda Crain was an African-American military officer, federal civil servant, and advocate for black women's rights and desegregation. Out of 300 women nationwide who entered officer training in the U.S. military in 1943, she was one of the three African Americans. She served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, retiring with the rank of major. In 1964 she began working for the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., becoming regional administrator of its Women's Bureau in Denver, Colorado, in 1984. She traveled and spoke extensively to women about employment rights, wages, and career opportunities. She received numerous awards and honors, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.
References
- ↑ "Hawaii War Records Depository HWRD 1329". Hawaii War Records Depository Photos. University of Hawaii at Manoa Library. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ↑ "American Archives Month - Diversity, A Part of the American Dream". October 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ↑ Stentiford, Barry (4 June 2002). The American Home Guard: The State Militia in the Twentieth Century. Texas A&M University Press. p. 151. ISBN 9781585441815.
