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$Unique_ID{bob01121}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{(A) History Of The Women Marines 1946-1977
Chapter 11}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stremlow, Col. Mary V.}
$Affiliation{U.S. Marine Corps Reserve}
$Subject{women
marines
company
marine
barracks
wm
officer
wms
woman
officers
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1986}
$Log{See One Stuffed Animal Per Bunk*0112101.scf
}
Title:       (A) History Of The Women Marines 1946-1977
Author:      Stremlow, Col. Mary V.
Affiliation: U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
Date:        1986

Chapter 11

Administration of Women

     The Woman Marine Company was long a standard unit on posts and stations
wherever WMs served.  It was Colonel Towle's expressed policy that no woman
Marine would serve alone and that a woman officer would be assigned wherever
enlisted women were located.  Since it was bothersome to arrange billeting for
a small number of women, it naturally evolved that women were only assigned to
bases that could utilize and support a sizable number and where women could be
organized into a single WM unit.  Women Marines have long been considered an
integral part of the Marine Corps, and the WM company was fitted into the
existing command structure.  For administrative purposes all WMs were carried
on the rolls of the Woman Marine Company, which normally was part of
Headquarters or Headquarters and Service Battalion.  The table of organization
of a typical WM company indicated only the personnel required to command and
administer it: the commanding officer, the executive officer, the first
sergeant, clerks, and a police and property NCO.  The strength of the company
bore no relation to the table of organization as the women making up the
company were filling other authorized billets throughout the base.

     There has been a certain amount of confusion over the name of WM units.
Colonel Hamblet, when she was Director of Women Marines, settled the issue in
1958, drawing attention to the variety of titles in existence.  She cited such
examples as Women Marine Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Camp
Pendleton; Women Marines Detachment Two, Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry
Point; and Woman Marine Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine
Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.  In the interest of uniformity, it was decided
to use the words "Woman" with an "a" and "Marine" without an "s" in the title
designations.  Once in a while the WM companies were given letter names - most
often Company D, which lent itself to the nickname, "Dolly Company."  In one
instance, at Pearl Harbor in 1952-1956, the women Marines were Company A - no
recorded nickname.  At Marine Corps air stations, the women were organized
into a detachment, which was a squadron level unit.  In these cases, the table
of organization called for a sergeant major rather than a first sergeant.

     Administratively, this plan of grouping all WMs into one company while
they worked throughout the command, differed from the organization of male
Marines who were attached to a company within the same battalion for which
they worked.  For the male Marine, his work supervisor and his company
commander were in the same chain of command; for the WM, her work supervisor
could belong to one battalion while her commanding officer belonged to
another.  A cooperative spirit among commands was absolutely essential since
often the interests of the work supervisor and those of the commanding officer
clashed.  Leave and liberty, for example, were granted by the commanding
officer, based upon a written release by the work supervisor.  Company duty
assignments, inspections, and barracks field nights infringed on women's work
responsibilities and vice versa.  On matters of discipline, if a work
supervisor put a woman on report, it was handled not within his chain of
command, but through her company and, when necessary, battalion.

     In spite of these areas of potential conflict, the system worked
relatively smoothly from 1948 until 1974 when an emphasis on a "total Marine
Corps" brought into question the need for separate women commands. An ad hoc
committee met in 1973 and made a number of proposals which opened new career
opportunities for women in the Marine Corps and also recommended changes in
policies that tend to set the women apart as if a separate entity.  As women
moved into more and more previously all-male fields, commanders challenged the
tradition of woman Marine companies.  From posts and stations came the
suggestion to disband the units and to treat the women as all other Marines.
The Commandant's White Letter No. 5-76 also addressed this matter:

With the achievement of more complete integration of women, the requirement
for separate women's units should be reviewed.  Positive benefits can be
derived from assigning women Marines administratively to their duty units.
During transition periods, you may find it desirable to establish additional
duty billets for a woman officer or staff noncommissioned officer to work as
"Special Assistants" in providing guidance relative to woman Marine matters.

     In June 1977 only three WM companies remained - at Henderson Hall, at
Norfolk, and at Camp Lejeune.  The others had been deactivated upon the
request and justification of the commanding generals of the bases at which the
WM units had been located.

     Where no woman Marine company existed, women were administratively
attached to the unit for which they worked, but the billeting was handled in
one of several ways.  They could be billeted in a barracks which came under
the jurisdiction of the command to which they were assigned.  A prime example
was Base Materiel Battalion at Camp lejeune, where in 1976 the commanding
officer, Lieutenant Colonel George J. Ballard, asked to have the WMs working
in his battalion transferred to, and billeted with his unit. Although a
company for all other WMs was still maintained, the women of Base Materiel
Battalion were transferred.  The battalion occupied a new motel-like barracks
in which all rooms had outside entrances.  Lounges, laundries, and other
common areas were shared by men and women.  The WMs, as was their habit,
decorated their rooms and displayed colored towels, and according to Major
Gerald W. Sims, the executive officer, the male Marines had not objected.  The
company commander, Captain Vernon C. Graham, and First Sergeant Charlie L.
Boyd of Headquarters and Service Company were enthusiastic about the value of
having complete control of and responsibility for all Marines in the command.
In the spring of 1977, members of the staff admitted that this was a new idea
for the Marine Corps and in some way an experiment.  Some procedures were
being changed.  Weekly training, for example, found the women drilling and
inspected as a separate platoon, and thought was being given to integrating
the women into the male platoons.

     At Quantico, things were handled differently.  After the deactivation of
the WM company in 1976 women Marines from 11 Marine Corps Development and
Education Center units lived in three barracks.  That fall it was decided to
put the women under one roof again and a new Bachelor Enlisted Quarters was
renovated for them.  This system paralleled the one in existence in 1977 at
Cherry Point where the WM detachment was deactivated on 31 December 1974.  The
women were administratively transferred to the various squadrons and the 2nd
Marine Aircraft Wing, but they remained in the same barracks they had
previously occupied.  Under this arrangement, a woman NCO was responsible for
the barracks, its cleanliness, maintenance, and security.  She checked women
in and out, held linen call, and prepared duty rosters.  On a three-month
assignment, she was away from her regular job for that length of time.

     These barracks NCOs, like Corporal Kay Frazier at Twentynine Palms in
1975, Staff Sergeant Sandra Hoolailo at Quantico, and Sergeant Carol Fox at
Cherry Point in 1977 found that they were involved in many areas formerly
handled by women commanding officers or first sergeants.  Disputes between
roommates, personal problems, and work dissatisfaction were some of the
matters brought to the NCO.  Infractions of barracks regulations and the
preparation of duty rosters still required coordination between the battalion
or squadron maintaining the barracks and the duty units of the women.

     Sergeant Fox, who was stationed at Cherry Point when WMD-2 was active,
and who carried the colors at the deactivation ceremonies, compared both
systems.  In her view, the women had more esprit and were a closer unit when
under one command.  The commanding officer and first sergeant knew the women
personally and were interested in them as individuals.  Since the deactivation
of the detachment, Sergeant Fox felt that unit pride had virtually
disappeared; the barracks was no longer a scrupulously clean showplace; WM
activities, like picnics or ball games, were nonexistent; and the women never
paraded or marched as a unit.  She particularly recalled the spirit and pride
they had felt in the past after events such as IG inspections.  Private First
Class Katie Jones Dixon and Lance Corporal Judith Coy, interviewed at Cherry
Point were, on the other hand, quite satisfied with the arrangement and voiced
no complaints.

     One found, in 1977, senior WMs, officer and enlisted, who were unsure of
the merits of the newer way for two reasons: first, deactivation of WM
companies eliminated the primary source of command experience for company
grade officers; and second, the WM company was a source of group spirit and
pride for the women Marines.  A not uncommon sentiment was that women would
never truly be accepted as Marines by male Marines, and therefore they needed
some visible unit to identify with.  Others - most often junior WMs - saw the
deactivation of WM companies as a sign that women Marines were truly Marines
and not a separate corps.

     An offshoot of the deactivation of WM companies was the new experience
for women having male commanding officers and the novel experience for the men
- commanding women.  Staffs of mixed gender were no longer unusual, and male
Marines were not apt to suffer fits of apoplexy when reporting in and finding
the company clerk or executive officer wearing a skirt.

     Colonel Margaret A. Brewer, the Director of Women Marines during this
period of change, when asked if she thought that the venture of integrating
women into male units was successful, answered that much depended upon the
quality of the leadership.  Where the commanding officers took positive steps
to integrate the women and to make them feel welcome, the system worked.
Women Marines told her that they felt more like Marines - like they belonged.
More importantly, the men took the trouble to learn about WMs, their
regulations, concerns, and problems.  It happened less frequently that male
Marines called on WM officers and SNCOs to handle the routine matters
involving women: uniform discrepancies, poor work habits, and lapses in
military courtesy.  Some "old salts" discovered that the presence of a few WMs
had a beneficial effect on behavior, language, and discipline of the entire
unit.

Supervision and Guidance of Women Marines

     A long-standing tradition, wherever WM companies were found, was that all
women Marine officers and staff noncommissioned officers regardless of their
assignment, accepted some responsibility for the company.  The commanding
officer naturally had the primary responsibility of administration,
discipline, training, morale, and billeting of the enlisted WMs, but all
company grade officers, SNCOs, and NCOs stood WM company duty; took their turn
giving lectures on the training schedule; were apt to be assigned as platoon
leaders; and attended all company sponsored athletic and social happenings.
Every WM second lieutenant left Quantico well indoctrinated with the idea that
the health, happiness, performance, and appearance of all WMs junior to her
were matters of her concern, and the same theme was reiterated in all phases
of NCO training.

     Colonel Towle set the example in the very beginning when, in 1949, she
invited all newly integrated WM officers to her apartment for tea. Lieutenant
Colonel Munn remembers the care with which they dressed - hat and gloves - and
in 1977 reflected on how wise it was of the colonel to bring them all
together, even though they worked throughout the Headquarters.

     Colonel Hamblet, who succeeded Colonel Towle as Director of Women
Marines, believed that senior women Marines, officer and enlisted, in their
relationship with juniors, should be concerned with the "total" person and her
development.  The receptions that women Marines customarily gave for the
Director when she made her annual visit were a part of this philosophy.  The
purpose was not only to give the women and the Director an opportunity to meet
informally and look each other over, but it was an enjoyable way to learn
something about entertaining, extending invitations, making introductions, and
carrying on social conversations.  In most cases, the work supervisors and
their wives were invited and in Colonel Hamblet's view, it was beneficial for
them to see the WMs in their own environment - often leading to a better
understanding between the sexes.

     To be sure, not all the women wanted to get involved in these affairs,
but gentle persuasion and a little well directed leadership on the part of the
commanding officer and the first sergeant worked wonders.  Very often, younger
women were uncomfortable with the prospect of entertaining senior Marines and
this accounted for their apparent disinterest.  When the party was over,
obviously a success, and when the women received the compliments of the
invited Marines and their ladies, they were in Colonel Hamblet's words,
". . . pleased as punch."

     All women staff noncommissioned officers took an active role in the
supervision and guidance of younger WMs.  They were considered a vital link
between the commanding officer and her women, spotting potential problems and
alert to changes in mood and morale.  During the 13-year period between the
time postwar enlistment was opened to nonveterans in January 1949 until World
War II WMs began to retire in 1962, there existed a group of staff
noncommissioned officers, older and more experienced, who felt a real
obligation to the younger Marines.  Due to the fact that there was no
recruiting of women from 1945 to 1949, and because the WMs were at least 20
years old when they enlisted during the war, the age difference was quite
pronounced.  First Sergeant Schultz remembers that when the enlistment age was
lowered to 18, the officers and NCOs felt a real obligation to ". . . these
youngsters."

     Women Marines who served in the 1950's and early 1960's tell many
anecdotes that attest to the concern of these SNCOs for the WMs junior to
them.  One name often mentioned was that of Master Sergeant Lucretia E.
Williams, retired in 1976, a supply NCO who was known to buy items for the
barracks and mess hall out of her own money.  When the WMs scheduled ball
games or hikes, she often arranged for cool drinks and then carried the large
thermos jugs to the field herself.  Colonel Hilgart remembers a time as the
commanding officer of WMD-1 when a snafu held up a check meant to pay for a WM
ball team trip and Master Sergeant Williams appeared at the company office
with a personal check for over $200.

     Another woman remembered by many is Master Sergeant Catherine G. Murray
who on 30 November 1962 became the first enlisted woman Marine to transfer to
the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve at the completion of nearly 20 years of
service.  Master Sergeant Murray could be found in the barracks every Sunday
morning rousing up all the Roman Catholics and driving them to Mass.
Returning with one group from the early service, she gathered up more for the
next one.  All women with obvious Irish or Italian names were presumed
Catholics and taken to church.  Major Joan Collins, as an enlisted WM at
Quantico, was a member of Master Sergeant Murray's "Volunteer" group that
helped the nuns prepare the altar at nearby St. Francis parish in Triangle,
Virginia.  A Lutheran with an Irish name, she nonetheless spent three
consecutive Saturdays cleaning and arranging altar cloths.

     Warrant Officer Eileen R. Scanlon relates another story that typifies the
relationship of these women to the WM company.  On a bitter cold day in
January 1961, the women Marines of Henderson Hall marched in President
Kennedy's inaugural parade.  The women having been instructed to dress warmly,
layered flannel pajamas, woolen bermuda shorts, and whatever else they could
fit under their uniforms.  Not able to wear boots in a parade, they wore
woolen socks cut off at the top so as not to show above the oxfords.  But
simple advice was not enough.  Before leaving the barracks, all the SNCOs went
through the squadbays inspecting each woman to ensure she had carried out the
instructions.

     Several factors have combined to change the role played by women officers
and staff noncommissioned officers in the supervision and guidance of women
Marines and the very personal concern evidenced in the incidents related above
is now relatively rare.  In the late 1960's, as a result of recommendations
made by the Woman Marine Program Study Group, women SNCOs were allowed to move
out of the barracks, and more officers were given permission to move off base,
making them far less accessible.  Attrition was much higher in the 1950's and
1960's before the change in regulations which allowed women with children to
remain on active duty, thereby causing a shortage of older, mature SNCOs.
Finally, the World War II WMs began to retire in 1962 and the women Marines
lost this nucleus of officers and noncommissioned officers which for many
years felt a special motherly responsibility to new WMs and to the success of
the WM program.

Barracks

     Marines have never disputed the philosophy that men are different from
women.  But even acknowledging this or expecting it in no way lessened the
initial jolt to a male "old salt" the first time he set foot in a WM barracks.
Women are vitally concerned with their living areas, they spend more time in
their quarters, and they have needs unique to the distaff community.

     Colonel Streeter and her officers in World War II recognized these things
early on and even in the midst of a war felt it was important to insist upon
certain amenities for the women.  A guest lounge became standard.  One room,
usually furnished with comfortable chairs, sofa, TV (later), and record player
was set aside to greet and entertain male guests.  The regulations regarding
proper attire and behavior were quite strict: Marines, men and women, had to
dress in full uniforms or comparable civilian clothing.  For the women,
sportswear, shorts, or slacks were definitely not considered appropriate for
the guest lounge.

     Very often the barracks boasted a sewing room, hair dryers,
refrigerators, and some cooking equipment.  Adequate laundry appliances were
the subject of no small number of memoranda from the Director's office.  It
had to be explained that women, as opposed to men, do not send personal
clothing to commercial laundries and therefore needed more washing machines,
dryers, and ironing boards than government specifications allowed.  There was
some feeling among WMs of that era that, in the end, the men's barracks had
been improved and better equipped as an outgrowth of the women's insistence on
nicer living conditions.

     Barracks life in the days of the open squadbays offered little privacy,
so whenever possible, the commanding officer would set aside a "quiet room."
It was a place to read, to study, to write letters, or to cry: it helped
fulfill a woman's need to just be alone.  For privacy's sake another
distinguishing mark of the distaff barracks took hold - the fence. Discreetly,
a fence hid from public view the dainty unmentionables drying on the clothes
line while at the same time providing a spot for sunbathing.

     Where the WMs excelled at making a squadbay a home was in the decoration
of their individual areas.  Before the Department of Defense regulations
requiring more space and privacy were published in 1973, most Marines were
quartered in open squad rooms outfitted with double metal bunks, lockers, and
locker boxes.  Wooden dressers were a concession to the women, and normally
had to be shared.  Much ingenuity went into the arrangement of the furniture
to form cubicles, thereby assuring a measure of privacy to the several
occupants.

     A persuasive commanding officer could often talk the battalion commander
and S-4 into pastel colored paint - a very radical innovation in the 1950's.
Colored rugs, bedspreads, and towels; perfume bottles, prayer books, and
photos on the dressers; and finally stuffed animals on the bunks were all
privileges eventually won, but often not easily.  To keep some semblance of
order, the company regulations specified how many items per dresser, and how
many stuffed dolls by size per bunk.

[See One Stuffed Animal Per Bunk: Early in the 1950s women were issued a
dresser and permitted to display one stuffed animal per bunk as shown in this
photograph taken at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.]

     Understandably, many male Marines had a difficult time adjusting to this
desecration of a barracks.  Before long, however, the idea gained remarkable
acceptance, and at most posts and stations the WM barracks was a mainstay on
the itinerary of visiting dignitaries.

Daily Routine

     Life on board a Marine base in 1977 would have been only vaguely familiar
to the WM of 1949 or even 1959.  The most obvious difference would have
focused on the barracks building itself apt to be motel-like with outside
entrances for each room or hotel-like with rooms opening on a long passageway.
Closets and dressers would have replaced lockers and locker boxes and the
metal double bunks would have become unknown items of the past.  Reveille
would still come too soon, but would be more likely to be announced over a
public address system than by means of a bugle.

     WMs, until the mid-1950's, held an outdoor formation at rollcall each
morning, summer and winter, in utilities.  Since then rollcalls have become
less and less regimented and are generally taken by an NCO with the Marines
standing by in their areas.

     Mess halls, once furnished with long tables and benches, have become
known as dining facilities and feature restaurant-style tables and chairs.
Mandatory chow formations for the morning and evening meals are all but a
memory since 1960.  The requirement to wear a uniform to the mess hall was
eased to allow civilian clothing first on weekends, then for the evening meal,
and finally for all meals.  In 1977, at Henderson Hall, appropriate attire for
the dining facility permitted neat, but not frayed jeans and excluded only
shorts, halters, tank tops, and physical training outfits.

     Liberty cards and liberty logs also had joined "Old Corps" lore by 1970.
Before that time all Marines signed out with the barracks duty NCO, and each
was closely inspected to see that he or she was properly dressed. WM company
regulations generally went a step further.  At most commands women Marines
could not sign out on liberty after a certain time, perhaps 2130 or 2200, and
liberty often expired within an hour after the service clubs closed.
Cinderella liberty, as it was called, and the motherly concern of commanding
officers, served to challenge the inventiveness of the women who found some
ingenious ways to circumvent the rules.

     The WM of 1977 walked out of the barracks at will.  Dressed in slacks,
she did not find it necessary to prove that she was going to participate in an
active sport.  Shorts did not have to be covered by a modest skirt, and
wearing jeans was not strictly limited to carwashing in the immediate vicinity
of the barracks.  She was expected to be back on time by reveille, but beyond
that she was largely her own boss.

Discipline

     Regulations regarding apprehension, arrest, restrictions, and
confinement, from a technical standpoint have been equally applicable to all
Marines, however, philosophical and practical consideration have dictated
unequal enforcement.  The differences primarily involve investigative
procedures and confinement policies.  Since women did not have a military
obligation, there was a tacit agreement that the best interests of the Marine
Corps were served by removal of habitual offenders.  WMs who just could not
adjust to military life, who caused mote work than they produced, and who had
a negative effect on command morale and discipline were, when possible,
administratively discharged.  The Marine Corps expeditious discharge program,
which was initiated in 1975 to improve the quality of personnel serving in the
Corps, was based on much the same idea.

     The interrogation of women poses problems for both civilian and military
police.  In order to protect women from abuse and at the same time to protect
the police from false accusations, authorities usually demand the attendance
of a woman witness during the questioning.  It had been Marine Corps policy to
require on these occasions the presence of a woman officer or mature staff
noncommissioned officer - senior to the woman being interrogated - who could
counsel and advise the suspect.  The accused could waive this privilege as
long as it was done in writing and before a woman officer or her own
commanding officer.

     For a time it was planned to train enough women investigators so that
each post and station would have available a capable officer or NCO to assist
the provost marshal when necessary.  There was no intention to assign these
women to any sort of police duty.  Second Lieutenant Marjorie E. O'Hanlon and
Ruth F. Reinholz were the first two women Marine officers to attend Provost
Marshal General's School - Investigative Officers Course at Camp Gordon,
Georgia, from 6 July to 2 September 1953.  The two-month class covered
surveillance techniques, photography, fingerprinting, and interrogation.  The
women were well trained but the idea backfired.  No one, not even their best
friends, trusted the new investigators, and after sending women Marines to
several more classes, the project was abandoned.

     There always existed a reluctance to confine women, and policy prohibited
the use of brigs and guardhouses for them.  Those guilty of civil crimes could
be sent to civilian prisons.  Women who rated confinement as a result of a
court martial were more apt to be restricted to the barracks and fined - a
punishment that did not require posting a guard.

     When WM companies were routine, and if the offense was serious, women
could be confined in the barracks.  A number of barracks had a room set aside
specifically for that purpose.  It was sparsely furnished, had a door with a
small window, and could be locked from the passageway.  The confinement of a
woman Marine in the barracks invariably affected the morale of the entire
unit.  Guards were posted around the clock causing many extra duty assignments
for the NCOs; meals had to be brought in; and merely passing the locked door
was unnerving to the others.

     With the disbandment of WM companies and the resultant loss of
appropriate barracks, confinement posed additional problems.  Punishment had
not necessarily been diminished; on the contrary, policy changes have allowed
a mote liberal use of civilian jails.  In 1977, a woman Marine convicted by a
court martial could face restriction plus a fine or detention in an approved
civilian prison - depending upon the judgment of the commanding officer.

     Based on the number of courts martial pet total strength, the woman
Marine disciplinary rate was less than one percent.  Although there have been
few cases, each one is disproportionately magnified due to the very rarity of
occurrence and the lingering hesitancy to confine women.