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Women At War Redstone's World War II Female "Production Soldiers" More than 50 years ago, fire trucks raced through Huntsville delivering an "Extra" edition of the local newspaper. The 3 July 1941 Huntsville Times' banner headline trumpeted the construction of a $40 million war plant on the southwestern edge of what was then a quiet town in northern Alabama. A month later, the Army's Chemical Warfare Service broke ground on a new chemical munitions manufacturing and storage facility named Huntsville Arsenal. Designed to supplement the production of the Army's only other chemical manufacturing plant at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, Huntsville Arsenal was the sole manufacturer of colored smoke munitions. The facility was also noted for its vast production of gel-type incendiaries. In addition, it manufactured toxic agents such as mustard gas, phosgene, lewisite, white phosphorous, and tear gas. During WWII mor than 27 million items of chemical munitions having a total value of more than $134.5 million were produced at this war plant.
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The Women's Army Corps
Over 150,000 American women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army. Both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform. However, political and military leaders, faced with fighting a two-front war and supplying men and materiel for that war while continuing to send lend-lease material to the Allies, realized that women could supply the additional resources so desperately needed in the military and industrial sectors. Given the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national war effort, women seized it. By the end of the war their contributions would be widely heralded. |
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military history embarrassingly unknown There are very few of us who would deny an indebtedness to at least one woman in our lives. Most would say their own mother is the one woman in their lives who gave the most to enable them to get through life. However, for women in the military, our indebtedness is to those who have come before us — pioneering and blazing new trails for other women to serve their country, to defend the freedoms of our children. But, I would venture a guess that most of us are uneducated as to whom our military "foremothers"; were. It's true that many know the story of Mary McCauley Hays, fondly known as Molly Pitcher. Hays was married to John Casper Hays who served in the Colonial Artillery in 1775. Full Story. Top |
