Women Military Specialists
"All around the country women stepped into government jobs vacated by men."¹ More than a million women came to Washington D.C. As more men were deployed overseas, women were admitted into professional classifications. By 1944, women accounted for more than a third of civil service jobs. "Women served in crucial positions in intelligence gathering and analysis, and cryptography. To this day, many will not talk about their classified jobs."¹
Grace Porter Miller was a cryptographic specialist who worked out of England. She described her rare and important work for the war: "After receiving my security classification, I was assigned to the cryptographic section... To enter, we had to pass through three guarded doors, then knock on the code room door and be identified... Communications came in or went out in various codes. We encoded them and sent them on to the proper persons... Accuracy was essential. One letter wrong, and the meaning of the whole letter could be lost... We could never talk about any message we handled. What we read in that room, stayed in that room."²
Virginia Hall originally wanted to be a diplomat but that "was thwarted in 1932 when she lost part of her leg in a hunting accident and had to use a wooden prosthesis... She was in Paris when the war started. She worked on an ambulance corps until the Vichy government took over, at which point she went to England and volunteered to become an American spy."³ After training in England, she returned to Vichy-controlled France, where she supported the Resistance until the total Nazi takeover. "She escaped on foot to pain through the mountains, no mean feat with an artificial leg. She continued to help the underground Resistance and also provided maps to Allied forces for drop zones, found safe houses and otherwise provided intelligence activities. She assisted in training at least three battalions of French Resistance forces and continuously reported on enemy movements. The Germans recognized her activities and made her one of their most wanted spies calling her the "woman with a limp" and "Artemis."³ She was the first female to be awarded the Distinguished Service cross.
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¹Excerpt from National Women's History Museum; ²Excerpt from American Voices from World War II; ³Excerpt from About.com; Pictures from National Women's History Museum