Although women first wore the forest green uniform with the globe-and-anchor insignia in World War I, the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was not established until February 13, 1943. Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter, a mother of four from Morristown, N.J., was appointed as its first director. Unlike the WAC, WAVES and SPARS, the women of the Marines had no official nickname. They were known as the Women's Reserve until 1948, when the Women's Armed Services Integration Act established the enlistment and appointment of women in the regular Marine Corps and they became the Women Marines.
In June 1943 all training for the women moved to Camp Lejeune, N.C., making the Marine Corps the only branch of the military that trained male and female enlistees and officers in the same location. Approximately 20,000 women served in the Marines, filling more than 200 different job categories.
 |
Women Marines maintain their barracks during basic training at Camp Lejeune, N.C. in 1945. The first Women Marines had been trained at Navy centers at Smith College and Mount Holyoke College, but by June 30, 1943, all training had been consolidated at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps' largest base. (Margaret Helen “June” Crowel Collection, #WV-0137) |
Marines of the Women's Reserve working on tail repair at Norman, Oklahoma, in 1943. (Phyllis N. Snyder Collection, #WV-0146) |
 |
 |
Members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve attending class at the 1st Sergeant's School at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Pennsylvania, 1944. (Official Photo of U.S. Marine Corps, photo by A.A. Freeman, Katherine Faye Giles Collection, #WV-0215) |
Members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve wore uniforms of the same traditional Marine forest green as their male counterparts. This is the winter uniform. (Women Veterans General Textile Collection, #WV-0001) |
 |
 |
This forest-green bell-crown hat was one of the most distinctive features of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve uniform. The women were required to match their lipstick to the color of the red cord on the hat. (Helen Boileau Hester Collection, #WV-0128) |
To return to the online exhibit Women at War, select a link from the catagories below to view the materials on display.
Return to the Women Veterans Historical Collection main page
Permission of the repository required to cite, quote, or reproduce in published works.
