SPARS

United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 23 November 1942. This law authorized the acceptance of women into the reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level for the duration of World War II plus six months. Its purpose was to release officers and men for sea duty and to replace them with women at shore stations. Dorothy C. Stratton was appointed director of the SPARS with the rank of lieutenant commander and later promoted to captain.

The qualifying age for officer candidates was between 20 and 50, and they were required to have a college degree, or two years of college and two years of professional or business experience. For enlisted personnel, the qualifying age was between 20 and 36, and they were required to have completed at least two years of high school. Initially African American women were not recruited, however, late in the war five African American women were accepted and served as SPARS. Officer candidates received their indoctrination at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts and later at the USCG Academy, New London, Connecticut. Enlisted personnel first received their training on several college campuses. Later, their training took place at Palm Beach, Florida, in the Biltmore Hotel that was remodeled for use as a training center. Toward the end of the war, training of enlisted personnel was transferred from Palm Beach to Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York.

Women of the SPARS served in every USCG district except Puerto Rico and also served in Hawaii and Alaska. Most officers were general duty officers, and most of the enlisted women performed clerical duties. The SPARS peak strength was approximately 11,000 officers and enlisted personnel. It was inactivated in 1947 but reestablished on a much smaller scale in 1949. Approximately 200 former SPARS reenlisted and served during the Korean War. The majority of them served at the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1973 Congressional legislation ended the Women's Reserve (SPARS) and women were first officially integrated into the active-duty Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve. Female reservists then serving on active duty were given the choice of enlisting in the regular Coast Guard or completing their reserve enlistments.

Background

The United States Coast Guard was the smallest of the U.S. military branches and had been operating under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This changed on November 1, 1941, when Executive order 8929 directed the Coast Guard to operate as part of the Navy under the supervision of the U.S. Secretary of the Navy. Following its transfer, the Coast Guard expanded with personnel needs increasing exponentially. To mitigate this it sought to allow women to serve in the USCG Reserve. In late 1942 the (USCG) Women's Reserve act was passed by the U.S. Congress, and it was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on November 23, 1942. The law amended the USCG Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941 in order "to expedite the war effort by providing for releasing officers and men for duty at sea as their replacement by women in the shore establishment of the Coast Guard and for other purposes." It was established as a branch of the USCG Reserve. The women's reserve had the authority to enlist and appoint women to serve during World War II and for six months thereafter - or until such earlier time as the congress, by concurrent resolution, or the president, by proclamation, might designate. All reservists were to be trained and qualified for duty at the continental shore stations of the USCG. They were not to be used to replace civil service personnel. The law was similar to that of the Women's Naval Reserve, better known as the WAVES. Initially, the SPARS were only to be stationed in the United States, but in 1944 they were allowed to deploy to Hawaii and Alaska (then, territories of the U.S.).

The director

Captain Dorothy C. Stratton, Director of the SPARS 1942-1946

Dorothy C. Stratton (director of the SPARS) was the dean of women at Purdue University when World War II began. She earned her M.A. degree from the University of Chicago and PhD from Columbia University. As the dean of women, Stratton was asked by the U.S. Army to recommend candidates for the first female officers for the Women's Army Corps (WACS). Similarly, a Purdue colleague was working with the U.S. Navy and encouraged Stratton to apply for a commission in the newly formed Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES); the women's reserve of the U.S Navy. Thinking it was a way to do something for her county, she applied and was accepted; Purdue granted her an extended leave of absence. On 26 August 1942, Stratton reported to Northampton, Massachusetts, to join the first class of female officer candidates of the WAVES. Upon graduation, she was commissioned a senior-grade lieutenant.

Stratton's first duty assignment with the WAVES was at the University of Wisconsin. Within a matter of weeks after her arrival, however, she received a telegram from the Bureau of Naval Personnel to report to Washington D.C. posthaste. Once there, Stratton was ushered to the USCG's headquarters where she was informed that there was legislation pending in the U.S. Congress to form a USCG women's reserve, and that she had been recommended to become its first director. The legislation passed the congress and it was signed into law on 23 November 1942; Stratton was sworn into the USCG as Lieutenant commander the following day as the director of the SPARS. She would later be promoted to commander and to captain.

The new director's first official act was to ask Mildred H. McAfee, director of the WAVES, for a core number of WAVE officers to help get the new service up and running. McAfee obliged. The next question on Stratton's mind was what should the new service be called? There was no one else to think about this, she said, so I tossed and turned for several nights contemplating this. Suddenly it came to me from the motto of the Coast Guard, Semper Paratus-Always Ready: SPAR. I proposed this to the Commandant of the USCG, Admiral Russell R. Waesche, and he accepted it. There was an informal proposal to call the women's reserve WARCOGS, but it was quickly jettison for Stratton's nautical nickname of SPARS. Stratton noted that the four letters (SPAR) might also stand for the four freedoms – speech, press, assembly, and religion.

Stratton was responsible for establishing organizational policies; chief among them were procurement, training, and utilization of personnel. She guided the program through its launching and development. Her management style was tempered by the task at hand. Stratton provided a glimpse into her style when she said, pick your fights - you can't fight them all - so chose carefully. You can't make an issue out of everything. She retired from the USCG in January 1946, and by June (of the same year) the SPARS were demobilized. Upon retirement, she was awarded the Legion of Merit medal for her contributions to women in the military. Stratton died at the age of 107 in 2006.

Recruiting

Requirements & prohibitions

Both officer candidates and enlisted applicants had to be American citizens; have no children under 18 years of age; present three character references; pass a physical examination, and submit a record of occupation after leaving school. Officer candidates were to be college graduates, or to have completed two years of college, and have at least two years of acceptable business or professional experience and be between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Enlisted applicants were required to have completed at least two years of high school and be between the ages of 20 and 36 years. Married women could enlist provided their husbands were not in the USCG. Unmarried women had to agree not to marry until they had finished their training period. After training, they could marry a civilian or service man who was not in the USCG. Another such prohibition excluded the acceptance of a woman who was already married to an officer or an enlisted man serving in the USCG.

In her 1989 Oral History article, Launching the SPARS, Dorothy C. Stratton revisited the recruiting practices during her tenure as director, and said: At first we were going for perfection in our recruiting effort. As we were falling behind in our numbers, modifications to physical requirements were made. It was ridiculous to make the same physical demands of women when they weren’t going to be manning ships at sea. If we hadn’t been so inflexible in our standards at the beginning—if we’d set more reasonable ones—I’m sure we’d have been better off.

General

Early on, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and USCG agreed to recruit and to train the members of their respective women's reserves together by using existing Navy facilities. For recruiting purposes, the SPARS would utilize the Offices of the Naval Officer Procurement. Their first recruiting efforts got underway in December 1942, but they were hampered by the absence of SPAR recruiting personnel. Their absence resulted from the agreement between the Navy and the USCG whereby the SPARS would receive its first personnel by transfer from the WAVES. A total of 15 WAVE officers and 153 WAVE enlisted women requested and were discharged from the WAVES to become the first SPARS. Eventually, SPAR officers were assigned to most of the Naval Officer Procurement offices. The recruiting information about SPARS was disseminated with WAVES publicity materials and it was also done separately. But it became apparent that the job of selling the SPARS would include selling the USCG as well.

By June 1943, it was clear to the USCG that the recruiting process in place did not favor the SPARS, so it withdrew from the joint agreement effective July 1, 1943. Hence, all women applicants for SPARS would be interviewed and enlisted at USCG district recruiting stations. The change was met with enthusiasm by SPAR recruiters and it proved positive overall. Still, the competition remained keen with the other, better-known women services. The SPAR recruiter's lot was not an easy one. In Three Years Behind the Mast, the author's Lyne & Arthur, former officers in the SPARS, describe the realities of recruiting in the following way:

During the day, we made speeches, distributed posters, decorated windows, led parades, manned information booths, interviewed applicants, appeared on radio programs, and gave aptitude tests. By night, we made more speeches; prayed women would be drafted, and went to bed dreaming about our quotas.

The primary recruiting phase ended on December 31, 1944. During the two years of the recruiting effort, over 11,000 women had signed enlistment contracts to join the women's reserve. Many more women were interviewed. One-fourth of all applicants who otherwise met the requirements were rejected for failure to pass their medical examination. Dorothy Tuttle had the distinction of being the first enlistee when she enlisted in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve on December 7, 1942. As a SPAR, her rating classification was that of a Yeoman Third Class (YN3).

Minority women

Native American

As early as April 1943, there was an active effort to recruit Native American women into the SPARS. In fact, no less than six women from Oklahoma’s tribal nations were the first Native Americans to serve in the SPARS during World War II; including women from the Otoe-Missouria, Choctaw, Yuchi, and Cherokee tribal nations. Nicknamed the Sooner Squadron (since Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State), these women were Seaman Mildred Cleghorn Womack (Otoe), Yeoman Corrine Koshiway Goslin (Otoe), Yeoman Lula Mae O’Bannon (Choctaw), Yeoman Lula Belle Everidge (Choctaw), June Townsend (Yuchi, Choctaw), and Yeoman Nellie Locust (Cherokee). All six were enlisted personnel.

African American

Like the WAVES, the USCG did not officially open its doors to African-American women until October 1944. Since November 1941, the USCG was under the supervision of the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Frank Knox, who was vehemently opposed to the acceptance of African American women into the naval services. Knox died in April 1944, and he was replaced by James Forrestal. The new secretary recommended that African American women be accepted but under some desegragated conditions. Roosevelt, the president, decided to delay any decision on the matter until after the 1944 United States presidential election on November 7. Meantime, the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, criticized the White House for discriminating against African American women during a speech in Chicago; the president then reversed himself and on October 19, 1944, he ordered the Navy to accept African-American women into the women's reserves. The five African-American women who served in the SPARS before it was first inactivated in 1947 were: Olivia Hooker, D. Winifred Byrd, Julia Mosley, Yvonne Cumberbatch, and Aileen Cooke. Olivia Hooker was the first of them and thus the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard.

Training

Officer training

The agreement between the U.S. Navy and the USCG required that officer candidates of the SPARS would receive their indoctrination training at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, which was officially the United States Naval Reserve (WR) Midshipmen's School. But in June 1943, the USCG withdrew from the agreement and the indoctrination of officer candidates was transferred to the USCG Academy at New London, Connecticut. About 203 SPARS were enrolled in the Midshipmen's School of the women's reserve. The USCG was the only U.S. military service that trained women officer candidates at its own academy.

The initial training period was for six weeks but later it was increased to eight weeks. The program was designed to provide candidates with an overall view of the USCG and how to become good officers. Academically, the curriculum included such subjects as administration; correspondence; communications; history; organization; personnel; public speaking; ships, and special lectures. Military regimentation was also part of the training; designed to help candidates adjust to military life and to acquaint them with their responsibilities as officers. In age they ranged from 24 to 40, and their civilian professions included teachers, journalists, lawyers, and technicians.

During the life of the USCG officer candidates indoctrination program, a total of 955 women completed the training and were commissioned as officers. Of these, 299 came up from the enlisted ranks. Approximately, one-third of all officers received specialized training either as communication officers or as pay and supply officers. To minimize the need for such training, the USCG intentionally recruited candidates with some civilian training or work experience that could be utilized without further training of such individuals. In late 1944, the USCG determined that the number of officers commissioned was sufficient and discontinued the program. Later, however, the school was reopened for a final class entirely made up of former enlisted SPARS that had trained at Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York. It was a way for the USCG to replace officers who were sent overseas or for those separated from the service.

Enlisted training

At first, the SPARS enlisted personnel received their indoctrination training on college campuses operated for such by the U.S. Navy. A few SPARS received their recruit training at Oklahoma A&M University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, another 150 of them received their training at Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, Iowa, and about 1,900 SPARS received their recruit training at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York. In March 1943, the USCG decided that there was a need to establish its own training center for the indoctrination of recruits and to provide specialized training programs. The site selected was the Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel, Palm Beach, Florida; it was leased, and then commissioned as a training station, on 23 May 1943. Beginning in late June, all enlisted personnel received their indoctrination and specialized training at this station.

The recruits' indoctrination period at Palm Beach was six weeks. It covered instruction on subjects such as: activities, organization, personnel, current events, and social hygiene. The physical education aspects consisted of: body mechanics, swimming, games, and drill. Another important part of recruit training was the testing, classification, and selection process. This was designed to make the most of the recruit's abilities, background and interests. The results of the testing were usually the basis for general assignments or the opportunity for specialized training.

From the first class of 14 June 1943, until the final class of 16 December 1944, more than 7,000 recruits were indoctrinated at the Palm Beach station. Approximately, 70 percent of the enlisted women who received recruit training also received some specialized training. Yeoman and storekeepers represented the largest share, but many SPARS were given the opportunity for training in other fields. Some attended other Navy schools and were trained as motion picture sound technicians, link trainer operators, parachute riggers, and air control operators. Others attended USCG schools and learned to be: cooks, bakers, radioman, pharmacist mates, radio technicians, and motor vehicle drivers. In January 1945, the training of enlisted personnel was transferred from Palm Beach to Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, the largest USCG training station for men.

Assignments

The SPARS were assigned to every USCG district except Puerto Rico. In some districts, they worked in the district offices and in the small field units as well. Most officers held general duty billets, which included administrative and supervisory assignments. Others served as communication officers, supply officers, and barracks and recruiting officers. The bulk of the enlisted women had clerical and stenographic civilian backgrounds and the USCG wanted them for this reason. Exciting jobs were few and far between, yet not all assigned to paperwork found it boring. Some saw how their contribution fit into the big picture. In smaller numbers, the enlisted personnel were found in practically every other billet, from baking pies, to rigging parachutes, and driving jeeps.

Initially, SPARS were prohibited from serving in USCG districts outside the country. But in late 1944, Congress amended the law allowing SPARS to serve overseas. For the SPARS, this meant Hawaii and Alaska. However, only those with good records, good physical health, a year's service, and training and experience in the types of duty requested were selected. About 200 women served in Hawaii, doing roughly the same kind of work, and holding the same ratings, that they would have held in the United States. About an equal number of women served in Alaska as well.

A select group of SPAR officers and enlisted personnel were assigned to work with the Long Range Aid to Navigation at monitoring stations in the Continental United States. Better known under the acronym LORAN, it was a top-secret radio navigation system developed for ships at sea, and long-range aircraft. The first monitoring station staffed by SPARS was at Chatham, Massachusetts, after they had received two months of instructions at M.I.T. on the operation and maintenance of LORAN. The unit at Chatham is believed to have been (at the time) the only all-female staffed one of its kind in the world.

The SPARS was inactivated on July 25, 1947, but was reestablished on a much smaller scale in 1949.

Approximately 200 women who had been in the SPARS reenlisted and served during the Korean War. They mostly served at the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In 1973 women were integrated into the active-duty Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve. The SPARS ended and those in it were sent to the Coast Guard Reserve.

Women of the SPARS

The average SPAR officer was 29 years old, single, a college graduate, and had worked seven years in a professional or managerial position (in education or government) before entering the service. The average enlisted SPAR was 24 years old, single, a high school graduate, and had worked for over three years in a clerical or sales job before joining the service. The likelihood was that she came from the state of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, or California. The reasons for becoming a SPAR differed, but most likely it was patriotism, self-advancement, desire for travel and adventure, or the loss of a loved one in the war.

In their off-duty hours, SPARS contributed time and effort to many community and wartime causes. Some became active nurse's aides, some rolled bandages for the Red Cross, others donated blood to blood banks, some visited service men in convalescent hospitals, and others collected gifts for the men overseas. Many of them were also involved in the March of Dimes campaigns, and war chest and war bond drives. Both officers and enlisted were awarded ribbons and medals based on their service, and some were acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to the SPARS and the country. In general, SPARS looked upon their service favorably, and many of them found a form of kinship in having been a part of the nation's military forces during wartime.

Demobilization

With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, the USCG demobilization effort began, and the SPARS were gradually discharged. They were separated from the service on a point system, and on the basis of their jobs. However, many SPARS were reassigned to the personnel separation centers to help with demobilization (women and men reservists) and they were not separated until it was completed. The Women's Reserve of the USCG (SPARS) was inactivated on 25 July 1947, but was reestablished on a much smaller scale in 1949. Approximately 200 women who had been in the SPARS reenlisted and served during the Korean War. They mostly served at the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1973 women were integrated into the active-duty Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve. The SPARS ended and those in it were sent to the Coast Guard Reserve.

Legacy

In his foreword to Three Years Behind the Mast, Commodore J. A. Hirschfield, USCG, observed that the SPARS asked no favors and no privileges. They did their jobs with enthusiasm, with efficiency, and a minimum of fanfare. The USCG was fortunate in having the help of the SPARS who volunteered for duty when their country needed them, and carried the job through to a successful finish. The USCG named two cutters in honor of the SPARS: USCGC Spar (WLB-403) was a 180-foot (55 m) sea going buoy tender commissioned in June 1944 and decommissioned in 1997, and USCGC Spar (WLB-206), a 225-foot (69 m) seagoing buoy tender that was commissioned in 2001.

Although the SPARS no longer exist as a separate organization, the term is sometimes informally used for a female Coast Guardsman; however, it is not an officially sanctioned term.

Uniforms

The uniforms worn by the SPARS were the same design and style as those worn by the WAVES, except for the service insignias; created for them by the New York fashion house of Mainbocher. The decision made regarding the type and style of the uniforms was largely that of the U.S. Navy Uniform Board. The standard uniform was a navy blue suit, consisting of a jacket and a six-gored skirt. Included were black oxfords and plain black pumps; a brimmed hat; black gloves; black leather purse, and rain and winter coats. The summer uniform was of the same design as the standard uniform, worn in white Palm Beach cloth, tropical worsted, or other light fabrics. Shoes were oxfords or pumps of white leather. The summer work wear was a grey and white striped seersucker dress with jacket.