Coast Guard begins recruiting black women
While the recruiting drive was moving forward, it wasn't until October 1944 that the Coast Guard authorized its recruiting officers to accept black women for enlistment, provided they were fully qualified.
This initiative came after a Department of the Navy directive. Because the officer training program for recruited civilians had come to a close, no civilian black women were accepted as officer candidates. However, some black women were interested and applied for enlistment. Within the first six months after the new initiative, four black women had made application and were accepted into the SPARs.
A photo of Coast Guard spars Even though the officer corps was closed to civilian black women, it was possible for prior-enlisted black SPARs to attend officer training. "There were six nurses of my heritage who were ensigns," said Yeoman Second Class Olivia J. Hooker, the first black woman to enlist in the SPARs. All SPAR applicants went through a relatively similar experience called processing. Similar to the enlistment process of today, the young women waded through a mountain of forms, interviews, physical exams and a mental aptitude test.
The average woman applying for enlistment was a single, 22-year-old high school graduate. She had worked for more than three years in a clerical or sales job, earning $26.94 per week before joining. The chances were good that she came from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio or California, according to a May 1943 survey. In a similar survey done in July 1943, it was discovered that the average SPAR officer applicant was a single, 29-year-old college graduate. She worked for seven years in either a professional or managerial position, in the field of education or government, earning $50 per week before joining the SPARs. In most cases, her service in the Coast Guard used the tools of her profession or civilian experience. After the rounds of paperwork and exams, the eager applicants were finally on their way.
"The Women's Reserve of the United States Coast Guard was officially established by act of Congress on 23 November 1942, but for each of us it really got underway on the date when, as a shakingly triumphant civilian, we raised our right hands and repeated the oath that made us a SPAR," Arthur said.
Enlisted training begins
Like their male counterparts, SPARs also arrived at an embarkation point on their way to basic training. With tearful goodbyes and well wishes from family and friends, the SPARs departed and the training began. Enlisted SPARs trained at a variety of places, beginning with the first group of WAVEs who transferred to the SPARs and trained at a college campus in the mid-west, to the last few to leave the training station at Manhattan Beach, N.Y.
For SPARs, the indoctrination period was a mad rush of classes, physical education, aptitude tests, physical exams, shots, drill, mess and watch. It was the job of the training stations to convert the enlistees as soon as possible. It was the boots' responsibility to hurry up and wait. And wait they did, for graduation day, when they received orders.
It was this experience that transformed a young woman of the 1940s from Miss Smith with casual posture, wearing a fashionable bob and the latest women's clothing styles, into Seaman Smith with her shoulders back, sporting neatly trimmed hair and enormous pride in her uniform. Oklahoma's A&M University in Stillwater was the home to the first SPARs who transferred in from the WAVES. This training center also became a specialist school for the yeoman rating.
A photo of Coast Guard spars
If the SPARs joined the Coast Guard to see the coast, they did not even come close as they were assigned to a training station in the Midwest for their first five weeks in the service. Although Stillwater may have seemed far removed from the Coast Guard by its location, the SPARs who went there came away with basic Coast Guard skills intact and a fondness for a place they entered with anticipation and fear.
"We fell into routine easily, working hard, trying to finish each day's homework and keep our rooms ship shape as well," said Yeoman First Class Margaret Gorley Foley, who trained at Stillwater. "The captain's inspection on Saturday was a white-glove inspection, and the wind that blew in the Oklahoma red dust certainly didn't help any."
Having once paid heed to rumors of field mice, snakes and wild indians running amuck on this wild frontier that was their training station, Foley said the Stillwater women left with a change of heart. "Our stay at A&M finally came to an end. It wasn't all fun, for we had worked hard, but they were perhaps the three most pleasant weeks I spent in service," she said. "After we were logged out, our train rounded a curve; we may not have said it, but I think we all felt that scuttlebutt had dealt unfairly with Stillwater," Foley said.
Another college campus, Iowa State Teachers College, became the site of the naval training station for the first group of 150 civilian women who enlisted as SPARs. These SPARs were trained, not by Coast Guard instructors, but by naval officers, both men and women. Later, SPAR officers arrived and the course of instruction included Coast Guard history as well as the usual military courses - rates and ranks, insignia, nautical terms and customs and courtesies.
Among many similar schools, Cedar Falls was one place where young and confused apprentice seamen arrived, but departed as competent seamen second class. This included Chief Storekeeper Mary Jane Klein. "I began guarding the coast in the corn state of Iowa," Klein said. "Not a drop of salt water, nor a sailor in sight. Yet I was directed to the first ladder, portside, to my billet on the second deck, and ordered to square the corners of my bedding and learn to tell time Navy fashion."
Much like their counterparts of today, the SPAR boots entered the training facility running and did not stop until graduation day. "The first day at boot camp was chiefly one of relaxation and getting acquainted with my bunkmates," Klein said. "At 0530 the next morning, however, I heard a shrill whistle and a booming voice give forth with 'hit the deck.'" Like her fellow SPARs at Cedar Falls, Klein said there was never a dull moment in those weeks of training.
"Frozen in my mind are the chilling memories of the fire drills at 0200 or any hour before dawn, as I picture the long line of pajamas and robes planted in two feet of snow like stalks of corn, while the officers pretended that the dormitory was afire," she said. "I often wondered if I didn't prefer burning to death to the slow tortures of exposure." Klein, her bunkmates, and all the SPARs that followed her, left the four weeks of intense drill, training and homework, looking forward to the day they would report to their new units as seamen second class.
SPAR boots move on to a training station in the Bronx
Even though two of the early training bases were in the Midwest, more than 1,900 SPARs survived the harsh Bronx winter climate along with WAVEs at Hunter College, N.Y. Like the indoctrination classes at Stillwater and Cedar Falls, the boots learned the basics of the Coast Guard. Hunter's SPARs lived in a five-story converted apartment house that served as their barracks. The billets consisted of two rooms and a bath shared by 10 women.
A photo of Coast Guard spars
"It was hit the sack at 2130 and hit the deck at 0530," said Storekeeper First Class Toni Bassett, a former Hunter College SPAR boot. "I soon learned to slide in and out of the sack without disturbing the covers too much. The most difficult problem was the 10 of us trying to make the head in that half hour (before morning chow)."
Once again, these SPAR boots eagerly awaited the day when they passed their final exams and were on their way to serve at their stations. "Somehow out of the darkness of confusion, I managed to grasp enough Coast Guard history, organization and important facts to pass the final examinations," Bassett said. "At least they didn't send me back home. They sent me, as a reward, to Storekeeper School in Milledgeville, Ga."
Even though the first enlisted SPARs were trained at Navy schools, the needs of the Coast Guard soon mandated the establishment of separate Coast Guard indoctrination and training that was overseen by SPAR officers.
|
|
