1958, the year in which women
officially entered the Georgia Guard

by Beverly L. Pack

Lieutenant Pitts served as an Operating Room nurse and an instructor in the MASH. Her National Guard service was cut short by business obligations and she resigned her commission on June 15, 1960. She served the remainder of her obligation as a member of the Army Reserve. Today Ms. Pitts resides in Augusta where she currently works as Director of Education and Training at Georgia Regional Hospital.

Lieutenant Chapman served as a General Duty nurse in the MASH. Little is known about her service, and Ms. Chapman is deceased.

The appointment of Lieutenants Pitts and Chapman became possible by the passage of Public Law 845 by the 84th Congress, in July 1956. This law authorized female Reserve Officers of the Army and Air Force to be appointed as nurses or women medical specialist of the Army National Guard of the United State or Air National Guard of the United States.

The National Guard had 13 hospital units nationwide which authorized 558 nurses and four women medical specialists - one being the, 117th MASH in Griffin, Georgia. This authority provided a means of enhancing the mobilization potential of these medical units. Not only would the nurses receive training within the units but they would also assist with the training of the unit enlisted personnel. If the unit were ordered to active duty, the number of nurses that otherwise would have to be assigned to these units by the Departments of the Army and the Air Force would be reduced by the number of nurses and medical specialists who already were members of the units. Hospital units of the United Army Reserve already had female nurses and women medical specialists assigned to them. This bill provided similar authority to the National Guard and the Air National Guard. The bill also authorized 48 drills annually and not more than 15 days of active duty for training each year. As a result of this law, both the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952 and the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916 had to be amended to include the appointment and enlistment of women into the Army and Air National Guard.

National Guard, State of Georgia. "Griffin's 117th Surgical Hospital Unit Gets First Georgia Army NG Nurses," The Georgia Guardsman, Atlanta, GA, July - August 1958, Vol. 8 No. 4, p. 11.

Public Law 845, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, July 30, 1956, "Legislative Response by the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to the Chairman of the Armed Force Committee," Honorable Carl Vinson, D-Ga.

You may write to me at email Beverly L. Pack