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Women's History ProjectAbout 100 Georgia "minute women" who answered the State Guard's call for women auxiliaries in January, 1945, probably will be retired from military service for good shortly after the National Guard is reorganized.
"Unless plans change, there will be no provision for women enlisting in the National Guard," Brig. Gen. S. Marvin Griffin, Georgia's adjutant general and National Guard chief, has declared.
Edna Harbin, of 3415 Harding avenue, Hapeville, who, as a technician third grade, has shouldered a large part of the clerical work for Company E of Fulton county's Fourth Battalion since April, 1945, feels there is a definite place for women in the National Guard. What's more, she's going to write her congressman about it. Since, as she points out, her congressman actually is Congresswoman Helen Mankin, it may be women will have some say in the matter.
As testimony, Lt. Col. Frank R. Fling, Edna Harbin's battalion commander, has nothing but praise for the work women have done in the Guard, having found them "exceptionally competent" during his tenure.
Most unhappy, too, at the thought of complete reversion to civilian status is T. Sgt. Mildred Day, of 968 Glen Arden way, N. E. She was the first women to enlist in the State Guard and has acted as Col. Fling's right arm in recording staff meetings.
Following her enlistment a year ago, she attended a military school at Techwood for six weeks, learning her left foot from her right at drill practices and studying the complexities of Army correspondence. When on active duty, she wears the regulation Army WAC uniform with the Guard patch on her left shoulder.
Although the January, 1945, directive authorizing the enlistment of women limited their work to clerical duties at home station, she, together with Latrelle Brock, of 48 Johnson road, and Mary Marjorie Hunt, of 454 Lovejoy street, accompanied the Guard on its April maneuvers at Camp Toccoa where her principal duties were keeping scores for men firing on the range. She also has helped in recruiting drives at the Army's Air Show and at the State Fair last year.
During the war, Miss (Tech. Sgt.) Day, secretary to Judge Quincy O. Arnold, chief judge of the Fulton county civil court, devoted several nights a week to Guard activities, but with peace she attends meetings about once a week.
"I was more than happy to give such a small amount of my time," she says, "and I do hope they will let women enter the Guard."
Organized in 1940, after the National Guard's mobilization, as the State Defense Corps, the State Guard contains 20 battalions of infantry, a mobile company and an air squadron, ready for handling riot calls or other emergencies. Following Pearl Harbor, the Fourth Battalion was called out to guard vital installations in the Atlanta area, yet it has not had to meet any other emergency since. The men receive training in infantry tactics, radio communication, riot formations, use of chemicals such as smoke pots, scouting with scout cars, and other basic military subjects. The most up-to-date equipment available is used.
Women, unlike the Amazons of yore, do not train with spears and brickbats. Guard WACs, such as Sgt. Amanda Robertson, of 909 Ponce de Leon avenue, M. E.; Sgt. Barbara Ellen Lee, of 675 Central avenue, Hapeville, and Cpl. Ruby Smith, of 3351 Myrtle street, Hapeville, all in the fourth battalion, sharpen their pencils and cut through the red tape that can hold up an army as much as Italy's mud.
Even the most ardent supporters of the Guard realize that the end of the war, the return of servicemen fed up with any kind of regimentation, the shifting of residences from one part of the country to another, and the demobilization this spring of the State Guard spell less interest in its activities. Membership already has dropped to a fraction of its former strength which once ranked fifth among the nation's state military formations.
Yet one lesson has been learned during the Guard's years of service, according to all officers contacted by your reports: Women have proved their value in the Army, a field previously considered men's exclusive domain.
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Women's History Project