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During World War II, almost 400,000 women served at home and overseas in Europe, North Africa and the Far East. They served with the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and civilian relief organizations. Collections of the Women's Memorial Foundation reflect the diversity and impact of their contribution to the national defense during World War II. Highlights of a few representative collections from this era follow. Contact our collection curators for information about conducting research among our collections. Naomi Steed, American Red Cross Naomi Louise Steed American Red Cross November 1944 to October 1945  Naomi
Steed attended Elon College and worked at a state school for the deaf.
Steed served at service clubs at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Seymour
Johnson Field in Goldsboro, North Carolina and then joined the American
Red Cross in November 1944. She sailed to England in February 1945
and transferred to Munich, Germany in August 1945. She was killed
in an airplane crash, cause unknown, in Italy on October 30, 1945.
At the time of her death, she was 32 years old and engaged to be married.
The collections include personal letters and V-mails written by Naomi Steed to her family while she was serving overseas, official correspondence from the American Red Cross to Steed's family after her death, a newspaper clipping from Steed's hometown newspaper about her death, photographs from England in 1945, and her American Red Cross service medal. Gifts of Warren Steed, 1996 Teresa M. Crowley US Navy Women's Reserve (WAVES) October 1942 to November 1942 US Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARs) November 1942 to August 1946  Commander
Teresa M. Crowley joined the US Navy Women's Reserve (WAVES) in October
1942 and when the US Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARs) was created
in November 1942, Crowley transferred from the Navy, as did most of
the first SPARs. She was in the first group of women to attend the
US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut for training. Crowley's
first tour of duty was traveling to mid-western colleges to recruit
200 enlisted WAVES who would be willing to leave the Navy for the
SPARs. She later served as the senior SPAR officer at the United States
Naval Training Station, the Bronx, and then as senior SPAR officer
and later Executive Officer of the United States Coast Guard Training
Station, Palm Beach, Florida. When Congress authorized naval reserve
women (WAVES, Women Marines and SPARs) to serve overseas (Hawaii and
Alaska) in September 1944, Crowley became the first SPAR assigned
to permanent duty at the US Coast Guard Headquarters, 17th District,
Ketchikan, Alaska.
Collection includes Teresa Crowley's World War II SPAR service uniform; dog tags; service medals; photographs including SPARs training at Palm Beach, and of SPARs Director, Captain Dorothy Stratton; newspaper clipping of Captain Dorothy Stratton's SPARs second anniversary greeting; handbook, "General Training Course for SPARs;" book, "Three Years Behind the Mast: The Story of the United States Coast Guard SPARS;" SPARs 50th Anniversary reunion booklet; and memory book from the 1991 SPAR Recognition Day, "A Look Back: The United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve." Gift of Thomas Hogan, 1996. Nona (Hambright) Vay Martha (Wayman) Neal Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) December 1942 to September 1943 Women's Army Corps (WAC) September 1943 to September 1946 and September 1950 to March 1952  Captain
Martha (Wayman) Neal enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAAC) on 7 December 1942 and served throughout the Southwest Pacific
Area (Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines) during World War
II. Neal was one of the first seven WAC officers assigned to Japan
during the occupation (1945-1946) and worked in both the military
and civilian censorship offensive offices. She transferred to the
Reserve in September 1946 and was recalled to active duty in September
1950. Neal's subsequent duties included recruiting in Panama City,
Florida, where she was stationed near her husband whom she married
in 1951.
The collections include Neal's Royal portable typewriter in case; service records and awards; Neal's mess kit and canvas rucksack; numerous photographs of Neal and other WACs in Australia and Japan; news clippings about WACs in Australia and the Southwest Pacific Area, Japan and from Neal's service as a recruiter; and maps, booklets and other memorabilia from Japan. Gifts of Darwina L. Neal, 2000 and 2002. Audrey (Oliver)
Guntermann
The collection includes several pieces of her uniforms, six photographs,
many news clippings and issues of newspapers and magazines, her
service records and orders, a large amount of correspondence, an
ID card, buttons, insignia, language guides, and hospital memos.
Of special note are an "Eisenhower" or "Ike"
style uniform jacket, Lt. Oliver’s diary chronicling parts
of her life from early 1943 to the middle of 1946, original issues
of the Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes, and her World
War II Victory Medal. |
Lieutenant
Commander Nona Vay joined the Navy in January 1941 and was discharged
in October 1947 because she married. She was first assigned to the
US Naval Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vay's naval nursing
career included duty at the US Naval hospitals in Key West, Florida;
Brooklyn, New York; Mare Island, California; at the US Naval Dispensary
in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; and on board the hospital ship,
USS Bountiful in the South Pacific. The USS Bountiful,
formerly the troop ship USS Henderson, included one of the
few blood banks on board a Navy ship and cared for casualties of
the Marianas invasions, Peleliu landing, Philippines campaign, Iwo
Jima and Okinawa. 
Audrey
(Oliver) Guntermann joined the Army Medical Specialist Corps in
August 1943 as a dietician. She was stationed in the United States
and the European and Pacific theaters, including North Africa, Naples,
Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, with the 118th Station Hospital. She
was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal,
the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal,
and the American Campaign Medal.