SPARS, the Unknown Women of World War II
Women Served in the United States Coast Guard Reserves
Oct 28, 2009
Much like the Women Airforce Service Pilots of Wolrd War II (WASPs) and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, the contribution of the SPARS (the Women’s Coast Guard Reserve) towards the war effort is practically unheard of.
Thanks to Hollywood and Penny Marshall’s move “A League of Their Own,” most everyone is aware that women played baseball during World War II to keep the game alive while male baseball stars served their country overseas.
But there has yet to be a movie about the WASPs or the SPARS to enlighten the consciousness of the American public to their contributions to the war effort.
Women Approved to Join Coast Guard Reserve
In November of 1942, newly passed legislation created opportunities for women to serve in the United States Coast Guard as reservists. World War II was well under way at that point and the United States needed some of the men serving in the Coast Guard for combat or naval duties. The solution was to recruit women to fill positions those men would leave behind when they joined the war effort.
The first director of the SPARS was Captain Dorothy C. Stratton and it was she who developed the SPARS name. The Coast Guard motto is “Semper Paratus” which means “Always Ready.” SPARS was an acronym for “Semper Paratus Always Ready.” In correspondence to Commandant, Vice Admiral Russell Waesche, Stratton explained that a spar in nautical terms referred to a supporting beam. She felt the members of the Women’s Reserve would be just that - support for the Coast Guard.
Recruiting for SPARS
Recruiting for SPARS began immediately and met with overwhelming response. In a four year period, over 10,000 women had volunteered for services in the Coast Guard. In October 1944, the Coast Guard also began recruiting black women, virtually a precedent for the time. Neither the WASPs nor the AAGPBL accepted black women and it can only be speculated that this may have been due to the constant publicity and photographing of those particular women and racial barriers and prejudices still being present and strong at the time.
Black women were recruited for SPARS enlistment but not for officer training only because officer training had already been closed. Black women already enlisted in SPARS were eligible for officer’s training.
Training for Coast Guard Duty
Most of the SPARS were trained inland but as though they were already aboard floating vessels. They were also trained “military” style with calls of “Hit the deck!” at 5:30 a.m., fire drills at two in the morning, classes in Coast Guard history, and deck swabbing among other things.
Since the Coast Guard had not to this point enlisted women in its services, accommodations had to be restructured throughout all the training stations, mostly dormitory style, for the women. The Coast Guard used a woman’s individual aptitude, training and experience and the Coast Guard’s needs to determine where each SPAR would be best suited to be stationed.
Upon graduation from the rigorous training they underwent, each SPAR received a blue braid, the stripe of an ensign. The blue braid signified the SPAR as part of the Coast Guard Reserve.
Then came the assignments. SPARS were dispersed throughout the continental United States and in 1944, this included Alaska and Hawaii. They filled positions from clerical duties to parachute riggers to air control tower operators, cooks and drivers. Those with prior medical training often became pharmacist’s mates or assistants in sick bays.
Women in Communications Duty
However, eleven of the SPARS were assigned a very specific - and classified task. They were the women assigned to LORAN monitoring. LORAN, which stands for long range aid to navigation, was such a secretive operation at the time that it was discussed only behind closed doors.
These eleven women underwent additional communication instruction. The first loran station was established in Chatham, Massachusetts and it was operated by those eleven women. The job required the SPARS to stand watch 24 hours a day. Every two minutes they were to record measurements of radio signals from two shore-based stations. These signals where then used to calculate the locations of ships and planes.
LTJG Vera Hamerschlag was the commanding officer of the Chatham station. It is believed that, at the time, the Chatham station was the only loran station in the world to be operated entirely by women.
Disbanding of the SPARS
With the end of the war in 1935, the SPAR program began to disband and on June 30, 1946, the 10,000 members of the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve returned to civilian life.
Lieutenant Kay Arthur co-authored “Three Years Behind the Mast: The Story of the Coast Guard SPARS.” Arthur is a former SPAR (Self-Published, Date Unknown).
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