,,ii #aafth ,,congress #ast ,session ,s4 #bjf ,,in ,,the ,,senate ,,of ,,the ,,united ,,states ,january #bd1 #bjai,mr4 ,tester 7for himself and ,mrs4 ,blackburn7 introduced the following bill2 which was read twice and referred to the ,committee on ,banking1 ,housing1 and ,urban ,affairs ,a ,,bill ,to award a ,congressional ,gold ,medal to the female telephone operators of the ,army ,signal ,corps1 known as the ,hello ,girls4 #a4 ,short title ,this ,act may be cited as the ,hello ,girls ,congressional ,gold ,medal ,act of #bjai4 #b4 ,findings ,congress finds the following3 7#a7 ,on ,april #f1 #aiag1 the ,united ,states declared war against ,germany4 ,as a historically neutral nation1 the ,united ,states was unprepared to fight a technologically modern conflict overseas4 ,the ,united ,states called upon ,american ,telephone and ,telegraph 7referred to in this section as ,,at,t7 to provide equipment and trained personnel for the ,army ,signal ,corps in ,france4 ,,at,t executives in ,army uniform served at home under the provisions of the ,act entitled ,an ,act for making further and more effectual provision for the national defense1 and for other purposes41 approved ,june #c1 #aiaf 7referred to in this section as the ,national ,defense ,act of #aiaf71 which allowed for the induction of individuals with specialized skills into a reserve force4 7#b7 ,when ,general ,john ,pershing sailed for ,europe in ,may of #aiag as head of the ,american ,expeditionary ,forces 7referred to in this section as the ,,aef71 he took telephone operating equipment with him in recognition of the inadequacy of ,european circuitry and with the understanding that telephones would play a key role in battlefield communications for the first time in the history of war4 7#c7 ,from ,may to ,november of #aiag1 the ,,aef struggled to develop the telephone service necessary for the ,army to function under battlefield conditions4 ,monolingual infantrymen from the ,united ,states were unable to connect calls rapidly or communicate effectively with their ,french counterparts to put calls through over toll lines that linked one region of the country with another4 ,the ,army found that the average male operator required #fj seconds to make a connection4 ,that rate was unacceptably slow1 especially for operational calls between command outposts and the front lines4 7#d7 ,during this time1 in the ,united ,states1 telephone operating was largely sex-segregated4 ,hired for their speed in connecting calls1 women filled #he percent of the telephone operating positions in the ,united ,states4 ,it took the average female operator #aj seconds to make a connection4 7#e7 ,on ,november #h1 #aiag1 ,general ,pershing cabled the ,war ,department and wrote1 ,on account of the great difficulty of obtaining properly qualified men1 request organization and dispatch to ,france a force of women telephone operators all speaking ,french and ,english equally well44 ,to begin1 ,general ,pershing requested #ajj women under the command of a commissioned captain1 writing that ,all should have allowances of ,army nurses and should be uniformed44 7#f7 ,the ,war ,department sent press releases to newspapers across the ,united ,states to recruit women willing to serve for the duration of the war and face the hazards of submarine warfare and aerial bombardment4 ,these articles emphasized that patriotic women would be full-fledged soldiers under the articles of war and would do as much to help win the war as the men in khaki who go over the top44 ,all women selected would take the ,army oath4 7#g7 ,more than #g1fjj women volunteered for the #ajj positions described in paragraph 7#e7 and the first recruits took the ,army oath on ,january #ae1 #aiah4 7#h7 ,like nurses and doctors at the time1 female ,signal ,corps members had relative rather than traditional ranks and were ranked as ,operator1 ,supervisor1 or ,chief ,operator4 ,when promoted1 the women were required to swear the ,army oath again4 7#i7 ,telephone operators were the first women to serve as soldiers in non-medical classifications and the job of the operators was to help win the war1 not to mitigate the harms of the war4 ,in popular parlance1 they were known as the ,hello ,girls4 7#aj7 ,signal ,corps ,operators wore ,army uniforms and ,army insignia always1 as well as standard-issue identity disks in case of death1 and were subject to court martial for infractions of the military code4 7#aa7 ,unbeknownst to the women operators and their immediate officers1 the legal counsel of the ,army ruled internally on ,march #bj1 #aiah1 that the women were not actually soldiers but contract employees1 even though the women had not seen or signed any contracts4 ,military code allowed only for the induction of men and the code remained unchanged despite the orders of ,general ,pershing4 ,nevertheless1 legal counsel also recognized that the ,national ,defense ,act of #aiaf1 which allowed for the induction of members of the telephone industry of the ,united ,states into the ,armed ,forces1 imposed no gender restrictions4 7#ab7 ,four days later1 on ,march #bd1 #aiah1 the first contingent of operators began their official duties in ,france4 ,the operators arrived before most infantrymen of the ,armed ,forces in order to facilitate logistics and deployment and spent their first night in ,paris under ,german bombardment4 7#ac7 ,after the arrival of the operators1 telephone service in ,france improved immediately1 as calls tripled from #ac1jjj to #cf1jjj per day4 7#ad7 ,the ,army quickly recruited1 trained1 and deployed #e additional contingents of female ,signal ,corps operators4 ,with these personnel1 calls increased to #aej1jjj per day4 7#ae7 ,in addition to standard telephone operating1 bilingual ,signal ,corps members provided simultaneous translation between officers from ,france and officers from the ,united ,states1 who were communicating by telephone4 7#af7 ,the ,,aef fought their first major battles in the last #b months of the war4 ,by that point1 the ,signal ,corps considered the contributions of women to be so essential that1 in telephone exchanges closest to the front line1 the ,army exclusively used women1 in rotating #ab-;hour shifts4 ,in the rear1 the ,army established rotating #h-;hour shifts and gave male soldiers the overnight shift when telephone traffic was slower4 7#ag7 ,seven bilingual operators-- 7,a7 served at the ,battles of ,st4 ,mihiel and ,meuse-,argonne under the immediate command of ,general ,pershing2 7,b7 staffed the ,operations ,boards through which orders to advance1 fire1 and retreat were delivered to soldiers in the trenches1 to artillery units on alert1 and to pilots awaiting orders at ,french airfields2 and 7,c7 were awarded a ,defensive ,sector ,clasp for the ,meuse-,argonne operation4 7#ah7 ,the ,chief ,operator supervising the ,hello ,girls1 ,grace ,banker of ,passaic1 ,new ,jersey1 was awarded the ,distinguished ,service ,medal4 ,out of #af1jjj eligible ,signal ,corps officers1 ,banker was one of only #ah individuals so honored4 7#ai7 ,thirty additional operators received special commendations1 many signed by ,general ,pershing himself1 for exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous services in ,advance ,sections of the conflict4 7#bj7 ,the war ended on ,november #aa1 #aiah4 ,as of that date1 #bbc female operators served in ,france and had connected #bf1jjj1jjj calls for the ,,aef4 7#ba7 ,the ,chief ,signal ,officer of the ,army ,signal ,corps wrote in his official report #b days after the date on which the war ended that a large part of the success of the communications of this ,army is due to ''' a competent staff of women operators44 7#bb7 ,after the war ended1 some women were ordered to ,coblenz in ,germany for the occupation of that country and to ,paris for the ,paris ,peace ,treaty of #aiai to continue telephone operations1 sometimes in direct support of ,president ,woodrow ,wilson4 7#bc7 ,two operators1 ,corah ,bartlett and ,inez ,crittenden1 died in ,france in the service of the ,united ,states and were buried there in military cemeteries with military ceremonies4 ,those operators died of the same influenza pandemic that killed more soldiers of the ,armed ,forces than combat operations4 7#bd7 ,women of the ,army ,signal ,corps were ineligible for discharge until formal release4 ,because of their role in logistics1 those women were among the last soldiers to come home to the ,united ,states4 ,the last ,signal ,corps operators returned from ,france in ,january of #aibj4 7#be7 ,upon arrival in the ,united ,states1 the ,army informed female veterans that they had performed as civilians1 not soldiers1 even though operators had served in ,army uniform in a theatre of war surrounded by men who were similarly engaged4 7#bf7 ,despite the objections of ,general ,george ,squier1 the top-ranking officer in the ,signal ,corps1 the ,army denied ,signal ,corps women the veterans' benefits granted to male soldiers and female nurses1 such as-- 7,a7 hospitalization for disabilities incurred in the line of duty2 7,b7 cash bonuses2 7,c7 soldiers' pensions2 7,d7 flags on their coffins2 and 7,e7 the ,victory ,medals promised them in ,france4 7#bg7 ,for the next #fj years1 female veterans1 led by ,merle ,egan from ,montana1 petitioned ,congress more than #ej times for their recognition4 ,in #aigg1 under the sponsorship of ,senator ,barry ,goldwater1 ,congress passed legislation to retroactively acknowledge the military service of the ,women's ,airforce ,service ,pilots 7referred to in this section as ,w,a,s,ps7 of ,world ,war ,,ii and the service of any person in any other similarly situated group the members of which rendered service to the ,armed ,forces of the ,united ,states in a capacity considered civilian employment or contractual service at the time such service was rendered4 7#bh7 ,on ,november #bc1 #aigg1 ,president ,jimmy ,carter signed the legislation described in paragraph 7#bg7 into law as the ,,gi ,bill ,improvement ,act of #aigg 7,public ,law #ie-bjb2 #ia ,stat4 #adcc74 7#bi7 ,the ,signal ,corps telephone operators applied for1 and were granted1 status as veterans in #aigi4 7#cj7 ,only #cc of the operators who had returned home after the war were still alive to receive their ,victory ,medals and official discharge papers1 which were finally awarded in #aigi4 7#ca7 ,one of the women1 ,olive ,shaw from ,massachusetts1 returned to the ,united ,states after the war1 where she worked on the professional staff of ,congresswoman ,edith ,nourse ,rogers4 ,shaw lived to receive her honorable discharge and was the first burial when the ,massachusetts ,national ,cemetery opened on ,october #aa1 #aihj4 ,shaw's uniform is on display at the ,national ,world ,war ,i ,museum and ,memorial in ,kansas ,city1 ,missouri4 7#cb7 ,upon receipt of her honorable discharge at a ceremony in her home in ,marine ,city1 ,michigan1 ,hello ,girl ,oleda ,joure ,christides raised the paper to her lips and kissed it4 ,the only thing ,christides ever wanted from the ,federal ,government was a flag on her coffin4 7#cc7 ,on ,july #a1 #bjji1 ,president ,barack ,obama signed into law ,public ,law #aaa-dj 7#abc ,stat4 #aieh71 which awarded the ,w,a,s,ps the ,congressional ,gold ,medal for their service to the ,united ,states4 7#cd7 ,for their role as pioneers who paved the way for all women in uniform1 and for service that was essential to victory in ,world ,war ,i1 the ,hello ,girls merit similar recognition4 #c4 ,congressional gold medal 7a7 ,award authorized ,the ,speaker of the ,house of ,representatives and the ,president pro tempore of the ,senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the award1 on behalf of ,congress1 of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of the female telephone operators of the ,army ,signal ,corps 7commonly known as the ,hello ,girls71 in recognition of those operators'-- 7#a7 pioneering military service2 7#b7 devotion to duty2 and 7#c7 #fj-year struggle for-- 7,a7 recognition as soldiers2 and 7,b7 veterans' benefits4 7b7 ,design and striking ,for the purposes of the award described in subsection 7a71 the ,secretary of the ,treasury 7referred to in this ,act as the ,secretary7 shall strike the gold medal with suitable emblems1 devices1 and inscriptions1 to be determined by the ,secretary4 7c7 ,smithsonian ,institution 7#a7 ,in general ,after the award of the gold medal under subsection 7a71 the medal shall be given to the ,smithsonian ,institution1 where the medal shall be available for display1 as appropriate1 and made available for research4 7#b7 ,sense of ,congress ,it is the sense of ,congress that the ,smithsonian ,institution should make the gold medal received under paragraph 7#a7 available elsewhere1 particularly at-- 7,a7 appropriate locations associated with-- 7i7 the ,army ,signal ,corps2 7ii7 the ,women in ,military ,service for ,america ,memorial2 7iii7 the ,u4,s4 ,army ,women's ,museum2 and 7iv7 the ,national ,world ,war ,i ,museum and ,memorial2 and 7,b7 any other location determined appropriate by the ,smithsonian ,institution4 #d4 ,duplicate medals ,under such regulations as the ,secretary may prescribe1 the ,secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under section #c at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the medals1 including labor1 materials1 dies1 use of machinery1 and overhead expenses4 #e4 ,national medals 7a7 ,national medals ,medals struck under this ,act are national medals for purposes of chapter #ea of title #ca1 ,united ,states ,code4 7b7 ,numismatic items ,for purposes of section #eacd of title #ca1 ,united ,states ,code1 all medals struck under this ,act shall be considered to be numismatic items4