Women began joining the Rock Island Arsenal’s shops in World War I and at peak employment in World War II made up 32% of the
Arsenal’s workforce. CREDIT ARMY SUSTAINMENT COMMAND, ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL
Given the ubiquity of Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter, it’s not hard to see why some Quad Citians today think women didn’t become Rock Island Arsenal “Soldiers of Supply” until World War II. But it’s impossible to tell the full story of the impact that more than a century of women defense workers’ had on […]
Given the ubiquity of Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter, it’s not hard to see why some Quad Citians today think women didn’t become Rock Island Arsenal “Soldiers of Supply” until World War II.But it’s impossible to tell the full story of the impact that more than a century of women defense workers’ had on Arsenal Island, the Quad Cities, the nation and the world without going back decades before Mr. Rockwell’s Rosie flexed her maidenly muscles.Make no mistake, however, that WWII Rosie – and all of the women she represents – are central characters in the epic Women Ordnance Workers (WOW) story. They are, and should be, beloved symbols of how the women back home helped America win World War II. But according to Mark J. Struve, the Army Sustainment Command assistant historian, WOW traces its QC roots back to shortly after the turn of the 20th Century.“We have a very bad habit very much still, and I’m not entirely sure where this issue comes from, if it has to do with propaganda posters … but we love to say that World War II was the era of Rosie the Riveter of the Women Ordnance Workers, those women who rolled up their sleeves and got things done,” he said. “That’s not true. It started well before World War I and actually started en masse in World War I and maybe even a little bit earlier.”It’s an undertold part of the RIA story. Mr. Struve sought to amplify it during a wide-ranging presentation he delivered to a crowd of history buffs at the Downtown Rock Island Public Library on International Women’s Day, celebrated Wednesday, March 8. His talk, part of a series of free lectures by RIA historians, was repeated at the Davenport Public Library, Eastern Branch, that night. Women employees of Rock Island Arsenal Shop L in 1918. Note the bloomers and the matrons bookending the women workers. CREDIT ARMY SUSTAINMENT COMMAND, ROCK ISLAND ARSENALMr. Struve’s Rock Island Arsenal Women in History month narrative began at the beginning, on Sept. 23, 1907, with a clerk named Mrs. Elmer McPhail – no first name available – who U.S. Army records suggest is “one of the first if not the first” female employees on the island, Mr. Struve said. She would not be the last. Indeed, before the start of World War I, some 200 women filled clerical posts on the island. Among them was young Rose Rohwedder, who joined the RIA workforce at age 19 before World War I and was among the first women to receive a distinguished service award at her post-World War II retirement.Women defense workers initially got their feet in the door, Mr. Struve said, because there weren’t enough men to fill the island’s traditionally male administrative jobs. Women took to them so well and so quickly that by World War II there were dedicated schools and training seminars for clerks filled with mostly women and a handful of men.These early women of the Arsenal did office and secretarial work; for example, managing time cards, doing payroll, typing and stenography. From the start, Mr. Struve said they were deeply committed to filling the arsenal’s long-time role as “soldier of supply” whose job is to outfit soldiers with everything they need to go to battle. Take, for example, Clara Vermeulen who brought along her own stenotype machine. Then there were the skirt-wearing employees who joined the first Women’s Military Drill Corps. Their duties included providing security on the island. They also were trained by a senior staff and were involved in counter-espionage and sabotage efforts, Mr. Struve said.At the start of World War I in July of 1916, 200 women clerks were working on the Island. By the time the U.S. entered the war in January 1918, that number had grown to 376 or 5% of the total workforce. By the end of war in November1918, a total of 1,417 women were part of the island’s 13,361-member workforce.When Clara Vermeulen went to work at the Arsenal in WWI, she brought her own stenotype machine.Most of the jobs outside of Arsenal office buildings were critical and many were dangerous. For example, women were responsible for rifling – i.e., putting grooves in rifle barrels – or star gauging, which is essentially the process of measuring the lines inside the barrel to determine if they are in the right place. Getting that just right is essential to ensuring a soldier’s rifle fires where it is aimed, which could prove to be a matter of life and death. Still other women inspected ordnance, much of it armed and dangerous. About 167,000 155mm howitzer shells were produced on the island in WWI, which was the only time ammunition was produced at Rock Island Arsenal. That work was so dangerous, there were three explosions in the building at the time. Fortunately, none were fatal, Mr. Struve said.He also told the library crowds that it was Col. Leroy T. Hillman, the Arsenal commander, who first selected women to do so much of the small ordnance detail work – including setting fuses – because their hands were accustomed to delicate work. “If they can do needlework,” the colone said then, “they can set a fuse.”Given their needle skills, it’s hardly surprising that many dozens of women were also employed in the leather factory, where they outfitted America’s cavalry soldiers and made tack for their horses.Mr. Struve’s presentation was sprinkled with other ground-breaking Arsenal women of WWI and WWII who were constantly recording firsts.For example, Cora Willfond became the first motorcycle driver on the Arsenal in August of 1918. Throughout both wars, women ferried goods and people around the island and in and out of the warehouse via motorized military mules. By the 1940s, they also were operating cranes and forklifts. And more than 75% of the shipping and receiving conducted in the island’s then-new and massive Building 299 was done by women. Clerks and office workers made up 80% of army clerks and office workers by April of 1942.At the peak employment during WWII, 5,976 women were employed across the Rock Island Arsenal and they made up 32% of the island’s workforce. They worked in leatherworks, rifle shops and manufacturing, administration and material delivery. They smelted metal to make castings for tanks and other vehicles and they packed massive tanks for shipping.Though the women on either the WWI or the WWII posters didn’t reflect it, America’s Rosies were not all young women. Ages ranged from 19 to 65+. They were required to wear uniforms. In WWI, some were required to buy their own, but the gear worn by women in dangerous shop dangerous roles was government-issued. For years the Arsenal women were protected by a matron who looked out for them. By WWII, however, they were on their own and working the long break-free hours necessary to outfit and arm America’s soldiers for battle.Female Soldiers of Supply moved goods, products and people, including the WWII mule driver.And their war work didn’t stop on the factory and warehouse floors after the end of their very long shifts. The women, many members of the Arsenal’s award-winning garden club, on their own time planted flowers to beautify the island and tended the vegetables planted there that were destined to feed America’s troops overseas. They sold war bonds. And more importantly, they were Soldiers of Supply."Why is that a big deal?” Mr. Stuve asked.“To a certain degree all of us are still ‘soldiers of supply’ because we are doing the same thing now that we were doing during Vietnam, that we were doing during World War II, the Spanish American War, during the Civil War and in the Fort Armstrong days over 220 years ago,” he added.“But what I want to emphasize is that women were doing it with us for over 100 years and that continues today.”
Quad Cities at war series
Throughout the remainder of the year, Army Sustainment Command historians headquartered at the Rock Island Island Arsenal will continue a series of lectures exploring the history of the arsenal, the military and the Quad Cities during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. The 2023 lecture series, which is free and open to the public, also includes:
The Quad Cities Supports Defense of the Nation – 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, Downtown Rock Island Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Davenport Public Library, Eastern Branch.
The 38th Parallel: The Pre-War Struggle on the Korean Peninsula – 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 p.m., Davenport Public Library, Eastern Branch.
Korea: Invasion to Incheon – 2-3 p.m., Wednesday, June 8, Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 p.m. Davenport Downtown Library, Eastern Branch
Korea: Incheon to the DMZ – 2-3 p.m., Wednesday, July 12, Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 p.m. Davenport Public Library. Eastern Branch.
Between Embers: Korea to Vietnam – The Advisory Years – 2-3 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 12, Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 p.m. Davenport Public Library, Eastern Branch.
Vietnam: Building Up to Tet – 2-3 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 11, Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 p.m. Davenport Public Library. Eastern Branch.
Vietnam: From Tet to Saigon ‘75 – 2-3 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 6-7 p.m., Downtown Rock Island Public Library; 6-7 pm., Davenport Public Library.
