What? Women Marines? Quit your kidding " That was the first reaction of a group of Marines newly- freed from a prison camp in the Philippines in February 1945. Eagerly they sought news from the combat correspondents about what had been going on in the Marine Corps since their capture in the early days of the war. The released men could hardly believe it. Women in the Marine Corps? What did they do? How did they dress? What were they like? Were they pretty? Women in military uniform were a novelty to much of the rest of the world in the beginning of World War II, not only in this country, but in Canada and England as well. In the United States, more than 265,000 women served in all branches of the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines. The Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) was established by law as a part of the Marine Corps Reserve by the amendment of 30 July 1942 to the U.S. Naval Reserve Act of 1938. The mission of the MCWR was to provide women trained and qualified for duty in the shore establishments of the Marine Corps, thereby releasing additional male Marines for combat duty. In February 1943, the month that the Women's Reserve was formed, American forces wiped out the final enemy opposition on Guadalcanal. . . .
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