United States Army Air Corps Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
The official Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) program was formed in 1943 from their merger of two civilian pilot programs: the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). Though the WASPs still held civilian status throughout the duration of the war, they served to deliver military aircraft from factories to staging grounds at major airbases. In this role, the WASPs flew dozens of varieties of American aircraft such as the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, the B-17 Flying Fortress strategic bomber, and the C-17 Skytrain transport aircraft. In addition to their job in aircraft ferrying, the WASPs towed aerial targets behind their aircraft. In this task, they would attach canvas targets and fly in a steady course for male fighter pilots and antiaircraft crews to practice gunnery skills and for radar technicians to practice tracking aerial targets. One of the antiaircraft units the WASPs helped to train during the war was the 71st and 89th Coastal Antiaircraft Artillery Battalions, otherwise known as Battery X.
United States Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES)
Though women had been enlisted in the United States Navy prior to World War II, their participation was dramatically increased by the emergency Public Law 689, signed into law on July 30th, 1942 by President Franklin Roosevelt. The emergency act required enrolled women to serve for the duration of the war plus six months. The women enlisted in the new program, known as the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, popularly known as the WAVES, were rated as Yeoman and served in roles such as switchboard operators, clerks, recruiters, stenographers, deciphered code, painters, translators, managed pay, and designers of camouflage for ships. One WAVES training center was at Georgia State College University in Milledgeville, Georgia, where Flannery O'Connor depicted the arrival of the WAVES at Georgia College State University in the school's newspaper.
United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (WR)
Though initially met with institutional hesitation, the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established on November 7th, 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law. The U.S. Marine Corps aimed to have 1,000 officers and 18,000 enlisted women enrolled in the Women's Reserve by June of 1944, though this goal fell short due to recruitment only opening in early 1943. In the Women's Reserve, enrolled women held jobs similar to their former civilian jobs such as stenographers, clerks, machine operators, mechanical jobs, typists, supply officers, and supervisory work. In these roles, the Women's Reserve freed male Marines for combat duties in the island-hopping campaign against the Japanese military in the latter half of World War II, increasing American combat power for fierce battles on Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS)
The United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, popularly known as the SPARS, was founded on November 23rd, 1942 after legislation was passed and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the SPARS, over 10,000 women served stateside in roles such as clerks, assistants in sick bays, air control tower operators, link trainer operators, cooks, drivers, parachute riggers, radiomen, and much more. Of particular note were eleven SPARs who worked around the clock in the Long-Range Aid to Navigation program, otherwise known as LORAN. The job required the women to take measurements every two minutes of radio signals being transmitted from two shore-based stations. These signals were picked up by ships and airplanes that had a receiver-indicator instrument installed to calculate their exact position using triangulation positioning. The system allowed aircraft and ships to navigate far easier, especially at night and in bad weather. The first SPARS-staffed LORAN station was located in Chatam, Massachusetts, under the command of Vera Hamerschlag. The SPARS were active until June 30th, 1946 after the authorizing act elapsed six months after the war ended
Source: United States Coast Guard