Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD) was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

civilian organization that worked with the military to provide

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

for

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. It formed in December 1941 after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. Several days after the attack, Una Walker awoke to an urgent phone call at 4:00 a.m. from 51-year-old Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. Howard C. Davidson, who commanded a wing at Wheeler Field. He asked her to assemble “a list of twenty bright, reliable women to be the nucleus of a secretive Army job.” Una immediately awoke her husband Sandy with whom she compiled a list for General Davidson, which formed the initial roster of the WARD in Hawai`i, based at Fort Shafter. Davidson and Una met the recruits at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki the day after Nimitz’s arrival, Christmas 1941. Davidson explained that the “women were needed to relieve men ordered to forward combat areas and the duties and demands that the secret work entailed.” WARD was the only

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

organization employed by the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

for the purpose to replace men in active duty. It was disbanded after the end of WWII.

History

The Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD) organization was started on December 26, 1941, when a small group of women in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

met at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The meeting was led by Una Walker and Mrs. John Howard, who were military spouses and commanding general, Howard C. Davidson. The WARD would "relieve urgently needed men for combat duty" and allow the women to operate the

center. There was a call for 100 women and all slots were filled. Women chose to volunteer after experiencing the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7. At first the women involved came from Hawaii, but later, women from the "mainland" were brought in. Recruits for WARD were required to be between the ages of 20 and 34, without children and had to pass an

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

intelligence test. Training classes were held at Iolani Palace and first started on January 1, 1942. WARDs would have two weeks of training before starting. WARD volunteers learned how to plot the positions of airplanes using

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

, which was experimental at the time. After training, WARD started to work in shifts at

Fort Shafter Fort Shafter, in Honolulu CDP, Page 4/ref> City and County of Honolulu, Hawai‘i, is the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific, which commands most Army forces in the Asia-Pacific region with the exception of Korea. Geographically, Fort ...

, staffing the air defense center 24 hours a day. Each WARD would work a six hour shift on and six off for eight days, after which they had 32 hours off. WARD recruits would plot the position of the aircraft on a large, gridded physical map of the Hawaiian Islands. WARD also worked with army officers who knew the locations of friendly aircraft and helped find lost planes. All of the women plotters were known by the

code name A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

, "Rascal" and the radar operator was coded "Oscar." The organization was part of the 7th Fighter Wing, considered a detachment of Company A, Signal Aircraft Warning Regiment. Executive Order #9063 gave the organization powers to recruit and consider the volunteers

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

for the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

. WARD chief supervisors were under the command of Brigadier General Robert W. Douglas, Jr. The first chief supervisor of WARD was Mrs. R. T. Williams. She was followed by Catherine Coonley. Quarters were provided to the WARDs on Fort Shafter and the women moved into them on February 1, 1942. During the war, there were around 500 WARDs. They contracted to work a year at a time and were paid between $140 to $225 a month. Other WARDs were established throughout the islands:

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

on July 30, 1942;

Hilo Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Hawaii (island), Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 United ...

on August 10, 1942 and

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

on September 14, 1942. WARD was detached from the Signal Corps on June 13, 1943 and named the WARD unit of the 17th Fighter Command. WARD was disbanded in 1945, after the end of

. Some members of the group stayed on in civil service roles in Hawaii. Official records documenting the work of the WARDs was lost in a 1983 fire. A book by Kam Napier and Candace Chenowith, ''Shuffleboard Pilots'', documents the history of the organization and was based on the personal experience of women who worked as WARDs.

References

External links

The Women's Air Raid Defense of the Hawaiian Islands

Red Cross Heroes: LeBurta Gates Atherton
(2017 video) {{Authority control 1941 establishments in Hawaii 1945 disestablishments in Hawaii United States civil defense American women in World War II Air defense All-female military units and formations History of women in Hawaii