(1895-1990)
Director of the U.S. Women’s Marine Corps Reserve from February 1943 until she resigned her commission in December 1945. Born on October 2, 1895, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Ruth Cheney Streeter graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1918. Between World Wars I and II, she held a variety of public posts in health and welfare services such as on the New Jersey State Relief Council and the New Jersey Board of Children’s Guardians. As the international situation grew increasingly tense by 1940, she shifted more toward defense-oriented activities. In 1941 she chaired the Citizen’s Committee on the Army and Navy for Fort Dix, New Jersey. A licensed pilot, Streeter was also the only female member of the Committee on Aviation for the New Jersey State Defense Council. These activities gave Streeter invaluable experience as a leader and administrator that would benefit her future role in uniform. Meanwhile, she raised four children, three of whom served in the U.S. military during World War II.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor millions of American men and women flocked to support the war effort. Among them was Streeter. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s auxiliary organization called the Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES). Thomas Holcomb, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, resisted the inclusion of women in the corps. He bowed to pressure not only from the government and public but also from the real manpower shortages suffered by the corps. In February 1943, at forty-seven years of age, Streeter transferred from the WAVES to the recently authorized Women’s Marine Corps Reserve (WMCR) and assumed the rank of major as its director. The U.S. Marine Corps eventually expanded to a strength of 475,000 officers and enlisted marines by war’s end, of which 820 officers and 17,640 enlisted women served in the WMCR (Stremlow 1994, 17).
Major Streeter worked tirelessly to train the women recruits and integrate them into the corps as a whole. She selected only women with high qualifications for the corps. The basic training for women at Fort Lejeune, North Carolina, included the intensive drills and physical education expected of all marines, as well as target practice with small arms and antiaircraft artillery. The female marines replaced men who were needed in combat units in the Pacific. These women competently performed tasks in many military occupational specialties, such as clerical, administrative, maintenance, supervisory, and technical duties. In general, these women possessed education and professional qualifications greater than the men of similar active duty ranks. Members of the WMCR never participated as combatants in World War II.
Streeter brought a vision to her position that looked beyond the limited years of service. Women undoubtedly made significant contributions to the U.S. war effort while serving in the corps. In addition, Streeter hoped that women would acquire new skills and develop self-confidence that they could take with them into their postwar lives. Thus Streeter saw military service as a means of empowerment for women. For her military service Streeter received the Legion of Merit, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Following the end of World War II in August 1945, Ruth Cheney Streeter continued to lead the WMCR until December 1945, when she resigned her commission as a colonel and returned to private life.
