Documentary Celebrates U.S. Women Who Marched to War

Behind the scenes of “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Thin Red Line” are the stories of 400,000 of World War II’s other veterans, which are featured in “Free a Man to Fight: Women Soldiers of World War II,” a documentary hosted by Paula Zahn that will be screened this weekend and next at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica.

“The vast number of Americans don’t know that women were in the military and served in World War II,” said retired Gen. Jeanne Holm, a 33-year veteran of the military, who has written two books on women’s military history and is featured in the documentary.

Produced and directed by Mindy Pomper, “Free a Man to Fight,” which initially premiered on The History Channel earlier this month, takes its name from a slogan of the time, “Free a Marine to Fight” and documents the military’s aggressive campaign to sell itself to American women.

In one clip from a recruiting film dubbed “To the Ladies,” the female narrator intones, “We know that the rumors about the WACs are so much hot air,” followed by a chorus of women chirping, “You can’t use makeup. No rouge. No lipstick. No nail polish.” To which the female narrator replies: “Toss that one in the ash can.”

On a more serious note, the documentary traces many of the ways in which women served: as medics, Marines, pilots, code breakers and mechanics in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), the women Marines, the Coast Guard’s Semper Paratus Always Ready (SPAR), and the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP).

Role of Women in War Not Widely Known

“We’ve come a long way as women in this country, and this is just a fascinating look at these spunky, dynamic women who are now in their 70s,” said Abbe Raven, History Channel senior vice president of programming, who chose to include the documentary in the network’s programming block. “If you asked the average American what they think women did in World War II, they think of Rosie the Riveter or rubber drives.”

However, women, as the documentary explores, were involved in almost every aspect of the war. The original legislation allowing for women’s entrance into the military limited them to four jobs: cooks, clerks, drivers and telephone operators, but by the end of the first year, they were serving in almost 200 job categories. The story, told through archival footage interwoven with interviews with veterans, re-creates a time when nice girls didn’t overhaul airplane engines or engage in simulation strafing.

As “Free a Man to Fight” details, a war had to be waged on the home front just to get the women’s military branches established. Pomper found evidence of the acrimonious fight in the Congressional Record of the time.

“Who will do the cooking, the cleaning, the washing and the mending? They were saying that if they allowed women into the military it would be a disgrace, an embarrassment for the men,” Pomper said. “Some of the soldiers actually threatened to divorce their wives if they joined the service. Disown sisters, family members.”

Even after legislation was passed creating these branches, the military still had to persuade women to enlist, and that becomes the central focus of the documentary.

“The cultural bias we had in those days had a dampening effect on recruiting,” Holm said. “The military was perceived as a man’s world.”

In the film, Johnnie Phelps, a WAC from Pomona, remembers her experience in the South Pacific, which was anything but sheltered: “As a medic you did everything. You’d go out and pick ‘em up and bring ‘em in if you had to. Put ‘em aboard whatever hospital ship was available and you got the hell out. It was scary all the time.”

Retired Col. Mary Hallaren, 92, was in the first WAC class and later went on to oversee 10,000 women serving in the European theater, yet her story was typical.

“When I joined the WAC, the sergeant behind the desk asked me how tall I was,” Hallaren recalled. “When I told him 5 feet, he said, ‘What do you think a 5-foot woman can do in the Army?’ I said, ‘You don’t have to be 6 feet tall to have a brain that works.’ ”

Pomper and executive producer-producer Roberta Shintani spent nearly six years making the documentary, in part funded by a Women in Film Finishing Fund grant and the Roy W. Dean Grant from Studio Film and Tape. The International Documentary Assn. also served as a sponsor.

Along the way, the two producers maxed out their credit cards and received contributions from producer Kathleen Kennedy, writer-producer Gary David Goldberg, writer-director Charles Shyer and writer-producer Nancy Meyers. And they cooked.

“We had fund-raising parties,” Pomper said. “We charged $20 to cook dinner for people.”

BE THERE

“Free a Man to Fight: Women Soldiers of World War II” will be shown this weekend and next at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica. For information on screening times and ticket prices: (310) 392-8822.

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“The cultural bias we had in those days had a dampening effect on recruiting. The military was perceived as a man’s world.”

GEN. JEANNE HOLM

33-year veteran of the military and author of two books on women’s military history.