America’s Forgotten Veterans: The Hello Girls of World War I Are Still Being Left Behind

Web Article Published by the Doughboy Foundation

A group of Signal Corps Telephone Operators (Hello Girls) receive decorations on July 8, 1919. Chief Operator Grace Banker (back row, far left) had received the Distinguished Service Medal, one of just eighteen eligible officers in the U.S. Army Signal Corps to receive this award for their World War I service, even though she was technically neither an officer nor in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. National Archives.

In response to a special request from the Doughboy Foundation, Dr. Finkelstein wrote an article for their newsletter and website in support of the campaign to award the Hello Girls of World War I the Congressional Gold Medal. The article explores the wartime excellence and postwar betrayal of the Hello Girls and argues that they were part of the community of forgotten female veterans who form the focus of Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945.

As the article explains, by honoring the Hello Girls with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress would also recognize all women who experienced a similar situation during World War I. While nothing can make up for the struggles these unrecognized veterans faced without veteran benefits and government support after the war, the Congressional Gold Medal would still provide them with long overdue recognition and honor for their contributions to the United States.

Read the article here.