"Volunteer for Victory. Offer your services to your Red Cross." A wartime recruitment poster photographed by Toni Frissell, who served as the American Red Cross's chief photographer.
Library of Congress. LCCN 90712747. Public domain.
Thousands of American women crossed the ocean with the American Red Cross, running canteens and clubmobiles and carrying some measure of home to the troops in every theater. They were among the few civilian women allowed into the combat zones, close enough to the fighting to share its danger.
died 1945
American Red Cross Clubmobile worker.
Burdge, a schoolteacher before the war, was sent overseas by the Red Cross in September 1943 and operated a Clubmobile alongside her sister Grace through England, Normandy, France, Belgium, and Germany. She was killed in a plane crash in Germany on 1 May 1945, days before the German surrender.
1911 to 2002
American Red Cross Clubmobile worker.
Born in Boston, Schuyler served with a Clubmobile crew attached to U.S. forces in Europe and received the Bronze Star from President Truman for her bravery during the Battle of Bastogne in December 1944.
1916 to 2004
American Red Cross recreation worker, Italy.
As a young woman Phelan served with the American Red Cross in Italy, running a program for recuperating servicemen on the island of Capri. Later in life she became a pioneering woman helicopter pilot and founded the Whirly-Girls, the international organization of women helicopter pilots.
dates unknown
American Red Cross Recreation and Personal Service director.
Munford directed Recreation and Personal Service units for the American Red Cross and served in England, North Africa, and Italy across the war. In 1946 and 1947 she worked as a welfare supervisor for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in China.
Researched and written by Erin Faith Allen · Fortitude Research