The "Government Girl" Washington DC c 1943 ...

[Mark Allen M]

... neat! and a great thing for the hard working women of the war years.

Government Girls

"All around the country women stepped into government jobs vacated by men. More than a million women, many of them young and single, came to Washington D.C. As more men were deployed overseas, women -- both military and civilian --were admitted into professional classifications previously reserved exclusively for men. By 1944, women accounted for more than a third of civil service jobs. Women who answered the call to government service were not promised careers. “Government Girls” as they were known could only hold their jobs for the duration of the national emergency because the federal employees who had been drafted or reassigned were entitled to reclaim their jobs at war’s end.

Clerical work was a typical female job in the War Department, and women moved mountains of paper during the course of the war. Women civilian employees of the War Department were permitted to wear WAC uniforms, obscuring the distinction between military units and civilian employees."

https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/partners/12.htm

[Chris Brame]

Interesting; the Mustang (43-6060) wears the training field code L 21, but the Baugher listing shows it in Burma:

(43-)6060 (528th FS, 311th FG) in landing accident at Taigkawk Sakan, Burma Jul 13, 1944. Pilot survived, aircraft badly damaged, unknown if repaired.

Fuselagecodes.com lists the L code on P-51s as assigned to Bartow Field in Florida.

[aerovin]

It looks like they moved the fuselage insignias forward on the Mustang for some reason and placed the artwork where they used to be. Maybe better photo angles?

[sandiego89]

Besides my rivet spotting of the serials and the canopy of the Corsair, my PC detector picked up a few things as well:

- Warbirds on the Mall- within sight of the White House!
- The word "girl" on a official US program
- The emblem art with a "curvy" "girl" and a short skirt- dropping bombs!

Me thinks this would not happen today....... Times change....

Thanks for posting.

[Lynn Allen]

I read today in the New Orleans paper about how a deceased WASP wanted to be buried at Arlington Cemetery and the Army said no. There are prisoners of war from WWII that died in captivity and they are buried there. They still don't recognize the WASP and what they did...

[tom roberts]

Still gets my attention when I see pictures of this era that there are no obese people.
I guess there is a lesson to be learned

[Dan K]

Still gets my attention when I see pictures of this era that there are no obese people.
I guess there is a lesson to be learned

Just one more consequence of taking La-Mar Reducing Soap off the market.

[Pathfinder]

The two large pics of the art are two DIFFERENT renderings....note the wire attachment above the N in Government in the first pic---not present in the second.

The girl looks to be inspired by Varga's Ode to the Jeep girl who appeared in the Journal American.

[Lynn Allen]

Still gets my attention when I see pictures of this era that there are no obese people.
I guess there is a lesson to be learned

Don't come to Waxahachie then as you will never eat again. They keep the buffet lines full down here...

[Cvairwerks]

The two large pics of the art are two DIFFERENT renderings....note the wire attachment above the N in Government in the first pic---not present in the second.

Next to last photo is form the Corsair while the last photo is from the Mustang. If you look at the other photos, the Corsair logo dress is dark, probably black and on the Mustang it's much lighter, probably red. The wide ring also has different colors.

[dogsbodymk1]

From the September 1943 issue of National Geographic.




Chris

[Chris Brame]

Great find, Chris! The red spinner wasn't apparent in the b&w shots.
Sure would be nice if Nat Geo would start making their photo archives available online like LIFE has; imagine a high-res scan of that Kodachrome shot!

[dogsbodymk1]

I inherited all the NG issues from 1922 up to the early mid-50's. After I moved west in 1980, I went through all the ones that had any aviation related articles and had them shipped to my new home. There are definitely a few images not seen by most people in a long time.


Chris