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Narrator (0:06)
Shortly after the United States entered World War Two, Congress passed legislation establishing a women's reserve in the US Coast Guard. The initial goal was to recruit 5,000 women for shore jobs so that more men would be available for sea duty. Dorothy Stratton, who had been Dean of Women at Purdue University, before the war, became the first member of the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, known as the SPARs, and in November 1942, she became the director of the SPARs. SPARs is an acronym for Semper Paratus, the Coast Guard motto, and it's English translation Always Ready. Dorothy Kurtz was a 20 year old New Yorker when she became one of the first women to enlist. She discusses her experiences as a SPAR with Coast Guard auxiliary national historian, Dr. Richard Stevenson.

Dorothy Kurtz (1:03)
I was just very interested, very excited about going to the service because I thought maybe I could do something, maybe something small, but something you know, they needed a lot of people, even people like me.

Narrator (1:28)
Yep, the SPARs have a job to do too, perhaps our jobs are not for the moment so exciting as sending a death charge over a cutter side, or seeing a telltale oil slick rise from a blasted sub. But they are vital jobs, which must be done, vital jobs done by women, so that men may fight.

Dorothy Kurtz (1:49)
I was working for the New York Life Insurance Company at that time. And when they had made the plea for people to go into the service, because we had no men in our family that were eligible. We all had to do it apart. And every family was the same, not just our family. So when I broach the subject to my mother and father, they were receptive, but they were a little bit apprehensive, I think, because that meant being away from home, we were all very sheltered all those years. But they agreed and they had to give me permission, they had to sign a permission slip because I was 20. And we were the first group in Hunter, Hunter College. And we were a very sad looking group. We had our civilian clothes, and we didn't have our uniforms or anything. And we were cold. And everybody was so so unused to being in the service. We had Navy chiefs drilling us and the poor souls, I often wondered when we were out of step, what they would, would have said to men, but they didn't say to us. They taught us the Coast Guard way about discipline and the the range, the ranks, and the different areas that we might be able to go into. We had to take tests. And then finally after about four weeks, and we passed the test, they would send us to the different schools. So I happen to go to Indiana University to learn Navy accounting. That was very interesting. So then I graduated, and we were sent to permanent offices, I came to 42 Broadway, which was not much of a different change from where I had worked. That was coed. But we didn't run into any resentment. When we went into the office, they treated us as though we were their sisters or cousins, family members, which I found later on wasn't true of the other services. We were introduced to their wives and girlfriends and we attended their weddings, we would go every place together. We we had a good baseball team and they they coached us, you know, we really had an extraordinary experience. Dorothy Stratton was very anxious to let Admiral [Waesche] at the time understand that women could do a lot of different jobs that were not acceptable before. And they were very unusual jobs and they patrolled and they were on shore duty looking for submarines, German submarines, and they were radio men and things like that. They really did contribute a great deal. One of the waves that is currently in our [Venice] organization, the dolphins helped break the Japanese code, which I think is the most extraordinary kind of history. And she lives today she's about 96.

Narrator (4:57)
The Coast Guard also used women as code breakers. 12 SPARs served in Coast Guard unit 387, which is credited with deciphering 8,500 encrypted messages sent from German confidential circuits. In total, more than 11,000 women served in the SPARs during World War Two. Enlisted SPAR served in 30 different Coast Guard ratings, and many achieved the distinction of being promoted to first class or chief petty officer in their specialty. When the war ended, the SPARs were demobilized, and Dorothy Kurtz returned to civilian life.

Dorothy Kurtz (5:33)
If I thought that I could have continued on if they had continued the Coast Guard, I think I would have stayed in because it was just so wonderful. I had gotten good training, and we were among people who were very, very unusually good people. So...

Narrator (5:53)
Over the past 60 years, Dorothy has kept in touch with other SPARs and has attended several reunions.

Dorothy Kurtz (5:58)
This was a lady who attended the Michigan festival, in Coast Guard City, which was Grand Rapids, Michigan, but they called it SPARs-city for that weekend. Now, the story that she tells, Ms. Olivia Hooker, she had been a teacher in New York, in the Bronx. And she tried to join the Navy. At that time, they weren't accepting black women at that in the service. So they told her to go across the hall, and maybe the Coast Guard would be willing. She did that. And then she joined the Coast Guard. So she was the first black lady to be enlisted into the Coast Guard. And she became a doctor. After she was discharged, she went to school under the GI Bill of Rights. When we went out to Michigan, as well as to Mississippi, and some of the admirals came up to us, and congratulated us, we weren't accustomed to that kind of greeting, you know, and they stayed with us a long time. And they seem to be interested in our lives. And we're more interested in their lives because they had such high ranks, you know. Now I find that through the Navy newspaper that there, there is one officer who is in command of a submarine, and I just cannot visualize that. So it's just amazing. Now on this cutter, the Coast Guard Cutter named after our commanding officer, who was Dorothy Stratton, 20% of the crew is going to be women. And they some of them have a right, a lot of them are cooks. And when we were greeted on the ship, this last trip to Mississippi. The admiral took his line, his turn after the cooks to greet us and thank us. It could only happen to the Coast Guard.

Narrator (8:00)
Dorothy is still a part of Team Coast Guard. She is an active member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary in North Port, Florida.

Dorothy Kurtz (8:07)
It's a wonderful, wonderful organization. I think that they're very eager to do a good job for the Coast Guard. They're they're volunteers, so they they give their time and their efforts and their expertise. And when we have our different festivals, they tried to engage the youngsters in the environmental area on tossing things into the water and how long would take for them to be those things to just dissolve in the water. And it makes them think we have a lot of very patriotic youngsters so they're going to be good citizens later on and maybe they'll join the auxiliary.

Narrator (8:51)
The Coast Guard recently named one of its national security cutters in honor of SPAR's founder Dorothy Stratton. On March 31 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama commissioned the Stratton. Dorothy Kurtz and 40 other SPARs who attended the ceremony were honored for their service during the Second World War.

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