Wisconsin documentarian sparks effort to honor World War I female phone operators with Congressional Gold Medal

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A group of female phone operators who served in France in the U.S. Signal Corps and were denied veterans benefits for six decades may be posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

The ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week introduced a bill to honor the phone operators with one of America's highest civilian awards.

The move to honor 223 American women who volunteered for the Army Signal Corps in France was spurred by a documentary released earlier this year by Wisconsin native Jim Theres.

Gen. John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I, reviews American female telephone operators who provided a critical job during the war connecting phone calls and translating conversations between American and French troops. When the women who served in the Army Signal Corps returned home after the war and tried to join veterans organizations they were told they were civilian contractors and were not veterans. Efforts to get them veteran recognition took more than six decades.

Theres recently screened the hourlong film at the Billings, Montana, public library and among the crowd was a staff member of Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana). Soon after, Theres got an email from Tester's office asking for more information about the women.

"After 100 years, it's all going to finally come out right. They'll be officially recognized by the U.S. Congress," Theres said in a phone interview.

Nicknamed the "Hello Girls," they took oaths to join the U.S. Army Signal Corps, underwent training by AT&T before boarding ships to Europe and headed to war before most of the American doughboys arrived. The women connected 26 million calls and ultimately proved to be a significant factor in winning the war.

Hildegarde Van Brunt was 19 when she volunteered to be a telephone operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I. A total of 223 American woman, who were fluent in French and English, were sent to France and Germany to handle calls by U.S. and allied troops.

Among the phone operators chosen from more than 7,000 volunteers were two women from Wisconsin — Martina Heynen from Green Bay and Hildegarde Van Brunt from Milwaukee.

Gen. John Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, requested the Army send female phone operators because they could connect calls much quicker than men. The women had to be bilingual because they frequently had to translate conversations between American and French commanders.

Just as radios were the main form of communication during the World War II, troops used telephones during World War I. Every command to advance or retreat or commence firing came through a phone line and it took an operator to connect those calls.

When the war ended in November 1918, they remained in Europe while most of the American troops returned home, staying through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to handle calls. Two of the Hello Girls died in France from the Spanish flu epidemic.

When the women returned home and tried to join veterans organizations, they were told by the Army that they had not been soldiers, but civilians. That shocked the Hello Girls, who wore Army Signal Corps uniforms, saluted officers, lived in barracks and were not free to leave whenever they wished. The women were denied veterans benefits, medals and the right to march in Memorial Day parades.

For decades, they fought to be called veterans but numerous attempts to get legislation through Congress failed until finally they were given veteran status in 1978. By then, though, only a handful of Hello Girls were alive.

Jim Theres, a Racine native, visits Heidelberg, Germany, while researching the American women who served as telephone operators for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Theres' one-hour documentary "The Hello Girls" premiered March 1 at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, 100 years after the first contingent of women sailed to France.

“When you look at what they did, they were serving in dangerous places. They went over in U-boat-infested waters. They even stayed on after the war was over for a year working the communications for the Versailles Peace Treaty,” said Chris Isleib, director of public relations for the World War I Centennial Commission.

Congressional Gold Medals are awarded by Congress to individuals and groups for major achievements in history or culture. Recent recipients include Women Airforce Service Pilots, Native American World War II code talkers and the 442nd Infantry Regiment of Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during World War II.

A spokesman for Tester said the Montana senator partnered with Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada), another senior member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, to introduce the legislation, which will next go to the Senate Banking Committee. That committee has oversight of the U.S. Mint, which creates the medals.

Just how long it will take is unknown though previous legislation for Congressional Gold Medals has taken more than one session of Congress to pass.

Theres was looking to create a documentary about World War I and found a 2017 book written by Elizabeth Cobbs about the Hello Girls. Stunned by the heroism of the forgotten women, Theres sought out relatives of the Hello Girls and completed his film earlier this year, showing it in Milwaukee in May and on Wisconsin Public TV last month.

Now he’s ecstatic to hear that the American phone operators who made such a difference in the outcome of World War I may finally be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

“They’re superheroes to me,” said Theres, a Racine native and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater graduate. “All these women were just so humble. How they performed (during World War I) was how women were going to be judged going forward. Now 100 years later, here’s one of the highest civilian honors for them.”