Commanding Officers & Allies in Service

Purpose: To centralize profiles and correspondence of the male military officers who interacted with, supported, or oversaw the Signal Corps telephone units.

• General John J. Pershing – Commander, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
  Profile + excerpts from commendations and official letters (Exhibit H).

• Major General George Owen Squier – Chief Signal Officer, 1917–1923
  Biography + his administrative role in establishing the Signal Corps Women’s Units.

• Captain Ernest J. Wesson

  – Signal Corps Recruiter and Organizer of the “Hello Girls”
  Letters and memoranda (Exhibits C–E) highlighting his direct recruitment of the operators.

• Captains in Charge of Units V & VI –
  Profiles on officers who commanded units without female chief operators, often tasked with managing logistics and morale.

• Capt. W. S. Vivian
  was tasked with ensuring the housing and general welfare of the operators in France, a crucial role in the unit's success.

Value:
This gives researchers, teachers, and students a way to trace the military hierarchy that validated (or sometimes complicated) women’s service recognition. It also provides context for how male leadership shaped women’s wartime roles.