US Signal Corps Unit at Headquarters

Group of Telephone Operators from the US Signal Corps Unit at Headquarters. War Work Bulletin, 26 April 1918. GGA Image ID # 193ebcbbfe

Uncle Sam’s soldiers are going to have their “Hello’s” said to them in good old American by real American “Hello Girls,” when they get across the ocean.

The third telephone unit of the signal corps of the United States Army is ready to start for “Some place in France.”

While the twenty-eight girls who comprise the unit await their sailing orders, they are being billeted in the National Training School of the Y.W. C.A., next door to the national board offices on Lexington Avenue, New York City.

Beds were fitted up in every conceivable space to make room for them. Even the drying room on the twelfth floor was turned into an emergency dormitory, which the girls have christened “The Barracks.”

They wear navy blue uniforms with Norfolk style coats, blue “trench caps” for every day and sailor shapes of blue felt for “dress.”

White arm bands with a telephone mouthpiece embroidered in blue tell the story of their work. On one corner of their coat collar, they have the two metal letters “U. S.” of the army, and on the other comer, are the crossed flags that ' form the insignia of the signal corps.

Miss Nellie F. Snow, who for seven years has been the chief operator of the New England Telephone Company, at Lowell, Mass., is in charge of the unit. The supervisors are Miss Marie L. Beraud, a French bom woman, from New York City, and Miss Elizabeth R. Roby of Chicago.

Many of the girls are native French women. One of them, Miss Bertha Wuilleumier, was born in Switzerland. All speak French. All have been recruited from the switchboards of the United States.

They don’t know when they will sail but they’re “at home” at the Y.W.C.A. until the order comes.

The rest of the unit includes:

• Miss Suzanne M. Beraud, from New York City
• Miss Louisette H. Gavard, from New York City
• Miss Margaret Hutchins, from New York City
• Miss Lucille De Jersey, from San Francisco
• Miss Miriam De Jersey, from San Francisco
• Miss Bertha M. Hunt, from San Francisco
• Miss Margaret H. Milner, from San Francisco
• Miss Martha Steinbrunere, from San Francisco
• Miss Marie Flood, from Chicago
• Miss Dorothy L. Sage, from Chicago
• Miss Bertha J. Verkler, from Chicago
• Miss Lillian V. Verkler, from Chicago
• Miss Yvonne M. Gauthier, from Lowell, Mass.
• Miss Eugenie Racicot, from Lowell, Mass.
• Miss A. Maude McMullen, from Pittsburgh
• Miss Michele F. Blanc, from France
• Miss Marie B. Belang
• 'Miss Marie L. Bousquet
• Miss Suzanne Coheleach
• Miss Frances Des Jardins
• Miss Blanche Gránd- Maître
• Miss Adele L. Hoppock
• Miss Janet R. Jones
• Miss Hope Kervin.

War Work Bulletin, New York: Young Womens Christian Associations, No. 29, 26 April 1918, p. 4.