On an impulse

Photo By Mark Olsen | Portrait of Women’s Army Corps Staff Sgt. Ruth Reid, circa 1943-1945. Reid served in quality control Edgewood Arsenal, Md. Prior to enlisting, Reid had graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a chemistry degree. (Photo courtesy Fred Stine) (New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs photo illustration by Mark C. Olsen)  

PENNINGTON, NJ, UNITED STATES

03.23.2021

Story by Mark Olsen  

New Jersey National Guard   

It was impulse move.
“I was walking down Euclid Avenue in Cleveland on a Sunday afternoon,” said Pennington resident Ruth Fiala. “I happened to pass by the recruiting office.”
But instead of passing by, she went in.
“I had no sales resistance at all,” said Fiala. “I was soon in the Army.”
While Ruth was not the first member of the East Stroudsburg, Pa., Reid family to join the military – her younger sister Jean had already enlisted after she finished nursing school – she and two more of the five Reid sisters served in the military during World War II.
When she called her father to tell him she had joined: “There was dead silence.”
Like everyone else who enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor, her commitment was for the duration of the war.
“Plus, six months,” she added.
In February 1943, Fiala was sent to the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) basic training camp.
When the WAACs, later the Women’s Army Corps (WACs), was created May 14, 1942, women were selected to work primarily in four fields: Baking, clerical, driving, and medical. A year later, more than 400 jobs were open to women. During the first recruiting drive in 1942, 35,000 women from all over the country applied for less than 1,000 anticipated positions. Applicants had to be American citizens between the ages of 21 and 45 with no dependents, be at least five feet tall, and weigh 100 pounds or more.
In January 1943, identical bills were introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives to permit the enlistment and commissioning of women in the Army or Reserve forces, as opposed to regular enlistments in the U.S. Army. This would drop the "auxiliary" status of the WAAC and allow women to serve overseas and "free a man to fight."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the legislation July 1, 1943, making the WACs a part of the Army, giving women all the rank, privileges, and benefits of their male counterparts.
Fiala had gone from being a WAAC to a WAC. She had also finished basic training.
“After basic training they sent me to an Army Administration School.”
She was 22 years-old and she was being sent to learn clerical training.
“I didn’t know one end of a typewriter from another,” said Fiala.
She was not destined to be typist. Prior to enlisting, Fiala, who was the first in her family to attend college, had graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a chemistry degree.
“I was the only girl in my class of chemists and chemical engineers.”
When it was time for permanent assignment, a request came in from Edgewood Arsenal for a secretary.
During WW II, Edgewood Arsenal, located in Maryland, was part of the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service and was the primary facility for developing both chemical defensive and offensive capabilities. At that time, the main threat was whether Germany or Japan would use chemical or biological weapons against military or civilian targets. The Japanese use of biological agents against the Chinese led to the United States decision to conduct biological warfare research and establish a retaliatory biological warfare capability. Edgewood provided technical support in defensive aspects of that research.
“As soon as I got to the assignment office, they just reassigned me to the regular Edgewood Arsenal staff.”
Fiala was assigned to a lab.
“It was chemical warfare; we did the quality control (on the gas mask) canisters.”
In a May 1944 Philadelphia Inquirer picture story, there is a photo of Pfc. Reid testing a gas mask canister to determine how long it would be effective in a chemical or biological environment.
“It was a timed test, they were controlled analytical samples,” said Fiala.
Had Germany or Japan used biological or chemical weapons, Fiala’s work would have saved the lives of Soldiers, Marines, and Sailors.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William N. Porter, chief, Chemical Warfare Service, would go on to state that WACs had exhibited "all of the soldierly qualities of obedience, initiative, and devotion to duty . . . . The WAC has permeated our entire organization, and we owe them a great debt."
By war’s end, more than 150,000 American women served in the Army. Their effort initiated significant economic and social changes and altered the role of women in both the military and society. In Fiala’s case, she would go on to work as a chemist with American Cyanamid Company.
For Fiala, it was all based on a decision to step into the recruiting office that Sunday afternoon.

Special thanks to Fred Stine for his assistance with this article.

• Date Taken: 03.23.2021
• Date Posted: 03.23.2021 18:08
• Story ID: 392124
• Location: PENNINGTON, NJ, US