Born: 25 October 1892, United States
Died: 17 September 1960
Country most active: France
Also known as: NA
Grace D. Banker served during World War I (1917–1918) as chief operator of mobile telephone communications for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. She led 33 women telephone operators, popularly known as Hello Girls. From New York, they were assigned to travel to France to operate telephone switch boards at the war front in Paris, and at Chaumont, Haute-Marne. The women also operated the telephone switch boards at First Army headquarters at Ligny-en-Barrois and later during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After returning to civilian life, Banker and her team members were treated as citizen volunteers and were not initially given recognition as members of the military. In 1919, Banker was honoured with the Distinguished Service Medal for her services with the First Army headquarters during the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives and received a commendation.
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
During World War I, the so-called “Hello Girls” of the Signal Corps worked on the front lines providing one of the most vital functions in war: communications. Upon discovering that men were, in general, inept as telephone operators, General John Pershing in 1918 put out the call for women, who filled 80 percent of such roles in the U.S. and could typically connect five calls in the time it took a man to do one. Thousands of women answered the call, and hundreds were sent overseas. Many of them were bilingual and acted as real-time translators for officials from different countries. Following the Armistice, they also stayed six months to a year longer than most of the men, because they were still needed in the aftermath. Yet when they returned home, says historian Elizabeth Cobbs,
“The women found, if they were in the Army, despite everything they understood, when they got home the Army said you weren’t in the Army. You never took an oath. And there were multiple oaths in the files for them. One of them, their leader Grace Banker, won the Distinguished Service Medal awarded by Pershing, which was the top medal for officers at that time. Despite all that, they were told, ‘You weren’t actually in the Army.’… There were women who died, two who lost their lives in influenza, and several were disabled. One woman’s arm was permanently disabled because somebody had treated it improperly and she ended up with permanent nerve damage. Another had tuberculosis. The Army, unlike the Marines and Navy, which provided medical benefits, said, that’s not our problem.”