Coast Guard·Integration / civil rights·In Memoriam
SPARs — Coast Guard Women's Reserve
Served: 1942–1946
~10,000 women served as yeomen, storekeepers, radio operators, parachute riggers, photographers, air traffic controllers, and LORAN station operators.
The Story
Director Dorothy Stratton coined the name from the Coast Guard motto *Semper Paratus* — "Always Ready." She had been a dean at Purdue before commissioning into the WAVES, then crossed services to lead the Coast Guard's women's reserve.
Epitaph
“Always Ready. Mustered out anyway.”
Sources
- NPS — SPARswww.nps.gov
- Wikipedia — SPARSen.wikipedia.org