Honoring Grace Banker
JOIN US as we dedicate an official veteran memorial to GRACE BANKER -- a long-overdue honor for an American hero.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
2:30 ~ 4:30pm
Green-Wood Cemetery
Main Entrance
25th Street & 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY (map)
* * * * *
Summary | Schedule | Directions | About Grace
* * * * *
Summary
During World War I, GRACE BANKER led America’s first women soldiers overseas.
Serving as U.S. Army Signal Corps telephone operators, these women provided vital battlefront communications – including combat support. They helped win the war – and helped win American women the right to vote. (Help us honor all Grace's comrades)
However, they were denied recognition as veterans until 1977 – six decades after the war, and 17 years after Grace’s death.
Join Grace’s descendants, military and veteran representatives, and supporters as we dedicate an official veteran memorial at her gravesite: a long-overdue honor for an American hero.
PLEASE NOTE: The event will begin with a procession to Grace's gravesite (10 minute walk) at 2:30pm sharp. Limited transport is available for guests with mobility issues, please contact gracebankerorg(at)gmail.com.
* * * * *
Schedule
| 2:00pm | Gather at Green-Wood Cemetery Main Entrance (directions) |
| 2:30pm | Procession departs for Grace's gravesite |
| 2:45pm | Ceremony, featuring military honors, dedication of plaque, remarks from descendants and special guests, World War I re-enactors, and more |
| 3:30pm | Ceremony ends; photos and mingling |
| 4:00pm | Departure |
* * * * *
Directions
Participants will gather at the Main Entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery, at Green-Wood Cemetery, at 25th Street & 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (map)
By car:
Ample parking is available inside the cemetery; please set your GPS/mapping app for the address indicated above.
By public transportation:
SUBWAY: Take the R train to the 25th Street stop in Brooklyn. Exit the station and walk one block west on 25th Street to the cemetery entrance.
BUS: Take the B63 bus to the 5th Avenue/24th Street stop in Brooklyn. Exit the bus and walk one block south on 5th Ave to the cemetery entrance.
* * * * *
About Grace
In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, Commanding General John J. Pershing soon recognized that his Army's vital telephone communications were completely inadequate for fighting a major modren conflict. Pershing knew that the importance and urgency of military communications required the best telephone operators -- and that the fastest and most skilled operators in America were women.
Grace Banker, born and raised in Passaic NJ, was one of 223 pioneering women who volunteered and answered Pershing's call for bilingual French/English telephone operators to operate the switchboards in France. These women became affectionately known as the "Hello Girls". At a time when women didn't have the right to vote, Grace and her fellow operators were sworn into the Army's Signal Corps and donned Army uniforms to join the war effort.
Grace was a trailblazer. She was appointed to the position of Chief Operator of the First Unit of women soldiers to be deployed to France. Along with other operators, she served at General Pershing’s headquarters in Chaumont, France for five months. The women quickly proved their speed and efficiency on the switchboards, more than doubling the number of calls handled soon after their arrival in France.
General Pershing recognized their capabilities and ordered a small unit of women, led by Grace, to move forward to operate the “Fighting Lines” just behind the front lines. These operators supported the First Army's combat operations in the St. Mihiel and Meuse Argonne campaigns, which threw the Germans back and led to the Armistice that ended war.
After the Armistice, most of the Hello Girls were ordered to remain overseas, to support the return home of two million Doughboys, the Paris peace talks, and the Army of Occupation. Grace served in Paris at President Woodrow Wilson’s residence and in Coblenz, Germany, with the Third Army, which was assigned to occupation duty.
While still overseas, she received the Distinguished Service Medal on May 22, 1919. The citation reads:
“For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. She served with exceptional ability, as Chief Operator in the Signal Corps Exchange at General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, and later in a similar capacity at First Army Headquarters. By untiring devotion to her exacting duties under trying conditions, she did much to assure the success of the telephone service during the operations of the 1st Army against the St. Mihiel salient and the operations to the north of Verdun”.
Grace accepted this medal on behalf of the “very loyal and devoted group of 1st Army Girls”.
In September, 1919, after serving a total of 18 months in the Army, Grace returned to the United States on the USS Mobile. Upon returning home, she and the other women of the Signal Corps were shocked to hear the news that they were not considered soldiers, and were therefore ineligible for military recognition or veteran benefits.A sixty-year fight ensued as the women fought to be acknowledged as veterans. In 1977, the United States government at last recognized their service. Only a handful of women, in their eighties and nineties, lived to see this day. Grace had died in 1960, and therefore did not live to see her veteran recognition. Her story, along with all the women of the Signal Corps, was lost over the years and nearly forgotten with time.
This October, this injustice is being rectified by honoring Grace Banker with a veteran plaque and medallion to recognize her service.
LINKS
Overlooked No More (NY Times Obituary)
Number, please? 'Hello Girls' answered the call in World War I (NorthJersey.com)