Women at Fort Warren in World War II: Dances, Treats and Morale

Volunteering on the harbor islands

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, women looked for ways to help on the home front — as air raid wardens in Boston's neighborhoods, as shipbuilders at the Charlestown Navy Yard, or by giving time, goods and energy to local volunteer groups. Their work reached the forts of Boston Harbor, including Fort Warren on Georges Island.

With few civilian jobs at these military outposts, women mostly took on unofficial social and volunteer roles. Through citizens' organizations — the Citizens Committee of the Army and Navy, the American Legion, the American Red Cross and the Jewish Welfare Board, among others — groups of women visited soldiers on the islands.

• Bringing warmth: some simply came to cheer the soldiers and hand out donated goods. Members of the local Army and Navy Committee became known as the "Sunshine Girls" for the treats they brought to Fort Warren, other harbor forts and military hospitals.
• Boosting morale: others planned social events and dances for the soldiers stationed on the islands.

Dances

The United Service Organizations (USO), through the Jewish Welfare Board, and other local groups often held events at Boston-area forts, and newspaper clippings show regular USO dances at Fort Warren from 1943. Always chaperoned, USO "hostesses" spent an afternoon or evening on the island mingling with soldiers, dancing and joining in light-hearted contests.

• Two who went: Rita Reddington and Mary Snow recalled the dances in a 1985 interview. Because of wartime security, the dances were heavily chaperoned, and the young women were warned not to ask sensitive questions about the fort. Sometimes an alert or drill stopped the dancing, and they were never sure whether it was an exercise or a real emergency. Their dealings with the soldiers were pleasant and friendly, and now and then they had a few of them to dinner at one of their homes.
• In the paper: in April 1944, The Boston Globe covered a Fort Warren dance run by the Malden Legionettes. Its reporter, Daniel O'Brien, described soldiers cheering as the women marched up from the dock to the recreation hall, and the floor filling in no time with couples jitterbugging to fast music.
• Three nights a week: the Legionettes went to such parties three nights a week and spent almost every Sunday afternoon visiting military posts, paying all their own expenses. Most worked in war plants or in industries serving the war, and they often went to a party straight from work.

Lifting spirits

Cut off from the mainland and freezing cold, Fort Warren's troops often had lower morale in winter, so civilian groups stepped up their efforts around the holidays.

• When news came that soldiers at the island forts would get no Christmas leave in 1941, the women of the Boston Harbor Ports Recreation Committee gave money to send them Christmas trees and gifts.
• In December 1943, USO hostesses from Lynn held holiday parties at forts across greater Boston, including at Fort Warren on December 23.

The women of eastern Massachusetts did what they could for the troops' morale, contributing to victory and to security at home. Their efforts weren't always recognized, but they touched the lives of the soldiers at Fort Warren: one staff sergeant, writing of volunteers from the Boston Chapter of the American Red Cross, credited women of such character and unselfishness with winning the highest place in the soldiers' hearts — and with giving them the ability to win.

Sources

Based on "Women at Fort Warren: World War II," Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, National Park Service, drawing on reports in The Daily Item of Lynn (1943) and The Boston Globe (1943–1944) and on the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's interpretive notes; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The newspapers' words are paraphrased, and their 1944 photographs are not reproduced.