Collections Highlight – World War II Parachute Rigger's Kit
Nestled
among the vast array of pictures, artifacts and memorabilia at the Women’s
Memorial is a small, olive-drab canvas bag. Not standard issue for the
some 400,000 women who served during WWII. Rather, this item was reserved
for a select group of Women Marines, Navy WAVES, Coast Guard SPARs and
members of the Women’s Army Corps who trained for a unique job
during the war. Sgt Delphine “Pat”
(Patke) Murray, a member of the USMC Women's Reserve from 1943-45,
received her kit” when she attended Parachute Rigger's (PR) School
at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lakehurst, NJ, in 1943. Women were pre-screened
during indoctrination training to evaluate special aptitudes that might
translate into occupational fields like PR. Women Marines like Murray
and her sister WAVES and SPARs undertook highly-specialized instruction
at Lakehurst. "We learned to pack, repair and maintain all types
of parachutes, flight gear and related items such as helmets, radio
chutes and weather balloons," said Murray, who scored a 3.8 out
4.0 on her kit during training. Mastery of parachute packing was vital
to the safety of all wartime pilots and air 
crewmen—and
women riggers were tops in this field. In fact, 90 percent of all parachutes
used by Marines in 1944 were packed, inspected and repaired by women. All
that a parachute rigger needed to do her job could be found in her
kit. Murray's is a well-preserved example of those typically issued
to riggers in any branch of service. Made of canvas or rubberized canvas,
the kits were approximately 19-inches long and 13-inches wide and secured
with snaps or ties after rolling it up. It contained all the "tools
of the trade" needed for the two-day
"chute" packing process, including a heavy-duty sewing
needle, thread, an awl for making holes, a shroud-line separator
tool, a hook, pins, a bar for layering the canopy and a pencil to
sign and date the record book. Murray, who served at USMC Air Station
El Centro, in CA’s hot lower desert, held onto her rigger’s
kit long after her 1945 discharge.
Women Go to War:
World War II, 1941-1945
Fifty years later, the OH native donated her Rigger's Kit to the Women's
Memorial Collection, and it is now part of the permanent exhibit "Women
Go to War: World War II, 1941-1945." Located in the Memorial's Exhibit
Gallery, this case is the first of three that focus on WWII; and
it tells the story of women joining the war effort through artifacts,
images, uniforms and text. The Rigger's Kit is among the artifacts in
the “Training section, which includes indoctrination training,
specialized training for certain occupational fields and training to
enhance military effectiveness. This exhibit case also includes a section
about the massive publicity campaigns and recruiting of women, as well
as another section on the traditional and non-traditional roles of servicewomen.
Navy and Coast Guard
Among Kits in Memorial Collection
Three
other WWII women veterans have donated kits to our collection. Also
trained at the NJ site was PR3/c Rachel (Koslovsky)
Crystal, who served in the WAVES from 1942-44. She gave up
her $80 per week salary as a hat designer for a prestigious New York
City fashion house because she wanted to “do her part”—a
move that reduced Crystal’s salary to just $21 per month. The
NY native gave her kit to the Memorial Collection in 1995. In addition
to packing "chutes and survival gear for pilots on aircraft 
carriers,"
Crystal also found herself crawling inside and repairing a huge USN blimp
used for aerial surveillance photography. Coast Guard SPAR PR3/c
Anne (Casper) Dreier was one of only 18 SPARs trained as riggers
during WWII and she contributed her rigger's kit to our collection in
1997. She shipped out to NAS Lakehurst following her indoctrination training
at USCG SPAR Training Center, Palm Beach, FL. The lifelong Philadelphia 
resident,
who served from 1942-44, served at USCG Air Station Dinner Key, FL, following
her training. Another WAVE, PR3/c Mavis (Skeens)
Lindstrom, donated her kit to the Women's Memorial Foundation
in 1998. After PR training, she was assigned to NAS Bunker Hill, IN,
and NAS Glenview, IL, during her two-year tour from 1944-46. This TN
resident was discharged at the end of WWII, but service to her country
didn’t end there. She was recalled for service during the Korean
War, when she joined the USAF and was later promoted to her highest rank
of sergeant.
