KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's bill to honor the WWI "Hello Girls" has been signed into law.
This week President Biden signed into law the Service member Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2025.
The bipartisan legislation awards a Congressional Gold Medal to more than 220 "Hello Girls", the first female soldiers to be officially deployed to a combat zone in American History.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress and has been awarded to only 186 recipients since the Revolutionary War.
The 220 American Women served as essential telephone operators with the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI.
Formally known as the signal Corps Female Telephone Operators, the Hello Girls were recruited by General John J. Pershing in 1917 as the first group of women to hold non-medical positions in the U.S. Army.
The women were required to be bilingual in both French and English so they could effectively communicate and coordinate with French and American forces.
By the end of the war, the Hello Girls had connected over 26 million calls in support of the war effort, and even continued to serve in Europe to organize the return of American forces following the armistice.
Congressman Cleaver says "I know firsthand how important these recognitions are to the families of those who defended our freedom, and I'm thankful that the descendants of the Hello Girls will receive formal appreciation from a grateful nation for their loved one's service to the United States when we needed them most."
