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provided for the enlistment of women between the ages of 18 and 35 in the army, and the commissioning of women officers in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. Although nurses had served as officers in the army for many years, this bill was, so far as is known, the first suggestion that women might be enlisted in the army. It is worthy of note that the intention evidently was to use women in that infant but active ancestor of the present Army Air Forces, the aviation section of the Signal Corps. However, in a memorandum for the Chief of Staff from the Chief of the War College Division, dated 22 December 1917, the statement appears that both the Signal Corps and its aviation section vehemently deny favoring the bill on the proposed commissioning of women in the aviation section. 

In 1927, a query from Miss Anita Phipps, director of women's relations in the War Department, elicited a response from the Office of the Chief of Air Service (1) in which that office enthusiastically indorsed the idea of utilizing women in the military service during time of national emergency. The reply estimated that 27,178 women might be used by the Air Service in time of war, in everything from "air brigade" to squadron headquarters, in such jobs as cooks, waitresses, laundresses, and a few more skilled assignments. (2) The paper

1. First indorsement to the Adjutant General to  Questionnaire, Women's Service, AG 291.9 (11-7-24), dated 2 November 1927, from the Office of the Chief of Air Service.

2. The idea that women might be used successfully in operating army messes persisted among many Air Force 

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