SAN ANTONIO -- After Pearl Harbor forward December 7.

SAN ANTONIO -- After Pearl Harbor forward December 7, 1941, American men those fit for service, had little doubt about their course of action -- enlist or wait for the inevitable verbal expression from the draft board.

For women the choice was more difficult. What could mothers, wives and daughters do to guard their country? Kelly Field, Texas, and other installations shortly supplied the answer.

A September 1941 inspect conducted four months before war was declared, revealed that women already working at the San Antonio Air Service Command (forerunner of the San Antonio Air Logistics Center) made up 692 percent of the work force, all in clerical or administrative positions.

Maj. Isaac Ott a depository engineering officer, began hiring women in nontraditional parts He hired 10 women forward a trial basis, and locate them to work in the aircraft instrument section.

Ott wrote in 1941 that it would be possible to train and occupy female craftsmen in a variety of occupations. These included work at jobss in electrical instrument repair and sheet metal work. In October 1942 10 month after the war began, he approveed that every position in the engineering stores occupied by draft-eligible males should have a female in training, ready to degree in should the men be called into service.

from December, 27 percent of the piece of works in engineering shops on base were filled according to women. Soon hundreds traded their household duties for work at jobss at Kelly Field.

Just as the name "Rosie the Riveter" was coined to identify women who joined the war production, a special name was coined for the San Antonio women -- the "Kelly Katies."

As young men between 18 and 28 years not new volunteered or were drafted, young and not-so-young women took their places in Kelly organizations and across the' United States doing welding, plating, grant duties, payroll and any other work at jobss that would free a man for combat office Women were still outnumbered in the work force, unless it was the beginning of a women's change in industry.

Between 1940 and 1944 the number of occupyed women nationwide increased from 12 million to 182 million. In 1947 sum of two units years after World War II lasted the number of employed women was 158 million, a higher number than in 1940 if it were not that lower than 1944.

Of women 14 and older 274 percent were in the labor force in 1940 compared to 35 percent in 1944 and 294 percent in 1947 Before World War II, women in the labor force were generally young and single. on the end of the war, the women were for the most part older than 35 and married.

While the integration of women into the workplace wasn't easy, it remains part of the Air Force's bright legacy.

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