The risk of death was real-the women worked as bombs fell around them-as was the threat of a deadly new disease: the Spanish Flu. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard instructor with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them. Pershing needed operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.Īt the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women-but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field.

In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military, smashed the workplace glass ceiling, and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory. The dangers of war are neatly integrated into daily lives and geographic locations, and Chiaverini also addresses gender and race inequities and the insidious dangers of the spread of influenza on overseas troop transport.From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I - the women of the U.S. Lincoln’s Sisters “Elm Creek Quilts” series) makes it easy to identify with and care about these women who come from three regions of the United States and have differing familial and cultural backgrounds but share the motivation of patriotism for multiple countries. Once deployed, the women found themselves widely dispersed and facing unique challenges, but always connected. Army Signal Corps sends out a call for experienced operators fluent in French, they were among the few able to pass rigorous enlistment examinations. In 1917, Marie in Cincinnati, Grace in New York City, and Vivian in Los Angeles are all young women working a switchboard at their local telephone company. So much new information is packed into this story that becomes the best kind of history lesson.