WOOPS! The Forgotten Female Force of World War II

“Now come the WOOPS.”

That is how the Associated Press introduced the newest opportunity for women to serve the country in May 1943.

WOOPS (Women Officers of Public Safety) are not as well known as the WACs (Women’s Army Corps) and WAVES (the Naval Women’s Reserve), perhaps because they were far fewer in number.

Unlike WACS and WAVES, the WOOPS carried
 guns when on duty. This photo of firing range
practice was published in the May 31, 1943
Austin, Texas, Statesman.

These women served during World War II to replace or supplement men serving in the military. Unlike the others, however, WOOPS carried guns.

WOOPS was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to supplement the male Public Safety Service (PSS) protecting dams and power facilities from espionage and sabotage.

TVA was formed in 1933 to control flooding, provide navigation, and generate power in the Tennessee Valley region of the southeast. By the time the United States entered World War II, TVA was providing power to industries vital to the war effort, including production of aluminum and the top-secret Oak Ridge laboratory, which produced uranium for the Manhattan Project.

So TVA facilities, including dams under construction as well as the Muscle Shoals Reservation where explosive materials were produced for munitions, were considered possible targets by enemies.

When the federal government created TVA, they authorized the agency to designate law enforcement officers to assist in carrying out its mission. The PSS initially assisted with police, fire, and emergency services. The force grew to 250 officers by January 1941. But when the U.S. entered the war, the need for increased security of TVA facilities became evident. In 1942, German operatives were apprehended on Long Island, N.Y.; among their targets were American aluminum factories.

PSS employment reached its peak of about 900 in July 1942. However, Public the men most qualified to serve as security guards were also the ones most likely to enlist in the military services.

TVA officials found that when a PSS officer joined the war effort, he would be replaced by another man, who would also enlist after a few months.

The training period was shortened from six months to six weeks, and the officers were sworn in as Civilian Auxiliary to the Military Police, a status that remained until 1945. In addition to fire and sabotage prevention, the officers assisted TVA Personnel with fingerprinting prospective employees to secure the workforce.

To counter the shrinkage of the force, TVA established the Women Officers of Public Safety, shortened to WOOPS in line with WAVES and WACS. Initially, about 70 women applied, and 22 were accepted and trained in the first class, along with 63 men.

The first class of WOOPS at the gun range

The women, mostly single, included former stenographers, clerks, teachers, and nurses. A few were wives of PSS officers who left to join the military. Most had never fired a gun before joining the corps.

They received training intensive combat training in judo and riflery, as well as instruction in firefighting and guard dog handling. Classroom work included lectures on arrests, searches and seizures, basic state and federal laws, and the TVA badge, pass and identification system.

This photo in the Knoxville News-Sentinel
was apparently taken before the WOOPS
 received their official uniforms.

The women’s olive-green uniforms consisted of skirt, blouse, “Sam Browne” belt, and overseas-type cap. (The Sam Browne belt is a leather belt with a supporting strap over the right shoulder and a flap-holster on the hip.) They carried a .38 caliber pistol when on duty.

According to societal norms at the time, women were not suited for this type of potentially dangerous duty, and they were given the nickname of “pistol-packin’ mamas.”

But the women’s effectiveness was recognized when, at war’s end, there had been no reports of sabotage at any TVA facility. In 1944, a little over a year after the program began, the corps received the Army-Navy E for Excellence Award.

After the war, as soldiers returned home, so did the women of WOOPS. But over time, TVA again began hiring women for their security force, and today women are part of the TVA Police & Emergency Management, designated in 1994 as a federal law enforcement agency.

Sources:

Drumright, William Wade, "A River for War, a Watershed to Change: The Tennessee Valley Authority During World War II. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2005.

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Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

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