May, Geraldine (1895–1997)

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May, Geraldine (1895–1997)

One of the first female officers in the American military . Born Geraldine Pratt on April 21, 1895, in Albany, New York; died on November 2, 1997, in Menlo Park, California; daughter of Louis W. Pratt and Geraldine (Schuyler) Pratt; University of California at Berkeley, B.A., 1920; member of first graduating class of Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, 1942; married Albert May (a contractor), in 1928 (died 1945).

Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (1942); made captain (April 1943); made major (November 1943); made lieutenant colonel (May 1945); became director, Women's Army Corps (January 1947); retired (1951).

Geraldine May was born in 1895 in upstate New York, where her father Louis W. Pratt was an attorney from a prominent family best remembered for its involvement in the creation of the state's university system; her mother Geraldine Schuyler Pratt was descended from Dutch immigrants who had been among New York's first leading families. Called "Jerry" as a child, May moved with her family to Tacoma, Washington, and demonstrated a talent for athletics at an early age. After attending boarding school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley, where she served as coxswain of the women's rowing crew and president of the women's athletic association. Upon her graduation in 1920 with a degree in social economics, May became a social worker in San Francisco before moving to Sacramento to take a job with the city's department of recreation. For several years in the 1920s, she was an executive officer of the Camp Fire Girls in Sacramento, and in her paid position trained leaders and managed its camp. Geraldine quit working in 1928 when she married Albert May, a contractor, and for several years was a homemaker in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

May's life changed dramatically when the United States entered World War II at the end of 1941. Back in California with her husband, she enlisted in July 1942 in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, which the following year became the Women's Army Corps or WAC), and was selected for its first women officers' training course in Des Moines, Iowa. After completing the course, she was assigned recruiting duties as a second lieutenant, which entailed a great deal of travel. With the creation of the Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force) and its auxiliary women's branch, May was transferred to the latter and became the WAC staff director rector for its Air Transport Command. In this capacity, she oversaw 6,000 female personnel on 41 different bases around the world, including places as disparate as the U.S., Labrador, North Africa, and the Hawaiian Islands. Again, the job required extensive travel: she was required to visit each base a first time to make sure it was suitable for women, and afterwards to make periodic progress checks. She received a promotion to major by the end of 1943.

With the cessation of the war in 1945, May was made lieutenant colonel, and accepted a job with the General Staff in Washington, D.C. Named director of the Women's Army Corps in January 1947, May became first director of the Women's Air Force (WAF) with the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, which made the "auxiliary" women's branches of the service a legitimate part of the armed forces. (Women would still not be allowed to enter the military as full-fledged members until decades later.) With that promotion, she was also elevated to the rank of full colonel. For her wartime service, she was awarded the Legion of Merit and a Commendation of Merit. May retired as head of the WAF in June 1951, and was succeeded by Colonel Mary Jo Shelly . Geraldine May died on November 2, 1997, at the age of 102, and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.