Captain Dorothy Stratton was selected as a senior Navy lieutenant at the beginning of World War II to head the U.S. Coast Guard's budding women's program, which she named the Semper Paratus—Always Ready, or simply "SPARS".
In this excerpt, Captain Stratton discusses her introduction to the U.S. Coast Guard and the initial creation of the SPARS, including the assistance of 12 Navy WAVES officers.
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