(Public Law 625-80th Congress)
(Chapter 449-2d Session)
(S. 1641)

AN ACT

To establish the Women’s Army Corps in the Regular Army, to authorize the enlistment and appointment of women in the Regular Air Force, Regular Navy and Marine Corps, and in the Reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the “Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948”.

TITLE II

Navy and Marine Corps

Sec. 213. (a) Women may be enlisted or appointed in the Regular Marine Corps under the provisions of this title, and the provisions of this title (except as may be necessary to adapt said provisions to the Marine Corps) are hereby made applicable to women enlisted or appointed in the Regular Marine Corps in the same manner as such provisions apply to women enlisted or appointed in the Regular Navy.

(b) The number of enlisted women on the active list of the Regular Marine Corps at any one time shall not exceed 2 per centum of the enlisted strength now or hereafter authorized for the active list of the Regular Marine Corps: Provided, That for a period of two years immediately following the date of this Act, the actual number of enlisted women in the Regular Marine Corps shall at no time exceed one thousand.

(c) The number of commissioned and warrant women officers on the active list of the Regular Marine Corps at any one time shall not exceed 10 per centum of the authorized number of enlisted women of the Regular Marine Corps: Provided, that for a period of two years immediately following the date of this Act, the actual number of women officers in the Regular Marine Corps shall at no time exceed one hundred commissioned women officers and ten warrant women officers, and such number of commissioned women officers shall be appointed in increments of not to exceed 40 per centum, 20 per centum, 20 per centum, and 20 per centum at approximately equally spaced intervals of time during the said period of two years.

(d) From the women officers serving in the grade of major or above in the Marine Corps, one officer may be detailed to duty in the office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps to assist the Commandant in the administration of women’s affairs. She shall have the rank of colonel while so serving, and shall be entitled to the pay and allowances as are now or may be hereafter prescribed by law for a colonel of the Regular Marine Corps, and her regular status as a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps shall not be disturbed by reason of such detail. The provisions of section 207 of this title relative to the retirement of women officers detailed as assistant to the Chief of Naval Personnel shall apply in the same manner and under the same relative conditions to women officers of the Marine Corps detailed to duty in the office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps as provided in this subsection.

Sec. 214. (a) The Secretary of the Navy, under the circumstances and in accordance with regulations prescribed by the President, may terminate the commission or warrant of any woman officer in the Regular Navy or Marine Corps.

(b) The Secretary of the Navy, under such regulations as he may prescribe, may terminate the enlistment of any enlisted woman in the Regular Navy or Marine Corps, and each such person whose enlistment is so terminated shall be discharged from the service.

Sec. 215. The provisions of title III of the Officer Personnel Act of 1947 shall not be applicable to women officers of the Regular Navy and Naval Reserve and those provisions of titles I and II of the said Act which are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act shall be operative with regard to women officers of the Regular Navy from the effective date of this Act.

Sec. 216. Women officers of the Naval Reserve who on the date of approval of this Act are serving under temporary appointments in grades above commissioned warrant officer may continue to serve under such temporary appointments until such appointments are terminated by the President, or until such officers are appointed in the regular Navy, but no such temporary appointment may continue in effect later than six months after June 30 of the fiscal year following that in which the present war shall end or the first day of the twelfth month following the effective date of this Act, whichever may be earlier: Provided, That, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, women officers of the Naval Reserve who at the time of appointment in the Regular Navy are serving under temporary appointments which by their terms are for a period of limited duration, may on appointment in the Regular Navy, be given temporary appointments pursuant to the provisions of the Act of July 24, 1941 (55 Stat. 603), as amended, which shall be under the same conditions, in the same grade, and with the same precedence as those temporary appointments held by such officers in the Naval Reserve at the time of their appointment in the Regular Navy.
 

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