Myrtle Rae Holthaus Hazard (1892 – May 19, 1951), later Myrtle Gambrill, was an American electrician and radio operator in the
United States Coast Guard during
World War I. She was the first woman to enlist in the Coast Guard, and the only woman to serve in the Coast Guard during World War I.
Early life
Myrtle Rae Holthaus was from
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, the daughter of Charles H. Holthaus
and Lillian (Lillie) Otto Holthaus.
Hazard, who survived
polio as a girl,
learned radio and telegraph skills in an evening course offered at the
YMCA in Baltimore.
Career
In January 1918, during World War I, Hazard enlisted and became a radio operator for the Coast Guard.
As there was no official women's uniform, she chose her own ensemble, a
middy blouse and a blue pleated skirt.
Hazard lived with her parents and son in Baltimore, and worked in Washington, D.C. until the end of the war. She concluded her service in November 1919 as an Electrician's Mate 1st Class. She was the first woman to enlist in the Coast Guard,
the only woman to serve in the Coast Guard during World War I,
and the first woman to hold electrician status in the Coast Guard.
(Wartime newspapers erroneously reported that twin sisters Genevieve and Lucille Baker were the first women to serve in the Coast Guard; in fact, while they tried to enlist during the war, they were not accepted.) For her service, she received the
Order of St. Sava from the government of Serbia. "I like to think I helped prove that women can contribute more to national defense than just waiting for the war to end," she told an interviewer in 1950.
Personal life and legacy
In 1910, at age 18, Myrtle Holthaus married Claude A. Hazard,
who worked in the
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...
. They had a son, Claude Jack Hazard. She later remarried, to Henry Webster "Harry" Gambrill. She died in 1951.
In 2019, her name was included in
J. Luis Correa's address in Congress, honoring the Coast Guard on its 229th year.
In 2010,
Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the
Coast Guard's most senior
non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
, proposed that all the cutters in the
Sentinel class should be named after
enlisted
Enlisted may refer to:
* Enlisted rank
An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or ...
sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who particularly distinguished themselves.
[ In May, 2020, the Coast Guard accepted the 39th cutter in the class, named USCGC Myrtle Hazard, in Hazard's honor.][
]
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hazard, Myrtle
1892 births
1951 deaths
American women in World War I
Female United States Coast Guard personnel
People from Baltimore County, Maryland
Polio survivors
United States Coast Guard