Skirts and Stripes

With her short hair, decisive manner, and well-pressed Army greens festooned with ribbons, Colonel Nancy Hopfenspirger, 43, is every inch an officer. As she strides across the U.S. Army base at Wuerzburg, West Germany, each day, G.I.s snap to attention and the local employees murmur a respectful "Guten Morgen."

As the new deputy commander of Wuerzburg and of various support units in an area covering nearly one-third of southern West Germany, Hopfenspirger is one of a growing number of women to step into important command assignments. Colonel Frances Weir, 47, issues orders to a mostly male outfit at the support battalion in Fort Jackson, S.C. Colonel Georgia Hill, 49, is head of the sprawling supply depot at Cameron Station, Va.

Until a year ago, female officers could command only other members of the Women's Army Corps (the WAC). The Army, however, is now reassigning women permanently to previously all-male branches. Brigadier General Mildred C. Bailey, chief of the WAC, last month finished turning over all its personnel files to the women's new units. At the same time, the Army has reclassified 136,000 jobs, opening them to women. Thus there have recently been a myriad of female firsts on various bases: the first female parachute rigger, the first turbine-engine maintenance woman, the first female drill sergeant. Actual combat is still barred to women, though that too may change if the Equal Rights Amendment is passed.

Female integration into formerly male units is not easy. As a former battalion commander at Fort Carson, Colo., explains: "A soldier's day doesn't end at 5 p.m. There are assignments like guard duty with a rifle, charge of quarters, and special police handling of burly drunks." Women formerly rose through the ranks only within the WAC. Now they are competing directly with men for promotions. The seeding into various Army branches of senior WAC officers, some of whom have been lieutenant colonels for more than a decade, is especially difficult. Many fear a hostile reception in the regular Army; a few are even retiring rather than make the switch. Younger women, however, seem to welcome the new challenges.

This quiet revolution came about chiefly by necessity. With only volunteers to choose from, the Army needs all the recruits it can get, female as well as male. The response has been excellent: 14,000 women have joined the Army this year, up from 5,200 in 1971. In the other armed services, too, women have been given a broader spectrum of jobs. The Air Force now has 17,800 women, compared with 12,265 five years ago. There are 16,500 women in the Navy, up from 8,636 in 1969. Only in the Marines, which needs fewer volunteers, has the number of women remained relatively constant (about 2,700).

Few of the new female recruits are signing on to become commanders. Military life is often the best deal they can get in a tight job market. A high school graduate who enlists as an Army private can get a salary of $326.10 a month, on-the-job training, free room and board and security. Re-enlistment rates are very high, partly because every servicewoman earns the same pay as a male of the same rank--an equality rare in the civilian world.

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