American Red Cross Motor Corps

[1] The service was composed of women and it was developed to render supplementary aid to the U.S. Army and Navy in transporting troops and supplies during World War I, and to assist other ARC workers in conducting their various relief activities.

It has been decided that women of the ARC Motor Corps Service would carry the official telegrams containing information regarding over-seas casualties to the homes of relatives killed and wounded.

The First Division women had to pass searching examinations in motor mechanics, first aid, sanitary troop and stretcher drill, and road driving.

The value of the motor equipment alone, put at the service of the Red Cross free of charge, represented an investment of over $17,000,000, exclusive of upkeep and operating maintenance.

In the late winter and early spring of 1919, an additional need for Motor Service developed in connection with the entertainments and recreations under the auspices of the Red Cross at the various hospitals.

[8][10] During the influenza epidemic which spread over the country in the autumn of 1918, the Red Cross Motor Service met and passed its severest test in a distinguished way.

There are on file at ARC National Headquarters hundreds of newspaper clippings and testimonial letters of appreciation from military, naval and medical men and authorities, and from public institutions and private individuals, testifying to the valiant work of the Corps in the influenza crisis.

Fearless of the possibility of contracting influenza themselves, the Motor Corps women worked night and day, frequently serving as much as 100 hours per week apiece, carrying patients—on their backs, in sheets, in blankets, on chairs, or whatever was available when stretchers could not be used— to hospitals from homes of poverty and luxury alike.

They learned to drive and maintain heavy army trucks, trailer rigs, and ambulances; change massive tires and fix engines; and “first aid, emergency delivery of babies, blackout driving, military drills, and defense against gas attacks.” On July 20, 1941, Ginger Lilly, along with her other Red Cross Motor Corps drivers, “began regular duties” and were “given a complete list of assignments for ‘Attack Day.’” On December 7, 1941, Ginger reported for duty in her gray gabardine Red Cross uniform, tin helmet and gas mask.

For three days from Pearl Harbor, she transported the wounded, “...many of whom were in great pain and shock and terribly worried about their wives and children,” to makeshift first aid stations set up in all the local schools, such as Farrington and Ma‘ema‘e Elementary in Nu‘uanu Valley.