When the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was authorized in February 1943, the last of the services to admit women, reporters wanted a catchy nickname like the Navy's WAVES or the Army's WACs. Commandant Thomas Holcomb refused to give them one. "They are Marines," he said — no cute label, no separate identity. Their slogan was blunter still: "Free a Marine to Fight." Some 20,000 women enlisted and filled more than 200 jobs, from parachute rigging to aircraft mechanics to clerical work, and by war's end women held the majority of the enlisted posts at Marine Corps headquarters, releasing the men who had done them to the Pacific.

W. Britain sculpts a reservist in mid-stride in the women's service uniform: the forest-green unbelted jacket and skirt, a khaki shirt beneath, the green garrison cap with the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, brown gloves, and a G.I. shoulder bag. She is the other half of the Corps' war — the woman whose work in the rigging loft or the orderly room sent a man forward. Link her to the Marines she freed to fight: the WWII Marine Rifleman, the Marine Raider, and Eugene Sledge in the Pacific.

W. Britain model 13030. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), solid metal hand-painted in a matte finish. Single foot figure on a plain rectangular display base. Supplied in original W. Britain packaging.