 This is Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, one of America's leading colleges for women. Today it is a place of learning and fun for young women. It has always been a place of learning, but once the atmosphere was different. During World War II, young women of the Navy and the Marine Corps, officer candidates, were crammed into one of its residence halls, as many as eight sharing rooms designed for two. Mount Holyoke was a place of beginnings for the first women ever commissioned by the Marine Corps. In 1968, the silver anniversary year of the women marines, the president of Mount Holyoke College, Dr. Richard Glenn Gattell, invited the women marines to revisit Mount Holyoke. And so we came back to renew our association with this place at which for many of us, Marine Corps life began. With us, we brought the historic colors of the women reservists of World War II. Colors now safeguarded as an item of historical significance in the Marine Corps museums at Quantico, Virginia. We also brought the Marine Band from Quantico to play our own March of the Women Marines. The returnees were Colonel Ruth Cheney Streeter, the first director of the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve. Colonel Catherine A. Toll, the second reserve director, and after the war, our first director of women marines. Colonel Julia E. Hamlet, our third director. She was one of those first 54 graduates commissioned as women reserve officers on the 4th of May, 1943. Brigadier General E. Hunter Hurst, who as a major commanded the first women officer candidates at Holyoke, and I was there. I am Colonel Barbara J. Bishop, the woman officer privileged to direct the women marines during their 25th anniversary year. It was a real homecoming for me. I was a member of the second class of women officers commissioned from Mount Holyoke's campus. I had the honor of reading the Commandant's message to Mount Holyoke. The Commandant, General Leonard F. Chapman, United States Marine Corps said, On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the women marines, the United States Marine Corps wishes to express appreciation for the cooperation and friendship of Mount Holyoke College for its assistance and aid in establishing the first United States Marine Corps women's reserve officer training school on the college campus from 13 March 1943 until 29 June 1943. Accompanied by our host, President Gittel, Colonel Streeter and General Hurst climaxed our return to Mount Holyoke by placing a wreath on the grave of Mary Lyon, the founder of the college. With this ceremony, they reenacted their final official act on campus of June 1943, at which time the training of women reserve officers was moved from Mount Holyoke to the marines course first in-house training facility for women at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. During the day at Holyoke, Colonel Streeter recalled the qualifications required of the young women who learned to be marines at Mount Holyoke. One thing that always interested me particularly was trying to find the women officers who were natural leaders in order to assign them to positions with troops. We had many specialist officers who did excellent work in their respective specialties. But as you all know, there is something undefined that is called the quality of leadership. If you're going to have command over other people, it is a rather special quality. And we did look for that in the officers that were assigned to troops. Today we look for that same quality of leadership. Today, our women officers train in the college-like atmosphere of the Marine Corps Development and Education Center at Quantico. And the traditions established at Mount Holyoke, the place of our beginnings, are still strong.