; 91 Stat. 1433). (29) The Signal Corps telephone operators applied for, and were granted, status as veterans in 1979. (30) Only 33 of the operators who had returned home after the war were still alive to receive their Victory Medals and official discharge papers, which were finally awarded in 1979. (31) One of the women, Olive Shaw from Massachusetts, returned to the United States after the war, where she worked on the professional staff of Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers. Shaw lived to receive her honorable discharge and was the first burial when the Massachusetts National Cemetery opened on October 11, 1980. Shaw’s uniform is on display at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. (32) Upon receipt of her honorable discharge at a ceremony in her home in Marine City, Michigan, Hello Girl Oleda Joure Christides raised the paper to her lips and kissed it. The only thing Christides ever wanted from the Federal Government was a flag on her coffin. (33) On July 1, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law Public Law 111–40 (123 Stat. 1958), which awarded the WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal for their service to the United States. (34) For their role as pioneers who paved the way for all women in uniform, and for service that was essential to victory in World War I, the Hello Girls merit similar recognition. 3. Congressional gold medal (a) Award authorized The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of the female telephone operators of the Army Signal Corps (commonly known as the Hello Girls ), in recognition of those operators’— (1) pioneering military service; (2) devotion to duty; and (3) 60-year struggle for— (A) recognition as soldiers