During World War II, sixteen million men and women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, more than four hundred thousand gave their lives, and millions at home supported the war effort. The spread-eagle emblem known as the "Ruptured Duck" was awarded on a small lapel pin to all honorably discharged personnel and was proudly worn by World War II veterans. In the European Theatre, the U.S. Army played a central role in the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Germany, fighting in campaigns and battles from Algeria, French Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Salerno, Anzio, Monte Cassino, and Rome to Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Paris, the Rhineland, and Berlin; in the Pacific Theatre, it took part in the island-hopping campaign that wrested Pacific islands from Japanese control, including Pearl Harbor, the Philippine Island, China-Burma-India, the Aleutian Islands, Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands, Leyte, Okinawa, and Guadalcanal. The Army included the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, created in 1942 and converted to the Women's Army Corps in 1943 as the first women other than nurses to serve with the U.S. Army, and the Army Nurse Corps, whose skill and dedication contributed to an extremely low post-injury mortality rate among American military forces in every theatre of the world. Established in 1941 as the aviation component of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Army Air Force was divided into sixteen numbered air forces distributed worldwide, dropped men, equipment, and supplies in all invasions, flew missions in every theatre of the war, and used the B-29 bomber to drop the "A" bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war in 1945; the Women Airforce Service Pilots, formed in 1943 by combining the Women's Flying Training Detachment and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, flew military aircraft on non-combat missions and freed male pilots for combat service. The U.S. Marine Corps formed the cornerstone of the Pacific campaign through its theories and practice of amphibious warfare and its island-hopping missions, while the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, established on July 30, 1942, provided qualified women for duty at shore establishments and released men for combat duty. During World War II, the U.S. Coast Guard operated under the Department of the Navy and took part in every European and Pacific invasion by manning Navy ships, Army vessels, and cutters; the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, known as the SPARs, was created in 1942 to free men for overseas service, and its name came from the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus and its English translation, Always Ready. The U.S. Merchant Marine transported the personnel, supplies, and equipment needed by the Allied powers and constituted one of the nation's most significant contributions to eventual victory over the Axis powers.