Further Readings
An Army in Skirts by
"An Army in Skirts" is a time machine built from the letters and memories of a young woman who served her country in uniform during World War II. Frances Brown takes us into her world in a straight forward, understated, and often times startling manner. She seems to have taken in stride the daily dangers from bombings in England and France. In contrast, her letters home speak of ordinary but very interesting details of daily life as a WAC, because war information was censored. Together, the two viewpoints make for a facsinating read into our parents' or grandparents' world. In particular, I was so impressed with the morals of her day, even in the midst of war.
This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780871952646Publication Date: 2008-04-01- Breaking codes, breaking barriers : the WACs of the Signal Security Agency, World War II by
- This link opens in a new window
Publication Date: 2001 - In the Company of WACs by
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0897451597Publication Date: 1993-01-01 
An Officer and a Lady by
One of the negative consequences of the 1978 integration of the various women's auxiliaries into the mainstream of the U.S. military was a loss of institutional memory. From 1942 to 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Betty Bandel (retired) served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC, later WAC, the Women's Army Corps), eventually heading the WAC Division of the Army Air Force. During these years she wrote hundreds of letters to family and friends tracing her growth from an enthusiastic recruit, agog in the presence of public figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt (code named Rover), to a seasoned officer and leader. Bandel was one of the Corps' most influential senior officers. Her letters are rich with detail about the WAC's contribution to the war effort and the inner workings of the first large, non-nurse contingent of American military women. In addition, her letters offer a revealing look at the wartime emergence of professional women. Perhaps for the first time, women oversaw and directed hundreds of thousands of personnel, acquired professional and personal experiences, and built networks that would guide and influence them well past their war years. military experience during World War II but part of the larger story of women's history and progress. This volume is published with the generous support of The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, which was established to document and celebrate the rich experience of women in the U.S. military.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 1584653779Publication Date: 2004-06-01- One Woman's Army by When America entered World War II, the surge of patriotism was not confined to men. Congress authorized the organization of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later renamed Women's Army Corps) in 1942, and hundreds of women were able to join in the war effort. Charity Edna Adams became the first black woman commissioned as an officer. Black members of the WAC had to fight the prejudices not only of males who did not want women in their "man's army," but also of those who could not accept blacks in positions of authority or responsibility, even in the segregated military. With unblinking candor, Charity Adams Earley tells of her struggles and successes as the WAC's first black officer and as commanding officer of the only organization of black women to serve overseas during World War II. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion broke all records for redirecting military mail as she commanded the group through its moves from England to France and stood up to the racist slurs of the general under whose command the battalion operated. The Six Triple Eight stood up for its commanding officer, supporting her boycott of segregated living quarters and recreational facilities. This book is a tribute to those courageous women who paved the way for patriots, regardless of color or gender, to serve their country.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0585071306Publication Date: 1996-01-01 
Release a Man for Combat by
Approximately 150,000 women who served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II were the first regular female soldiers in the US Army. To free up male soldiers for combat, they also worked in traditional male fields, such as mechanics and pilots in the United States, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia. The author follows the experiences of these women, the military and civilian discourses about female soldiers in the military and how the army deals with soldier femininity and female sexuality. Using government documents, court-martial processes, but also personal testimonies, poems and songs, M. Michaela Hampf shows how contested the construction of the female soldier was in America in the 1940s and still is today.
ISBN: 3412206601Publication Date: 2010-12-03
Serving Our Country by
Following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and America's declaration of war on Japan, the U.S. War Department allowed up to five hundred second-generation, or "Nisei," Japanese American women to enlist in the Women's Army Corps and, in smaller numbers, in the Army Medical Corps. Through in-depth interviews with surviving Nisei women who served, Brenda L. Moore provides fascinating firsthand accounts of their experiences. Interested primarily in shedding light on the experiences of Nisei women during the war, the author argues for the relevance of these experiences to larger questions of American race relations and views on gender and their intersections, particularly in the country's highly charged wartime atmosphere. Uncovering a page in American history that has been obscured, Moore adds nuance to our understanding of the situation of Japanese Americans during the war.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780813532776Publication Date: 2003-06-20
To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race by
The story of the historic 6888th, the first United States Women's Army Corps unit of African American women to serve overseas While African American men and white women were invited, if belatedly, to serve their country abroad, African American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. However, under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the NAACP, the Black press, and even President Roosevelt, the US War Department was forced to deploy African American women to the European theater in 1945. African American women answered the call to serve from all over the country, from every socioeconomic stratum. Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II, the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams, a cook in the unit who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education, and Margaret Barnes Jones, the unit's public relations officer, who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system. Despite the social, political, and economic restrictions imposed upon these women in their own country, they were eager to serve, not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispel bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett, a First Sergeant, joined because "I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens." Filled with compelling personal stories based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers. It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the US military forever.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0814763243Publication Date: 1996-01-01
When Women First Wore Army Shoes by
Daughter, sister and sister-in-law of Army men who would all rise to the rank of General, it was not much of a surprise when Ethel A. Starbird decided to serve her country as a member of the Woman's Army Corps during World War II. After multiple attempts to make weight to join the Army, due to the lack of different weight standards for female recruits, Starbird learns to do things the Army way as a Public Relations Man, making her way from her enlistment in Burlington, Vermont to an overseas assignment as one of the New Guinea Pigs in Hollandia, New Guinea. From learning the Queen Street shuffle - required to allow a chivalrous male General to still enter an elevator before a female Private - to the Army's seeming obsession with the reproductive health of their WACs, join Starbird as she humorously recounts her enlisted experience and the Army's growing pains as it learned to adapt to women in its ranks.
ISBN: 1450208932Publication Date: 2010-03-04- The Women's Army Corps by PART ONE: ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH OF A WOMEN'S CORPS: From 1776 to World War II -- Establishment of the WAAC -- The WAAC'S first summer -- September-October 1942: beginnings of field duties -- November 1942-January 1943: plans for a million WAACS -- The need for military status -- Spring, 1943: expansion and decentralization -- Stresses of rapid build-up: personnel and training -- Stresses of rapid build-up: supply and the WAAC uniform -- Stresses of rapid build-up: recruiting -- The "slander campaign." -- July-September 1943: the conversion to Army -- Attempts to revive recruiting -- Integration into the Army -- Removal of Director's Office to G-1 Division -- PART TWO: WORLD-WIDE EMPLOYMENT: The Army Air Forces -- The Army ground forces -- The Army service forces -- The Medical Department (ASF) -- The North African and Mediterranean Theaters -- The European Theater of Operations -- The Southwest Pacific Area -- Other Overseas Theaters -- The Office of the Director WAC -- PART THREE: WAR DEPARTMENT POLICY CONCERNING THE WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS: Legal, social, and moral problems -- Housing, food, and clothing -- The employment of personnel: enlisted women -- The employment of personnel: officers -- The employment of women: overseas shipments -- The employment of personnel: minority groups -- Health and medical care -- Training -- The leadership of women -- Recruiting and publicity -- PART FOUR: THE LAST DAYS OF THE WARTIME WACS: 1945: the closing months of the war -- Demobilization -- Evaluation and recommendations -- APPENDICES: Tables -- Charts -- Illustrations.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780758173997Publication Date: 2003-01-01 - World War II in a Khaki Skirt by
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0935834508Publication Date: 1985-09-01
