Georgia Watson
Source: Georgia Watson papers, Special Collections, Zach S. Henderson Library, Georgia Southern University
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, Georgia Watson served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Watson was a member of the first officer class at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, after which she became a commanding officer of the 89th Coast Artillery Antiaircraft, popularly known as "Battery X". Battery X served as a secret experiment to test if men and women could serve together in a combat unit, which was proven successful, though it only became declassified in 1970. After the Battery X experiment ended, now-Captain Watson was placed in command of the 62nd WAC Operations Company, which was stationed in Europe in 1944. While in Europe, they met Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in London, England. After the war, Watson was discharged from the WACs, and she returned to Georgia and taught at Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro. At the college, she served as Director of Counseling and in other roles in the psychology department. While she worked at the college, she used the G.I. Bill to further her education, earning a Masters's Degree and a Ph.D. in psychology. After she retired, she wrote numerous books about retirement and about her wartime service.
Alice Kono
Alice Tetsuko Kono was a Japanese American woman who served in the Women's Army Corps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese men and women were prohibited from serving in the United States military. However, in 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt reversed his position and approved Japanese Americans for service. By November 1943, Japanese-American women began joining the American women's military units, including the WACs. Kono felt a sense of patriotism to serve her country and joined the WACs. She received training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia before going to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for training in military terminology, where she then arrived at Fort Snelling, Minnesota for Military Intelligence Service Language School. The United States realized they did not have enough service members who could speak another langue, especially Japanese, so Kono's job was to translate captured Japanese documents. After the war, she went to school and became a company secretary for Del Monte Foods.
Roxie Remley
Roxie Remley was originally from Darlington, Indiana before she joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She served under Captain Georgia Watson during the war as her Lieutenant. Remley, a member of the second wave of WACs volunteers, was involved in the Battery X experimental antiaircraft artillery company from February to August 1943. When the unit was disbanded, Remley deployed overseas with Captain Watson as part of the 62nd WAC company and did various jobs in the United Kingdom. In an interview with Dr. Vivian Rogers-Price, Lieutenant Remely recalled meeting the Queen Mother and becoming close to orphans in London during her service as a WAC in the United Kingdom. Postwar, Remley used the G.I. Bill to further her education, where she received a Masters's Degree in Fine Arts. After graduation, she joined the Georgia Teachers College (currently Georgia Southern University) faculty as a professor, where she taught art classes and helped to develop the school's art program. In retirement, Remley continued her involvement with the school and became an active member of the Statesboro community, for which she was awarded the prestigious Legends of the Arts award. Additionally, Remley and Watson traveled back to London together to see where they were once stationed and met with the Queen Mother decades after their first meeting. Today, Remley is remembered in Bulloch County for her work in the Bulloch County Historical Society.
Grace Thorpe
Grace Thorpe was a Native American of Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and Menominee ancestry who served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She enlisted in the WACs in 1943, where she quickly moved up in rank to corporal. Her first job as a WAC was to serve stateside as a recruiter for the WACs, then she was deployed overseas in a logistical role. While she had hoped to be deployed overseas to Europe, she was sent to New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan from 1944 to 1945. During her tour of duty, she received the Bronze Star for her service during the Battle of New Guinea. After the war ended in 1945, she received an honorable discharge back to civilian life, and she stayed in Japan before returning to the United States. After her return stateside, she began her activism career for Native Americans and the environment, where she famously took part in the Alcatraz Occupation. She also successfully worked to restore the two Gold Medals her father, Jim Thorpe, had won at the 1912 Summer Olympics, which had been wrongly stripped from him by the International Olympic Committee in violation of the competition's rulebook.
Charity Edna Adams Early
Source: National Women's History Museum
Charity Edna Adams Early was an African American woman from Kittrell, North Carolina who paved the way for civil rights for African American women. Unlike many other volunteers in the WACs, Early was one of the few women to receive a letter from the Army inviting her to volunteer for service. She was part of the first WAC officer class, one of 40 African American women to achieve this distinction. After she graduated from basic training, she was stationed at Fort Des Moines, Iowa for the majority of her service in training roles before she took command of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the first segregated WAC unit designated to be deployed overseas. The 6888th deployed to Birmingham, England in late 1944 to sort and redirect stacks of mail that had been undelivered for many months. The unit was faced with sorting through entire aircraft hangers full of undelivered mail, which was completed in three months. After this task was completed, the unit was deployed to Rouen and Paris for the same task. Because of Early's exceptional work in logistics, she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in December 1945, the highest possible rank for officers in the WACs, before she was discharged in 1946. After the war, she utilized her G.I. Bill educational benefits to complete her Master's Degree before working in administrative roles in higher education. In this role, she briefly worked as the Dean of Student Personnel Services at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College and as the Dean of Students at Georgia State College (Savannah State College), before she married and moved to Switzerland. Her family eventually settled in Dayton, Ohio, where she worked as a civil rights activist.
Carmen Contreras-Bozark
Carmen Contreras-Bozark was the first Latina-American to serve in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She was assigned to the 149th WAAC Company, the first WAC unit to deploy overseas during World War II. She deployed overseas to work as a translator for the headquarters telephone operators and to transmit encoded messages. The company was stationed in Algiers and North Africa in General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters for 18 months. During her service, she received 2 Battle Stars, the Good Conduct Medal, WAAC Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal. After the war, Bozark worked in the post office and as a real estate broker before retiring to work with veterans and starting a chapter of WAC Veterans.