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More than Meets the Eye presented by Alyssa Watrous: WAACs to WACs

The Origins of the WAACS

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established by Congresswoman Edith Norse Rogers on May 28th, 1941 with the support of General George C. Marshall. Known as H.R. 4906, Congresswoman Rogers' 14-page bill outlined what the WAACs' role would be while also explicitly stating the organization was to be simply an auxiliary of the American Army, where they were to exist outside of its formal structure. The purpose of the WAACs was to make available the knowledge, skills, and special training of national defense to American women. The first Director of the WAACs was Oveta Hobby, who, with no formal military background, became the first director of the unit with the rank of Colonel. Unlike the Army, which had formally commissioned officers like Lieutenants and Captains, the WAACs had third, second, and first officers. The first officer was comparable to a Captain, while the second officer and third officer were comparable to First Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant, respectively. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the path was cleared to ask Congress for the development of a more formal Army women's corps. Congresswoman Rogers reintroduced H.R. 6293, known as the Rogers Bill, on May 14th, 1942. The bill included several key amendments which led to the beginning of the formal WAACs structure, and the bill was signed into law as Public Law 554. The search for a training center began immediately after the passage of the law, and in April 1942, Fort Des Moines, Iowa was chosen to fulfill this role. Training for the first WAAC cadet class began soon after. 

The Transition from WAACS to WACS

When the WAAC was established as an auxiliary unit, they did not hold formal military status and did not receive the same benefits as the Army did. This meant WAACs were not covered by a life insurance policy if they served overseas and family members would not be able to claim a death gratuity if they died in service. Initially, women in the WAACs were to be stationed exclusively within the continental United States, although two freshly-trained companies were deployed overseas to serve as headquarters clerks in Tunesia, North Africa at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's direct request. Due to the deployment of these two WAACs companies to a combat theater overseas, it was quickly recognized that the auxiliary status of the WAACs could cause severe logistical problems overseas and create a benefits disparity with other women military forces formed for service in the war, such as the Navy WAVES and Marine Corps Women's Reserve. The most demoralizing issue for individual women enrolled in the WAACs was in their disparity in military status: they had been told by Army authorities that they were not formally serving in the Army, but they were being pressed into service roles in overseas combat theaters. To fix this disparity, Congresswoman Rogers drafted another bill granting the WAACs full military status, which passed into law in late 1943 after it passed the House of Representatives and the Senate with relatively little debate. The change in status allowed the women in the WAACs to claim full military benefits, including access to a life insurance policy, a deployment stipend for overseas service, and the formal adoption of existing Army officer and enlisted service ranks and insignia. Additionally, the law changed the name of the unit from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps to the Women's Army Corps, popularly known as the WACs.

Propaganda for the WAC
WACs dogs barking postcard
WACs at a moment's notice postcard
WACs postcard

Wartime Service during World War II

The new Women's Army Corps fulfilled numerous jobs on the homefront and overseas alike. Their work allowed the Army to free male service members to serve in combat roles on the front lines. In some roles, Army headquarters staff believed that three women would be able to replace two men, but they ultimately replaced up to four men. Most of the jobs the WACs served in were as stenographers, typists, switchboard operators, clerks, and support personnel for the Manhattan Project. WACs served in many different roles to support the war effort, where they even worked on secret experiments. One such secret experiment was Battery X, formally composed of the 71st and 89th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalions, where the Army tested the feasibility of men and women soldiers fighting together in a combat unit. In the experiment, General George C. Marshall and Colonel Oveta Hobby hand-picked eleven WAC officers and fifty-eight enlisted women to compose the WAC component of Battery X, and the two complimented units worked around the clock in three 8-hour shifts to operate the M1A1 90mm heavy antiaircraft gun batteries and their supporting radar stations. The experiment ran from February to August 1943, when the experiment concluded with a radar tracking and gun-laying test on Bethany Beach, Delaware. In the concluding test, the WACs used radar to aim the connected 90mm gun at a moving target attached to a B-17 heavy bomber. This test was deemed to be successful by General Marshall and Colonel Hobby, though the units were quickly disbanded for other roles in other theaters. The WACs served until the end of the war, where most enlisted women were discharged from service and resumed their civilian lives. Others continued serving in the WACs, creating the core of the peacetime WAC organization.

WACs vs Axis postcard
WACs bringing home the bacon postcard
WACs onions postcard
WACs clothes postcard
WACs marching postcard

Postwar Service and Disbandment of the WACs

After the end of World War II, President Harry Truman signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, permitting women to join the new peacetime WACs as an organized reserve. In the 1950s through 1970s, the WACs served as a peacetime reserve and in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, though the organization continued to evolve over time.

On November 8th, 1967, Congress removed the promotion restrictions on women officers, which opened their eligibility for senior enlisted and officer ranks. After the Army discontinued the draft, they had trouble maintaining troop numbers, which forced planners to open up all non-combat Military Occupation Specialties to women. In 1972, women were granted access to the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), a program swiftly adopted by hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. While units were officially fully integrated between men and women in 1974, they still used separate barracks. Finally, on October 29th, 1978, the Women's Army Corps was disbanded by an Act of Congress to fully integrate women into the formal structure of the Army. While the WAC was disbanded, its legacy continues to thrive in the culture of military service amongst women today.

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