Women in the Army Corps

In 1940, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was created. This gave women the opportunity to serve within the army as civilians but it did not give them military status. After many years of WAACs asking for benefits that were not provided to a civilian auxiliary group and the US Army realizing there was a need to be able to send women overseas for many jobs needed on the front that the idea of the Women's Army Corp was born. It wasn't until 1943 that congress decided to give servicewomen military status and the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps became the Women's Army Corps. This change was extremely important to the women serving in the corps, as it meant they were allotted the same benefits a male soldier was provided as well as protection under military law if something were to happen to them during their time served (Bellfaire 2005.)

Photo: Estella A.Cook, Women's Army Corps. Courtesy of Esch/Cook Family PhotographsThere were five WAC training centers around the United States; The first at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, the second at Daytona Beach, Florida, the third at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, the fourth at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and the fifth at Camp Ruston, Louisiana. Training for the WACs was set up in basic Army style, the women were assessed of the interests and skills, given physical exams and vaccinations needed to be overseas, they were then trained in their chosen career path. Unlike the male soldiers emphasis on physical fitness, the WACs were still expected to be ladies and their basic training came with tutorials on how to be attractive in uniform as well as training in manners and poise.(NARA 2008)

During World War II, nearly 150,000 women served within the WAAC and WAC. Many took administrative jobs such as stenographers, typists, translators, legal secretaries, cryptographers, telegraph and teletype operators, radiographers, and general clerks. Other common military jobs for women were cooks, nurses, parachute packers, drivers and radio operators.

The first battalion of women to make it overseas was in London, England in July 1943. The first deployment of for 557 women and 19 officers served within the Eighth Air Unit. In September and October of 1943, the second battalion of WACs made their way to London (Bellfaire 2005.)

"WACs in the SWPA had a highly restricted lifestyle. Fearing incidents between the women and the large number of male troops in the area, some of whom had not seen an American woman for eighteen months, the theater headquarters directed that WACs (as well as Army nurses) be locked within barbed-wire compounds at all times, except when escorted by armed guards to work or to some approved recreation. No leaves or passes were allowed. The women chafed under these restrictions, believing they were being treated like children or criminals. Male soldiers complained frequently in their letters home that WACs were not successfully "releasing men for combat" in the Southwest Pacific because it took so many GIs to guard them. The WACs in their turn resented the guards, believing them unnecessary and insulting.

After the WACs had been in the SWPA for approximately nine months, the number of evacuations for health reasons jumped from 98 per thousand to 267 per thousand, which was significantly higher than that for men. The high rate of WAC illness was directly related to the theater's supply problems. Among the leading causes of illness was dermatitis, a skin disease aggravated by heat, humidity, and the heavy winter clothing the WACs wore in the theater. The malaria rate for women was disproportionately high because WACs lacked the lightweight, yet protective clothing issued to the men and often failed to properly wear their heavier uniforms. Pneumonia and bronchitis were aggravated by a shortage of dry footgear."

- The Women's Army Corps: A Commemotation of World War II Service by Judith Bellafaire.