Chapter I: The Women's Army Corps, 1942-1945

Chapter I

The Women's Army Corps, 1942-1945

Women in the Army? Never!

In early 1941, "Never!" was a typical reaction to the idea of women serving in the U.S. Army. The subject conjured up pictures of women wearing helmets, carrying rifles, and attacking an enemy in a war zone. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, these ideas and images did seem somewhat less outrageous. With new demands on labor-for war plants, for the Army, for the Navy-Americans began to face the reality that manpower shortages would occur in the near future. Enormous numbers of guns and planes had to be produced for the increasing numbers of American soldiers and sailors. The crisis changed the nature of the questions about women in the Army: What could women do in the Army? Would they ever be in combat? What weapons would they fire? Would they be giving orders to men? How would the Army, a traditional male society, accept women into its midst?

Some interest in the subject had developed in 1941, before the Japanese attack. Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers had introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She proposed a quasi-military organization of 25,000 women to fill clerical jobs that the Army would otherwise give to enlisted men. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall approved the idea. He envisioned such a corps as a conduit for enrolling thousands of women during wartime, thus releasing men from administrative jobs and making them available for combat duty. However, Mrs. Rogers' bill languished during 1941 because Congress was preoccupied with more pressing issues-the lend-lease bill, price controls, war plant production, and labor problems.

Mrs. Rogers introduced another bill in January 1942 for a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps of 150,000 women for noncombat duties. In a surprise move, she added an amendment that would give women military status and the right to be enlisted and appointed in the Army on the same basis as men. To Mrs. Rogers' dismay, the amendment immediately generated bitter controversy on the floor of the House. While congressmen could accept the idea of a women's auxiliary to ease a manpower short-
[3]
age, they objected to giving women military status as well as the rights and benefits of veterans.1
Several precedents existed to buttress the granting of military status to women in the Army. In 1901 Congress had established a Nurse Corps (Female) in the Army Medical Department of the Regular Army. The nurses served under contract-they did not receive commissions-but in 1920 Congress gave them "relative rank." This meant they could hold the rank of second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain, or major and could wear officers' insignia. Though they still lacked most of the privileges of regular officers, the nurses had gained some significant military status. In 1926, Congress authorized Army nurses a retirement pension based on length of service and, in 1930, added a pension for disability incurred in the line of duty. The Navy Nurse Corps (Female), established in 1907, followed the Army Nurse Corps' organization and offered similar status and benefits .2

During World War I, the Navy had used its recruitment authority to enlist approximately 13,000 women, called "Yeomanettes" and "Marinettes," to serve on active duty and fill clerical positions in various Navy and Marine Corps offices in the United States. The women wore uniforms, and they received the same pay and privileges as men while on active duty and as veterans thereafter. After the war, the Navy disbanded these groups.

The War Department had had similar authority to enlist women during World War I. But, instead of enlisting women, it hired them under civilian contract to serve as telephone operators and clerks with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Long after the war, in the late 1920s, planners on the War Department's General Staff wrote two separate proposals for establishing a women's corps as an integral part of the Army. However, neither proposal received adequate support; both were filed and forgotten .3

Either the 77th Congress, 1941-1943, was ignorant of these precedents, or it chose not to consider them. In the hearings on Mrs. Rogers' bill, legislators proclaimed that including women in the military would destroy the very foundations of American society. They envisioned an intolerable situation in which "women generals would rush about the country dictating orders to male personnel and telling the commanding officers of posts how to run their business." 4 Other members roundly
[4]
objected to giving women disability pensions, retirements, and veterans benefits. Some congressmen received support for their arguments from male officers who disliked the bill but dared not publicly oppose legislation supported by the War Department.

On 14 May 1942, after all debate ended, Congress established a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), but did not grant its members military status. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the compromise bill; An Act to Establish the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps became Public Law (PL) 77-554.5

The act authorized the Army to enroll 150,000 officers and enlisted women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five for noncombatant service; to organize them in separate units; and to pay, house, feed, clothe, train, and provide medical care for them at Army posts and other facilities. It did not bar them from service overseas. Women officers received appointments in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in the created grades of third officer, second officer, first officer, field director, assistant director, and director-comparable to the Army's grades of second lieutenant through colonel. Enlisted women held the grades of auxiliary, junior leader, leader, staff leader, technical leader, first leader, and chief leader-comparable to the Army's enlisted grades of private through master sergeant. At first, WAACs received less money than their male equivalents, but on 1 November 1942 they began to draw the same pay and allowances as members of the Regular Army serving in corresponding grades. They continued, however, to use their auxiliary grade titles.

Because the WAAC law did not make the women an integral part of the Army, they could not be governed by Army regulations or the Articles of War. The director of the WAAC and her staff, therefore, prepared a set of rules called the WAAC Regulations that covered appointment, enlistment, promotion, discipline (including a code of conduct and suggested punishments for infractions), training, uniforms, pay, and discharge. These regulations were patterned after Army regulations as closely as possible and provided that when the WAAC Regulations did not cover a particular situation, Army regulations would be used. WAAC officers alone would command WAAC units and administer punishment under the WAAC Regulations. Male officers and civilian supervisors, however, did have authority over the women who worked for them.

Anticipating its own manpower shortages, the Department of the Navy took a different approach to obtaining servicewomen. It asked for and received from Congress authority to enlist and appoint women in a women's section of the Naval Reserve, the Coast Guard Reserve, and the
[5]
Marine Corps Reserve. The bill encountered little opposition; evidently neither legislators nor men in the naval services believed that women in a reserve status would threaten the composition and traditions of those services. The president signed the bill into law (PL 77-689) on 30 July 1942.

Within six months, the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps had established reserve components-the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), the SPARS (from the Coast Guard motto, "Semper Paratus-Always Ready"), and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve (whose members were called Women Marines); had enlisted women in those components; and had called those reservists to active duty. The women in these groups received the same pay and benefits given regulars, but they were not eligible for disability or retirement pensions. And while generally governed by the same regulations and policies as men, they were restricted to noncombat duties ashore in the Continental United States (CONUS). In 1944, the 78th Congress relented and with Public Law 441, 27 September, allowed WAVES, SPARS, and Women Marines to serve in Alaska and Hawaii. They were not, however, allowed to serve aboard combat ships.

In an attempt to equalize the status and benefits of WAACs with those of women in the other services, Mrs. Rogers introduced a bill in October 1942 to make the WAAC a part of the Army's Organized Reserve. General Marshall disapproved the bill only because he believed it would become highly controversial and would delay the passage of other War Department legislation pending in the Congress. The bill died in committee.

The Auxiliary

Despite inequities and limitations, implementation of the earlier authorizing legislation was well under way. Chief of Staff Marshall had selected Oveta Culp Hobby, a native of Texas who would later serve as the first secretary of health, education, and welfare (1953-1955), to be the director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She was a logical choice; as chief of the Women's Interest Section in the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations, she had helped to plan the Corps. She took the oath of office on 16 May 1942. In June, she donned the first WAAC uniform, and onto her shoulders, General Marshall pinned silver eagles, symbolizing the relative rank of colonel.

In the Army's organizational structure, Director Hobby's headquarters was under the largest of the Army's three major commands, Services of Supply.6 This Army-wide command directed and managed administra-
[6]

TEMPORARY BUILDINGS at the First WAAC Training Center, Fort Des Moines, 1942.

tion, personnel, training, and supply matters for all military personnel. The other two major commands, Army Ground Forces and Army Air Forces, trained and equipped combat soldiers for war on land and in the air.

Immediately after the WRAC bill was signed, the War Department also assigned Col. Don C. Faith, a Regular Army infantry officer with 25 years' service, to command the First WAAC Training Center at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. With hard work and perseverance, Colonel Faith and his staff transformed the old cavalry post, with its stables, riding halls, and hitching posts, into a home for the WAAC.

The first women arrived at Fort Des Moines on 20 July 1942. Among them were 440 officer candidates who had been selected to attend WAAC Officer Candidate School (OCS). After successfully completing the six-week course, the graduates were commissioned as third officers, WAAC. New classes, averaging 150 students in size, entered the WAAC OCS every two weeks. In addition, the 125 enlisted women who had also arrived on 20 July underwent the four-week WAAC basic training course. The size of those classes increased as recruiting became more successful and additional training facilities were made available. The average age of the officer candidates was thirty; over 40 percent were college graduates. The average age of the enlisted personnel was twenty-four; over 60 percent were high school graduates, many with some
[7]

CONGRESS WOMAN EDITH NOURSE ROGERS addresses the graduates of the first
WAAC officer candidate class at Fort Des Moines, 29 August 1942.

college training. In terms of education, if not military status, the WAAC was an elite corps.

Students in both courses studied military customs and courtesies, organization of the Army, map reading, first aid, and supply; drilled and participated in ceremonies and parades; and stood guard duty. Because they had a longer period of instruction, officer candidates also received training in leadership, teaching techniques, voice and command, court martial procedures, WAAC company administration, and mess management. The women had no trouble learning the material. Becoming accustomed to Army life was another matter. They awakened in the morning to the boom of a cannon and the sound of a bugle and kept to a tight, crowded schedule through a long day. They performed KP (kitchen police), trash collection, and other tasks necessary to maintain military neatness despite cramped living conditions. And they learned to "hurry up and wait" as they stood in long lines for meals, mail, and an ironing board. Most of the students adapted well, and those who had had little experience in teamwork discovered its rewards-heightened satisfaction, morale, and camaraderie.

After completing training, unless she remained at the training center to replace a male member of the cadre, the WAAC officer or enlisted person was assigned to a 150-woman table of organization (TO) company. Such units had spaces only for clerks, typists, drivers, cooks, and unit cadre. It was disappointing to women who thought their civilian skills such as accounting, communications, dental hygiene, drafting, linguistics,
[8]

MESS HALL No. 15, FORT OGLETHORPE, 23 November 1944.

library science, mathematics, school administration, and photography would be useful to the Army. As soon as a company was full, it moved in toto-WAAC commander, officer and enlisted cadre, and cooks-to the Army post that had requisitioned it. This system of assignment by TO company, however, was too inflexible for wartime. In May 1943, it was eliminated for noncombat units. Under the new system, post commanders received a bulk allotment of WAAC spaces, then submitted requisitions to obtain women with the skills needed at their posts. The new system increased the variety of assignments open to enlisted women. WAAC officers, however, continued to be primarily assigned to positions dealing with WAAC administration, training, and recruiting. Public Law 77-554 stipulated that they be limited to such duties.

WAAC recruiting quickly surpassed its initial goals and the training center's capacity. President Roosevelt had set 25,000 women as a reasonable goal for the Corps to achieve by 30 June 1943, the end of the fiscal year. By November 1942, WAAC recruiting had topped that goal, and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson promptly increased the goal for 30 June 1943 to the ceiling set by Congress (150,000) and directed that more training centers be opened. Before the end of 1942, a second center was functioning at Daytona Beach, Florida. Between January and March 1943, centers opened at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia; Fort Devens, Massachusetts; and Camp Ruston, Louisiana.

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was a solid success. Its enlistment standards were relatively high, but the recruits it attracted met and surpassed those standards. In addition to strict physical standards (height,
[9]
weight, vision, etc.), the Corps required two years of high school, a police check, employment and character references, and a score of at least 60 on the Army General Classification Test (AGCT).7 Such standards contributed to its success. But, in January 1943, the Army Recruiting Service, under the Adjutant General (TAG), initiated a major campaign to recruit thousands more WAACs by lowering the standards: no minimum educational level, a minimal AGCT score of 50, no police check, no references, and less strict physical requirements. The lowered standards were supported by the commander of Services of Supply, Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell. Competition for manpower was the reason. The WAAC recruitment was competing with recruitment for WAVES, SPARS, and Women Marines, as well as for civilian industries. The naval services sought approximately 100,000 women; industry, attempting to supply wartime demands, needed 4 million.

Director Hobby opposed the lowered standards and attempted to have the higher standards reinstituted before the recruitment campaign was launched. Despite her stand, the lower standard went into effect. By the end of March, however, she had sufficient statistical evidence to convince General Marshall that because of the lower standards, unskilled and untrainable women were inundating the WAAC. Approximately 40 percent of the 34,000 women recruited in the first three months of 1943 had had fewer than two years of high school; roughly 15 percent had AGCT scores that placed them in the two lowest intelligence categories. Compounding those problems was the lack of background information about the recruits' reliability and reputations. In April, General Marshall delegated authority to set WAAC enlistment standards and to manage WAAC recruitment to Director Hobby.

In the three months following the restoration of the higher standards, only 13,800 women enlisted, despite an intensive recruiting campaign. Corps strength on 30 June 1943 was 60,000 officers and enlisted womenfar below the 150,000 goal set by the Secretary of War. WAAC headquarters cited the gradual depletion of the most available volunteers and competition with industry and the Navy, as well as the reinstituted higher standards, as primary causes for the recruiting failure.

A fourth factor, a slander campaign against the WAACs had also had an impact on the recruiting results. The demeaning assault on the reputation of the WAAC had begun in the spring of 1943 and soon spread into the other women's services. Some men used the WAACs as the subject of ridiculous or obscene jokes and scurrilous gossip and rumors about their moral character and behavior. This pastime seemed to have originated
[10]

WAAC OFFICERS being sworn into the Army of the United States, Fort Des
Moines, 1 September 1943.

within the Army itself where the hostile attitude of many males, both officer and enlisted, toward the WAAC was well known and where little effort was made to disguise it. The slanderous jokes and gossip moved quickly from the military community into civilian circles where the news media took them up. British servicewomen had suffered the same experience in World War I and earlier in World War II. According to sociologists, it is not unusual, from time to time, for minorities to become the popular subject for obscene jokes and remarks. A War Department investigation of the matter failed to find any definite source for the slurs, and attempts to override the slander with favorable publicity on the WAAC had little effect. A long year after it began, the campaign wore itself out. But it took years to erase the ideas that had spread across the country about the WAAC. For the women who served in the wartime WAAC, the slander campaign was a nightmare that they wanted to ensure would never happen again.8

Unpleasant as it was, this episode did not prevent the WAAC from achieving increased status in 1943. General Marshall decided to ask Congress to give the women military status. The auxiliary system had proved complex and unwieldy, requiring a separate set of WAAC regulations and policies. For example, among those who might have had legal problems
[11]
under the auxiliary system were the 200 officers and enlisted women stationed in Algeria at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's North African Theater headquarters. Unlike servicemen, the auxiliaries could not receive overseas pay or government life insurance. If they became sick or were wounded, they would not receive veterans' hospitalization. If they were killed, their parents would receive no death gratuity. And, if they were captured, they would have no protection under existing international agreements covering prisoners of war.

Mrs. Rogers and Director Hobby drafted a bill that was approved by General Marshall and introduced into the new Congress, the 78th, in January 1943. The Senate approved the bill on 15 February 1943, but members of the House questioned the effects of the change in status- What would be the top rank for women? How large would the new Corps be? What types of duty would Corps members perform? What benefits would be granted? Six months of debate and compromise passed before the bill was approved by both houses and signed by President Roosevelt on 1 July 1943. An Act to Establish the Women's Army Corps in the Army of the United States became Public Law 78-110.9

Conversion to Army Status

The new law deleted the word "Auxiliary" from the Corps title, removed the 150,000 limitation on its size, and changed the entry age from 21 through 45 to 20 through 49. The distinctive WAAC grade titles vanished; the officers and enlisted women now used the same military titles as men. The director of the new Women's Army Corps (WAC), however, could not be promoted above the grade of colonel and other WAC officers could not rise above lieutenant colonel. Enlisted women could be promoted to the highest enlisted grade, master sergeant (E-7). Unfortunately, time spent in the WAAC did not count toward length of service, but henceforth, as part of the Army of the United States, members of the WAC would receive the same pay, allowances, benefits, and privileges as men. They would also be subject to the same disciplinary code.

Under the old law, Director Hobby had stood as commander of the women, had written WAAC Regulations, and had directed the women's assignments, training, and uniforms. The new law took away her command authority and left her with the role of adviser to the secretary of the Army and the Army staff on WAC matters. Now the WACs would be governed by Army regulations with a few exceptions. The exceptions would be covered in an Army regulation called WAC Regulations. WAC officers would still command the women's units and administer punishment, but under the Articles of War rather than WAAC Regulations and
[12]
the WAAC Code of Conduct. In the past it had often been unclear which chain of command the women should follow-the WAAC or the Regular Army chain. Now, the Corps would clearly follow the normal chain of command: WAC detachment commander; to post commander; to commander of the service command; to commander of the major command; to the chief of staff; and, ultimately, to the president.

Other changes in command and administrative responsibilities also stemmed from the new law. WAC personnel management, supply, training, and operations moved from WAAC headquarters to the War Department staff offices that managed such matters for men. The WAC director retained staff responsibilities for preparing WAC plans and policies, inspecting WAC units, and advising the Army staff, major commanders, and the chief of staff on WAC matters.

Oveta Culp Hobby was appointed Director, Women's Army Corps (DWAC), and was commissioned a colonel in the Army of the United States on 5 July 1943. WAAC headquarters was retitled Office of the Director, Women's Army Corps (ODWAC). The director was authorized to communicate directly with the major commanders and with the WAC staff directors assigned to each of those commands. The duties of the staff directors, who were commissioned lieutenant colonels, paralleled those of the director, and they, in turn, were authorized direct contact with post commanders and WAC detachment commanders regarding personnel matters. Through this network, the director kept abreast of progress or problems concerning WAC housing, assignments, training, discipline, and morale.

Organizationally, the director's office remained under the commanding general, Army Service Forces (ASF). Colonel Hobby, however, believed that the Corps' new status required its director to be assigned to a level higher than Army Service Forces so that policy directives affecting WACs in all major commands would not appear to be generated by another command. General Marshall agreed and, in March 1944, relocated the director's office under the G-1 (Personnel) of the War Department General Staff, the organizational level above the major commands.

Regulations and Policies,- Tradition and Custom

Until 1943, Army regulations had been written with only men in mind. While working with Mrs. Rogers on legislation to end the auxiliary status, Director Hobby pushed her belief that the women in the Army should be governed by the same regulations as men. She wanted it clear that the women received no special or favored treatment. Thus, she opposed any proposal that "tends to give the impression that the WAC is something apart from the Army."10
[13]
After the establishment of the Women's Army Corps ended the auxiliary status, however, Colonel Hobby did recognize that the WAC needed special regulations or policies. American social customs and the physiological differences between men and women led to Congress' expectation that women be noncombatants and to the "limiting" provisions of PL 78110-for example, the restrictions on officer promotions and command authority.

Congress had not included in the WAC law, as it had in the WAAC law, the statement that women would be noncombatants. But, in the hearings on the WAC bill, every legislator involved had made it known that he expected the secretary of war to ensure that women would be noncombatants. Thus, Army regulations excluded women from combat training that involved weapons or tactical exercises and from duty assignments that required weapons. Colonel Hobby allowed some exceptions to this rule. Commanders could assign women to such noncombat duty positions as disbursing or pay officers, intelligence personnel who worked in code rooms, or drivers in certain overseas areas, even though the positions required the use of a weapon. If assigned these positions, the WACs received proper training with the appropriate weapon (usually the .45-caliber automatic pistol). And to avoid the impression that the women were involved in combat duties, public relations officers ensured that the news media did not print photographs of WACs with weapons.

The WAC law did state that, with the sole exception of the director, no woman would be promoted above the grade of lieutenant colonel. The restriction existed because Congress and officers in the War Department believed that a WAC officer's maximum responsibility would be at that level; higher positions of command and staff duty required officers with combat training and experience. Thus, all colonels, except for the WAC director, and all general officers in the Army would continue to be male.

The higher positions of command and staff duty also required the authority to command males, individually and in units, and PL 78-110 stated that women could not command men unless specifically authorized by the secretary of war.11 To counterbalance this limitation of authority, Colonel Hobby had the regulations stipulate that WAC units would be composed only of women and would be commanded only by WAC officers. She also required that commands using WAC units establish and fill a position for a WAC staff director whose duties would include regular inspections of the command's WAC units.

Regulations and decisions were needed to cover many areas not addressed by PL 78-110. One important area left unsettled pertained to dependents: Could WAC members receive dependency allowances? Colonel Hobby requested a ruling by the comptroller general of the United States. His decision, B-35441 of 4 August 1943, ruled that husbands of
[14]
WACs could not receive dependency benefits or allowances. However, if a WAC presented proof that she had children, parents, grandparents, brothers, or sisters solely or chiefly dependent upon her for support, they could receive dependency allowances. In 1944, the rule was revised to allow a dependency allowance for a husband when he was dependent upon the WAC for more than 50 percent of his support. Servicemen, on the other hand, automatically received dependency benefits for their wives and for children under 21 without having to furnish proof of dependent status. Regardless of these rulings, WACs, in fact, had few dependents; enlistment and reenlistment regulations barred women from service if they had children under 14 or dependent children between 18 and 21. Men with children were eligible for enlistment and induction.

Fortunately, the members of the 78th Congress had omitted any provisions regarding marriage, pregnancy, maternity care, or detention for misconduct from PL 78-110. In consequence, Colonel Hobby was able to recommend that Army regulations covering these matters follow the policies that had been used successfully in the WAAC; the policies that had not been successful would be changed. Policies regarding dating and marriage reflected Army tradition, including the prohibition against officers and enlisted personnel mingling after duty hours. That prohibition affected dating and caused consternation worldwide, primarily because working conditions brought male officers and enlisted women together. However, with a permission slip from her superior officer, a WAC officer could socialize off duty with an enlisted husband or relative, and likewise, an enlisted woman could socialize with an officer husband or relative.

War Department policy on marriage as embodied in WAAC, WAC, and Army regulations did not change during the war. Marriage did not disqualify a woman from enlistment, nor did it provide a basis for requesting transfer or discharge. Obtaining a commander's permission to marry was not required by Army regulations, but a commander could require it by publishing a directive to that effect, usually in the company's Standing Operating Procedure. If marriage did occur, a woman was required to forward a change of name through command channels.

Commanders in the United States and overseas in the North African, Mediterranean, and Middle East theaters allowed military personnel to marry. In the European Theater, marriage was permitted, but, when it occurred, one spouse was immediately transferred to a distant station within the command or out of the theater. The purpose of the immediate transfer was to discourage hasty wartime marriages and pregnancies. In the Southwest Pacific Area and in the China-Burma-India Theater, marriage was not permitted unless the woman was pregnant. In such cases, the pregnant WAC was sent home at once and discharged.

Under auxiliary status, a woman, married or single, who became pregnant was promptly separated from the service and given an honorable
[15]
discharge.12 When the Corps became part of the Army, the War Department found it had no authority to discharge personnel for pregnancy. Legislation for the traditional all-male Army provided many grounds for discharge-minority, dependency or hardship, bad conduct, mental disability, medical disability, unfitness, and inaptitude, as well as expiration of time in service (ETS)-none of which in a traditional interpretation covered pregnancy. The Army, however, resolved the problem by including pregnancy as a cause for a medical discharge.

Thus, WACs who became pregnant could be legally discharged. If a woman became pregnant overseas, she was evacuated by air to the United States. If birth occurred before a woman could be discharged for medical disability, she was discharged on the grounds of dependency of a minor child. If the child were stillborn, the woman was discharged for "the convenience of the government." An illegal abortion, however, resulted in a dishonorable discharge for bad conduct. From 1942 through 1945, the WAAC/WAC pregnancy rate was 7 per 1,000 per month; the rate for civilian women in similar age groups for the same period was 117 per 1,000.

Maternity care was not authorized for WACs after discharge unless they were married to military men-as dependents they received full medical care. WAC commanders assisted unmarried pregnant women in finding social agencies that provided prenatal and postnatal care in return for light work. Few unmarried women went back to their hometowns if they were pregnant. In May 1944, after trying for several years to obtain help for these women, Colonel Hobby finally convinced the War Department to provide care in Army hospitals for both married and single women discharged because of pregnancy.

In these matters, the WAC reflected Army tradition and regulations and American social custom, as it also did in racial matters. In 1940, the War Department had established a policy of accepting black inductees under a quota that approximated the black proportion of the national population-10 percent. The Selective Service Act of the same year prohibited discrimination based on race or color. Black men and women responded through patriotism and through the encouragement of black leaders who saw in the armed forces a chance to bring about change in the deep-rooted racial practices of segregation and discrimination. The Army had argued that it could not undertake a program for such a major social change while it was in the midst of a war. In consequence, since "official policy permitted separate draft calls and the officially held definition of discrimination neatly excluded segregation-and both went unchallenged in the courts," the Army continued throughout the war to segregate enlisted blacks and whites in basic training units and in housing. The Army's training policy, however, provided that blacks and whites
[16]

WAC OFFICER CANDIDATE CLASS ND. 50 GRADUATES, 20 May 1944, Third
WAC Training Center, Fort Oglethorpe.

would train together in officer candidate schools (beginning in 1942) and in specialist and technical training schools (beginning in 1943). Basic training remained segregated; the Army feared that mixing the race immediately upon entering the service would lead to racial conflict.13

The WAAC and the WAC followed the Army's racial policies, but adapted those policies to meet their requirements. When the first WAAC OCS class of 440 women arrived at Fort Des Moines in July 1942, it included 40 black candidates. These women and those in several more classes received their training in segregated facilities until pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forced a reversal of this practice in November 1942. Housing and messing facilities for WAAC officers and service club facilities were also desegregated at this time. But the Corps continued to segregate basis training for enlisted women and to assign them to segregated units in the
[17]

WAC DRIVER, Fort Oglethorpe, 1944.

field; black units in the field and at the Corps' training centers were commanded by black commissioned and noncommissioned officers. Black women, however, trained and served in the same military occupational specialties (MOSs) as white women. When attending specialist schools, black and white women trained and lived together. And, since only one women's unit was usually authorized at most Army posts, if the unit were white and a woman arriving for training at a school on that post were black, or vice versa, all the women-black and white-lived together in the same unit.

During the war, recruitment of black women lagged considerably below the 10 percent desired by the War Department. A total of 6,527 black women enlisted in the WAAC/WAC between 1 July 1942 and 30 June 1945-5.1 percent of the Corps' enlisted accessions.14

Assignment and Utilization

After conversion to Army status, WACs continued to be assigned under the bulk allotment system instituted in May 1943 for noncombatant
[18]
units. Under that system, a commander received a quota of WAC spaces by grade; he then submitted requisitions to obtain WACs with particular skills. However, commanders could no longer get away with assigning the women to unauthorized positions as some had done while the women were in the auxiliary: if the women were not part of the Army, so the reasoning went, they could not be charged against authorized spaces. Because of the WACs' Army status, commanders had to account for the women and ensure that they filled authorized positions on manning documents-the documents which describe the military positions (by grade, position title, military occupational specialty, and branch) in every installation, activity, and unit in the Army. After May 1943, a manning document for a noncombat (sometimes called an overhead) unit was referred to as a table of allotment (TA) or, later, a table of distribution (TD); a manning document for a combat or combat-related unit was called a table of organization (TO).

Colonel Hobby placed few restrictions on the jobs women could hold. WAC regulations allowed a woman to fill, at a fixed location, any authorized military position that she was physically fit to perform. Wartime manpower shortages required that women be allowed to do more than serve in such positions as typists, clerks, and drivers. WACs began to put civilian-acquired skills, such as in mathematics and communications, to work for the Army. They received more training and moved into new occupational specialties; they became mechanics, weather observers, radio operators, intelligence analysts, photographers, carpenters, painters, parachute riggers, postal workers, and heavy equipment operators.

Commanders not only had to provide suitable housing (e.g., separate barracks) and working conditions (e.g., separate toilet facilities in work places), they had to show considerable need because WACs were only assigned in detachments of fifty or more under the command of a WAC officer. The WACs could not be assigned as cooks, waitresses, permanent KP, or janitors in an Army club or cafeteria; those nonmilitary jobs were reserved for local civilian labor forces. And because Colonel Hobby did not want members of the Corps associated with frivolous, nonmilitary duties, WACs could participate in talent shows or plays intended for military audiences, but not in shows scheduled to be shown to the general public, such as recruiting shows and war bond rallies. This restriction also applied to the five WAC bands located at the WAC training centers and at ports of embarkation.

Acceptance and reception of WACs differed from command to com mand. The surgeon general of the Army requisitioned few WAACs or WACs early in the war. But in mid-1944, as shortages developed in the Army's medical facilities, the Medical Department asked for 50,00( WACs to be trained and assigned to care and treatment installation around the world. Though this request was impossible to fill, a major
[19]
recruiting campaign in late 1944 and early 1945 succeeded in increasing the strength of enlisted women in the medical field to 20,000 by the end of the war-about 20 percent of WAC strength. WACs served the medical staff primarily as medical technicians and office clerks.

Of the major Army commands, the Army Air Forces (AAF) welcomed the assignment of WAACs and WACs most enthusiastically. General Henry R. (Hap) Arnold took advantage of every opportunity to use WAAC/WAC officers and enlisted women in a wide variety of positions at airfields, depots, and schools. And, in 1943, as the anti-WAC slander campaign swept through the service and into the civilian sector, he directed his field commanders to take prompt disciplinary action against any man who participated in or encouraged the gossip or jokes. As a result, the WACs appreciated the AAF, and approximately 34,000 (35 percent of total WAC strength) served in that command. They came to be known as Air WACs, and, for the most part, they initially filled clerical and medical specialist positions.15 Toward the end of the war, however, when the AAF could not recruit enough men who scored in the higher intelligence categories on the AGCT, the command placed women in its many technical specialties-control tower operator, link trainer instructor, aerial photographer, weather observer, radio operator, mechanic. While no Air WACs piloted planes, a few served during training and administrative missions as air crew members, radio operators, mechanics, or flight clerks. Three were awarded the Air Medal, one posthumously.

The Army Ground Forces (AGF) utilized the fewest number of WACs during World War 11-only 2,000, or about 2 percent of the Corps strength. While most AGF units had combat missions, a few WACs were assigned as stenographers, typists, drivers, mechanics, or supply specialists at Ground Forces schools, training centers, or supply depots. This command, however, did conduct one of the few combat related experiments involving women. In January 1943, approximately 10 WAAC officers and 200 enlisted women replaced men in several batteries of an antiaircraft artillery (AAA) battalion located in the Washington, D.C., area. The women received on-the-job training in all gun crew duties except firing the 90-mm. antiaircraft gun; their noncombat status precluded firing training. At the conclusion of the experiment, the AAA commander reported that the women were highly capable and efficient, particularly in operating the radar, calculating height and direction of enemy aircraft, and controlling searchlights. Despite such positive results, the chief of staff decided that, overall, women could best be employed in administrative and logistical duties rather than in combat support positions.
[20]

WAACS OF THE 149TH POST HEADQUARTERS COMPANY readdressing mail, North Africa, 1943.

The Army Service Forces (ASF) employed the highest number of WACs, over 45 percent of the Corps' total strength.16 WACs served throughout the large service commands that managed ASF matters it specific geographical areas of the United States and in the technical and administrative services (Signal Corps, Ordnance Corps, Quartermaster Corps, etc.). Each of these service commands and technical and administrative services had a WAC staff director. WAC personnel, officer and enlisted, worked in communications, administration, personnel, research and development, supply and logistical operations, transportation management, military intelligence, and military pay operations. A few enlisted women were employed in chaplains' activities and as military policewomen at the WAC training centers, and several WAC units were assigned to the Manhattan Project-the development of the atomic bomb. The units stationed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Pasco, Washington, received the Army's Meritorious Unit Commendation. Most WACs in the ASF, however, had more everyday assignments. To support the wartime Army scattered around the world, they performed a myriad of services, such as forwarding and censoring mail and processing personnel and freight through port facilities.
[21]
As already noted, overseas duty had begun while the women were still in auxiliary status. In December 1942, five WAAC captains had arrived in North Africa after their troopship had been torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. The following month, January 1943, after an uneventful crossing, the 200 women (10 officers, 190 enlisted) of the 149th WRAC Post Headquarters Company had also arrived in North Africa and had taken up duties at General Eisenhower's theater headquarters. The unit furnished the operators for the headquarters switchboard, clerks and typists for the postal directory service, and stenographers and drivers for the commanding general and his staff.

With the spring, new contingents of WAACs began arriving monthly for duty with Fifth Army headquarters in Morocco and Twelfth Air Force headquarters in Algeria. By the fall, the WAAC had become the WAC, and when the Fifth Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, invaded Italy, a sixty-member WAC platoon went with it. Half the platoon joined General Clark's advance headquarters that followed closely behind the combat troops moving up the Italian peninsula. Usually 12 to 35 miles behind the fighting lines, but sometimes as close as 5 miles, the WACs acquitted themselves well and turned down offers for rotation to the rear. And while General Clark appreciated their work and later requested that the platoon accompany him during the occupation of Austria, the WAC staff director in the theater pointed out the obvious drawback under the existing regulations: the headquarters had to give up an armed soldier for every woman assigned.17

The summer and fall of 1943 also saw WACs taking up duties in England, at various AAF stations, and in India, at Southeast Asia Command headquarters. As the months went by, the number of WACs employed increased. In England, the initial battalion (19 officers and 555 enlisted women) had arrived in July. Others soon followed and were assigned to the expanding number of headquarters: Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force; European Theater of Operations; Strategic Air Forces; Eighth Air Force; Ninth Air Force; Allied Expeditionary Air Forces; 8th Fighter Command; and the 9th Bomber Command. As in North Africa and elsewhere, the women worked primarily as clerktypists, stenographers, drivers, supply specialists, postal clerks, and switchboard and teletype operators. By D-Day, 6 June 1944, WAC strength in England was 3,600. In mid-July, WAC units began crossing to France with the support and service troops, and at the end of August, they moved into Paris with the support headquarters.

On the other side of the world, the first contingent of WACs (sixty officers and enlisted women) had reported for administrative and communications duties at the headquarters of the Allied Commander, Southeast
[22]
Asia Command, in New Delhi, India, in October 1943. Six months later, the entire command moved to Ceylon, where it remained until after the Japanese surrender in 1945. By the time of that move to Ceylon, however, other WAC units had arrived in India for service at that headquarters and elsewhere in the China-Burma-India Theater. As in other theaters, WACs were particularly welcomed by the Army Air Forces, where, as discussed earlier, they were employed not only as stenographers, typists, drivers, and communications specialists, but also as mechanics and other technical specialists.

In November 1944, the War Department separated the China Theater from the China-Burma-India Theater. One hundred WACs were detached from duty in Ceylon and assigned to the new headquarters of U.S. Forces in China at Chungking. After the Japanese surrender, the unit moved to Shanghai and then to Nanking and Peking for further service before returning to the United States.

To the south, WACs had arrived in Australia to take up duties in the Southwest Pacific Area in May 1944. Of the initial contingent of 640. approximately 100 were assigned to General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in Brisbane. The others moved on to Port Moresby, New Guinea. That spring and summer Allied forces occupied the north coast; then moved against the enemy on Morotai, in the Palaus, and, in October, in the Philippines. WACs were assigned to supply and support facilities at Oro Bay, Lae, Finschhafen, and Hollandia in New Guinea and at Tacloban on Leyte. By the end of 1944, over 4,700 enlisted women and 330 WAC officers were assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area. With the new year, 1945, more WACs were assigned. In February, a WAC detachment was assigned to Biak, New Guinea, and, on 7 March, three days after the city was cleared of Japanese, the first WACs arrived in Manila

WACs assigned to the Southwest Pacific endured greater hardship than other members of the Corps during World War II. Uniform supply was slow and irregular, and the herringbone twill fabric of the WAC coverall had not been designed for use in the tropics. Men's cotton khak shirts, trousers, and coveralls were substituted, but as both men and women discovered, no uniform gave much protection against the weath er, insects, and diseases. Canned and dehydrated food or field (K) ration were standard diet; most consumers sustained a steady loss of weight Housing ranged from the best, at Port Moresby, with wooden barracks cement floors, outside showers and toilets, to the worst, on Leyte, with mud-floored tents and no laundry facilities. For protection, the com pounds were surrounded by barbed wire and the women were guarded tc and from their work place.
[23]
The End of the War

Disregarding such comparative hardships, by V-E Day, 8 May 1945, 99,388 women had joined the Women's Army Corps. But that figure also represented the Corps' World War II peak. Despite campaign after campaign, the WAC Recruiting Service had been unable to bring the Corps' strength up to the desired 150,000. The reasons for the shortfall were numerous, but the primary causes remained the same-continuous male opposition to women in uniform; the "slander campaign," which had been rooted in that opposition; and, in the face of labor shortages, competition from industry and from the other women's military services.

Regardless of the reasons, recruitment was off, and three of the five training centers had been closed before the end of 1943. However, women could be assigned in 406 of the Army's 628 military occupational specialties; even without those jobs deemed unsuitable jobs requiring combat training, great physical strength, long training courses, or supervisory duties-women could fill over 1.3 million Army jobs. Therefore, the General Staff had suggested on several occasions that women be registered or drafted for the WAC and the Army Nurse Corps. Colonel Hobby had favored drafting women as she "was convinced that the new quota [ 150,000 women] could not be filled by voluntary recruiting."18 Gallup polls conducted in October and December 1943 had shown that the majority (73 and 78 percent respectively) of the general public also favored the idea, albeit in a limited way-drafting single women before fathers.19 Congress, however, had rejected such proposals.

In any event, with the war in Europe over and the war in the Pacific obviously coming to an end, the War Department halted the recruitment of women, effective 29 August 1945. The WAC training center at Fort Oglethorpe closed before that date, on 15 July; the last training center, the one at Fort Des Moines, closed on 15 December.20

In July, Colonel Hobby, who had been proposed for promotion to brigadier general, had resigned because of illness in the family. Her executive ability and perseverance had enabled her to organize and administer the Corps despite the legal obstacles and organizational and societal prejudices that had besieged it. The original auxiliary status of the Corps had created many of the obstacles-legal and administrative-and had neither made the presence of women in the Army more acceptable to the men in the Army nor made the Corps more prestigious. Creation of the Women's Army Corps as a part of the Army Organized Reserve instead of as an auxiliary corps might have eliminated many of the problems and helped resolve the others.
[24]
Colonel Hobby, however, had worked within the system and with her staff had managed to overcome many obstacles to build an efficient organization, one that had earned respect and recognition. By mid-1945, over 140,000 women had served in the Corps. Their commanders praised their performance of duty, deportment, and appearance in uniform. One woman had earned the Distinguished Service Medal; 62, the Legion of Merit; 565, the Bronze Star; 3, the Air Medal; 10, the Soldier's Medal for heroic actions (not involving combat); and 16, the Purple Heart.21

Colonel Hobby recommended that her deputy succeed her. On 12 July, General Marshall, accepting that recommendation, appointed Westray Battle Boyce to the position of director of the Women's Army Corps, with a promotion to colonel. Colonel Boyce, a native of North Carolina, had graduated from WAAC OCS, Class No. 3, in September 1942 and had served as WAAC staff director at 4th Service Command in Atlanta, Georgia, and as WAC staff director of the North African Theater before becoming Colonel Hobby's deputy in May 1945.

After assuming directorship of the Corps, Colonel Boyce initially carried on the plans and policies established by her mentor. Among these was Colonel Hobby's "unvarying conviction that the WAC should be disbanded as soon as possible after the war was over."22 To accomplish that end, Colonel Boyce recommended that a separate demobilization plan be adopted for the WAC that would discharge women at the same rate as men. The War Department, however, directed that WACs be discharged under the same demobilization plan as men-WACs would thus probably not be demobilized at the same rate because they had fewer demobilization points. And, while most of the senior WAC officers stationed in the United States agreed with Colonel Boyce's view, other WAC officers, particularly those overseas, favored the War Department solution. They wanted women held on duty as long as possible so that a plan to include the WAC in the postwar Army, both the Regular Army and the Reserve, could be considered.

Demobilization

On V-J Day, 2 September 1945, the Women's Army Corps boasted a membership of 90,779. That morning brought with it a heady sense of change to WACs at work throughout the United States and overseas from Calcutta to London. Not only was World War II ending, but the news media had forecast that the number of Adjusted Service Rating (ASR) points needed for demobilization would be lowered immediately after the surrender in Tokyo Bay. To the many servicewomen looking
[25]
forward to going home, this was good news. To those who had found Army life more interesting, mobile, and satisfying than the civilian careers they had left behind, it aroused concern. Was there an alternative to going home-to leaving their Army jobs and friends? Had any Army leader, WAC or non-WAC, recommended that the WAC be continued?23

In point of fact, the Reserve Policy Committee of the War Department had recommended, in May, that women be given reserve status in the postwar Army; Army leaders had commended WAC performance in the field; and, later that fall, Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, who had commanded the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in Europe before becoming deputy commander of the Army Air Forces, would recommend that the WAC "be retained as part of the postwar military plans." General Eaker based his recommendation on the WACs' performance during the war. Other male Army leaders also praised WAC performance. General Eisenhower wrote, "During the time I have had WACs under my command they have met every test and task assigned to them .... Their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit, and determination are immeasurable." General MacArthur, in complimenting their effectiveness and efficiency to Colonel Boyce, called the WACs "my best soldiers" because they worked harder than the men, seldom complained, and were well-disciplined troops.24

But other Army leaders, including Colonel Hobby and Colonel Boyce, while cognizant of the WACs' contributions, urged quick demobilization. Colonel Hobby believed that Americans wanted their servicewomen returned home promptly to reknit family life. She also recognized that WACs had to return quickly to begin searching for jobs because they had no reemployment rights and that Congress had shown its intention to discontinue the WAC by not providing it with a peacetime military status.25

Demobilization had begun after V-E Day. Discharge was based on the total number of ASR points accrued-for months served in the United States and overseas, for participation in combat, for decorations received for gallantry, and for number of minor children. Between V-E Day and V-J Day, enlisted men required 85 points for discharge; enlisted women, 44. A critical score, the number needed for discharge, was not established for officers until V-J Day.

Despite the lower critical score, the method of accruing points slowed demobilization for WACs. The laws and regulations governing the Corps eliminated, for all practical purposes, three sources of points-participation in combat, decorations for gallantry, and number of minor children.
[26]
And since only one-fifth of the WACs had served overseas by V-J Day, the primary source of points for WACs was service in the United States. Only one category of WACs was excepted from this point system. In late May 1945, in response to criticism, a joint Army-Navy policy agreement had given eligibility for discharge to all servicewomen married to veterans. By V-J Day approximately 2,000 WAC officers and enlisted women had been discharged to be with their veteran husbands.26

On the day after V-J Day, as the news media had predicted, the critical point score needed by enlisted personnel for discharge was lowered to 80 for men, 41 for women. On 16 November, it was announced that effective 1 December 1945 point scores would be further lowered and, for the first time, length of service became an alternative criterion for discharge for men. Enlisted men could be discharged with 55 points or four years of service; male officers, 73 points or four years and three months of service. An announcement on 19 December added a length of service alternative for WACs. Effective 31 December, enlisted men could be discharged with 50 points or three years and six months' service; male officers, 70 points or four years; enlisted women, 32 points or two years and six months; and WAC officers, 37 points or three years and three months. Army nurses and other Medical Department personnel were demobilized under a separate set of criteria covered by the War Department's Medical Department Readjustment Plan. In addition, all servicewomen who had married prior to 12 May 1945 (when demobilization began) could be discharged upon request to reestablish homes with their husbands. However, the need to maintain Army strength, not lower than 2.5 million in June 1946, was recognized, and commanders had the authority to retain some critically needed specialists for up to ninety days beyond their rotation or demobilization date-an authority that they exercised. 27

Efforts to maintain the Army's strength met with little success. With the new year, 1946, General Eisenhower, who had replaced General Marshall as chief of staff, announced a slowdown in demobilization so that the Army could accomplish its occupation mission. Soldiers, parents, and congressmen reacted adversely. In cities around the world-Manila, Honolulu, New Delhi, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Paris, and London-soldiers gathered in mass meetings, shouted protests, lit bonfires, and marched through streets to show their discontent. In Manila, on 7 January 1946, 20,000 men participated in that day's protest. WACs, who needed fewer points for discharge than the men, did not join the demonstrations. The WAC staff director, Lt. Col. Mera Galloway, described the scene for
[27]
Colonel Boyce: "Beginning last evening, there have been GI demonstrations . . . in protest to the War Department delay in not lowering point scores fast enough to utilize all the empty ships waiting in the harbor .... The demonstrations so far have been orderly but feeling is running high."28

The soldier demonstrations generated enough pressure to make the Army speed up demobilization. On 15 January, General Eisenhower announced that enlisted men with 45 points or thirty months' service would, by 30 April, be either demobilized or en route home. In July, the Army notified the WACs that, beginning in October, requests for discharge would be approved regardless of ASR score or length of service. On 31 December 1946, WAC strength was 9,655 officers and enlisted women.29

Meanwhile the National Civilian Advisory Committee on the WAC, established by General Marshall in September 1944, was working to assist the discharged WACs. After almost a year of work, in August 1945, they succeeded in obtaining the enactment of legislation giving reemployment rights to WACs.30

Postwar Planning

In May 1945, rather than waiting for another emergency, the Reserve Policy Committee in the War Department had officially recommended immediate legislation giving women reserve status. Colonel Hobby had given only faint approval to the plan calling for the retention of three women officers on active duty to help develop long-range plans for a women's reserve; all other officers would be placed on inactive status. And while enlisted women would not be admitted into the planned women's reserve, a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program was envisioned to provide replacements for the officers. Colonel Hobby had felt that an effective, extensive reserve program for women would be infeasible because so many women reservists would marry, have children, and thus be unable to serve on active duty when they were needed. Initially, Colonel Boyce had agreed with her; however, other officers in the G-1 persuaded her that enlisted women should also be included in the reserve. Agreeing that some women, both officers and enlisted personnel, should serve in the Organized Reserve Corps did not mean, however, that she had changed her mind about either the speedy demobilization of the WAC or its early and complete discontinuance.31
[28]
In mid-September, Colonel Boyce met with the WAC staff directors and senior officers at their annual conference. She set the tone of the meeting in her opening remarks: "Ex bello pax-out of war into peace-is our motto .... Let us put our very best effort into the writing of the last chapter of WAC history so that it may contain nothing but shining pages right through to the end." According to Colonel Boyce, even if legislation that included the WAC in the postwar Organized Reserve Corps were passed, the WAC enabling law (PL 78-110), which called for the discontinuance of the WAC six months after the president declared the war over, was still in force. She was, therefore, charged with carrying out the plans to discharge every WAC and to close the training centers and the director's office. She told the gathered officers that the conference would be one of their last and that their final mission was "the orderly demobilization of the Women's Army Corps." 32

The remaining speakers reviewed the WAC's accomplishments, explained demobilization and separation center procedures, outlined services available under the Veterans Administration, described the benefits offered by the GI Bill, and discussed civilian readjustment difficulties and the availability of employment counseling after discharge.

To many officers, especially those from overseas theaters, the tone and agenda were depressing and perplexing. They knew the magnitude of the problems faced by U.S. Army occupation forces. They knew too that the British, French, and Russian governments were considering including their servicewomen in their postwar forces. In a question and answer period at the end of that first day of the conference, Colonel Boyce was asked if "any consideration had been given to the use of the WAC in the post-war period?" She replied that neither discussion nor action on the subject had been taken up in the General Staff. She then went on to say that plans about including women in the Organized Reserve were "under consideration."33

At the end of the session, Lt. Col. Anna Walker Wilson requested and obtained from Colonel Boyce, who was leaving on an inspection trip to the Southwest Pacific, permission to address the conference on the subject of WAC postwar planning. The former WAC staff director for the European Theater, assigned now as a plans officer in Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, was placed on the next day's agenda.

Lt. Col. Helen Hamilton Woods, Deputy Director, WAC, announced the change in the proceedings and then introduced the new speaker to a hushed and attentive audience. Colonel Wilson described the gallantry of
[29]
British, French, and Russian women during the war and their efforts to be retained in their countries' defense forces. She then spoke of the trend to demobilize the WAC: "One of the things that bothers those of us returning from overseas is the realization that so many Americans have decided that we are through and it is time to pack up and go home."34

Because Colonel Wilson saw a future role for the WAC-in the demands of postwar occupation responsibilities and in the event of another national emergency-she saw a need to counteract that trend. She asked the officers at the session to encourage WACs leaving the service to take a message into their home communities: "We are the medium through which the knowledge and experience gained in the utilization of womanpower during this war can be preserved. We are also a nucleus, a framework around which total mobilization of womanpower can be effected in the next emergency."35

Once Colonel Wilson had raised the issue of a postwar WAC, the conference attendees became divided. Side conversations and heated discussions replaced the hushed, attentive audience-the WACs should go home; they should be included in the Organized Reserve, in the Regular Army, in both; they should continue as a separate corps; they should be integrated. The meeting was adjourned for lunch and later reconvened in closed session to keep out local reporters and casual visitors. The discussions threatened to take up the remainder of the conference. Colonel Woods finally decided the subject had been sufficiently aired and asked for a show-of-hands poll on the ideas covered in the discussions. How many would be interested in joining the Organized Reserve Corps after returning to civilian life? How many thought other WACs, both officer and enlisted, would be interested in joining the Reserve? How many would prefer assignment in one of the traditional branches; how many, a separate WAC branch? The majority indicated they would join the Reserve, thought other WACs would join the Reserve, and preferred one of the traditional Army branches to a WAC branch.36

The discussion at the September conference did not change the attitude in the Office of the Director, WAC. While Colonel Boyce was on her inspection trip in the Pacific area, Colonel Woods continued to press for speedy demobilization of women and for a date for the discontinuance of the WAC. When the new G-1 of the Army, Maj. Gen. Willard S. Paul, arrived at the Pentagon in late October, Colonel Woods sent him a memorandum recommending that 14 May 1946, the fourth anniversary of the WAC, be set as the target date for total demobilization of the Corps. She also requested he announce that reserve status would be offered to "all women who [had served] honorably in the Army during the war." 37
[30]
Meanwhile, Colonel Boyce continued her inspection trip-looking into WAC health, morale, and living conditions, and into possible abuse of the demobilization regulation allowing commanders to retain specialists past their demobilization date.38 From the western Pacific, her inspection trip was extended to other areas. With her team, she visited WACs in Shanghai, China; Calcutta and Karachi, India; Cairo, Egypt; and Rome and Caserta, Italy. At Caserta, on 13 November, Colonel Boyce interrupted her trip and returned to Washington in response to a message from Colonel Woods. Members of her team completed the inspection trip as her representatives.39

The Struggle for Regular Army and Reserve Status

Colonel Woods had had sufficient cause to alert Colonel Boyce. President Truman had nominated General Eisenhower to succeed General Marshall as chief of staff; the Senate had confirmed the nomination; and General Eisenhower would occupy his new office on 19 November. Meanwhile he had notified General Paul that he wanted the question of the WAC in the postwar Army reconsidered and a plan prepared to include women in the Regular Army as well as in the Reserve. Following those instructions, the G-1 returned Colonel Woods' memorandum and told her he would present General Eisenhower's wishes to Colonel Boyce when she returned.

Colonel Boyce arrived back at the Pentagon on 19 November. General Paul returned to her the Reserve Policy Committee's plan and asked her to redo it, to come up with a detailed plan that put WACs into the Regular Army and the Organized Reserve Corps and that answered any questions that might arise .40 On the 22d, Colonel Boyce called in the WAC staff directors and senior WAC officers in the Washington, D.C., area to assist with the revisions. The group devised four plans for legislation:

Plan A. Provided for Regular Army and Reserve status for WAC commissioned officers, warrant officers, and enlisted women.
Plan B. Provided for a Women's Reserve section in the Organized Reserve Corps for WAC commissioned officers, warrant officers, and enlisted women. WACs would not be admitted into the Regular Army.
Plan C. Provided for Regular Army and Reserve status for WAC commissioned and warrant officers only.
[31]
Plan D. Provided that WAC commissioned and warrant officers and a group of enlisted women (called "Auxiliary Specialists") would serve in the Regular Army and the Reserve. 41

In early December, Colonel Boyce sent the study, with the recommendation that Plan A be approved, to the General Staff divisions; to the commanding generals of the Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Army Service Forces; to the chief of ROTC and reserve affairs; and to the head of the Legislative and Liaison Division of the War Department's Special Staff. 42

A week later comments were returned; they showed that no unanimity existed. The G-2 (Intelligence), G-3 (Operations), and the commanding general of Army Service Forces rejected inclusion of WACs in the postwar Army-Regular or Reserve. The G-1 (Personnel), G-4 (Logistics), the ROTC and Reserve Affairs chief, and the commanding generals of the Army Ground Forces and the Army Air Forces recommended inclusion of WACs in the Regular Army and the Reserve. The Legislative and Liaison Division chief believed that Congress would go along with the inclusion of WACs in the Reserve.

Colonel Boyce weighed these opinions along with, her own perceptions of women's role in the Army. Despite significant support for Plan A, she decided that Plan B, a WAC Reserve branch within the Organized Reserve Corps, was the more appropriate alternative. She wrote to General Paul that although "a small permanent corps of officers and enlisted women specialists would be the ideal plan, the time for the acceptance of it is not at hand." 43

No further action was taken in 1945. In January 1946, when G-1 division chiefs were asked to comment on a proposed speech for General Eisenhower to deliver to Congress on the 15th, Colonel Boyce took the opportunity to suggest that the chief of staff announce that the WAC was scheduled to be disbanded on 14 May and request that Congress authorize women in the Reserve. 44 Neither General Paul nor General Eisenhower agreed with her suggestion.

On 17 January, however, General Paul testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Military Demobilization. He announced that the War Department would ask for legislation to include WACs in the postwar Army. He stated that "the war has shown that the utilization of women
[32]
in time of war is a necessary and accepted fact .... The War Department will soon ask Congress to consider a request for legislation to include the Army Nurse Corps, the Physical Therapy Corps, the Dietitians Corps, and the Women's Army Corps in the Regular Army and the Organized Reserve Corps." 45

The announcement came as a complete surprise to Colonel Boyce. Although the Navy had been given advance notice of the move, she learned of it through a news release prepared at the Pentagon. General Paul had deliberately failed to coordinate the announcement with her. Colonel Boyce realized at last that War Department policy had been established on the subject.

On 5 February 1946, Chief of Staff Eisenhower charged the G-1 with the responsibility of preparing the plans and drafting the legislation to establish a Women's Army Corps in the Regular Army with concurrent Reserve Corps status. Both he and General Marshall had recognized the role women had established in the Army during World War 11. The postwar introduction of women into the Regular Army stemmed from that recognition. The idea was not to provide equal opportunity for women or to set a precedent for society; it was to relieve as many men as possible from administrative jobs so that they would be available for combat.
[33]

Endnotes

Next Chapter

Return to the Table of Contents