Chapter XII
WAC Center and WAC School
Nowhere were the changes shaking the
Corps felt more severely than at the heart of the training program, the WAC
Center and WAC School. The 1954 move from Fort Lee to Fort McClellan had placed
these organizations under the jurisdiction of the commanding general of the
Third U.S. Army, Fort McPherson, Georgia. The WAC Center commander's immediate
supervisor, however, was the post commander at Fort McClellan, and doctrine
and policy for enlisted and officer courses came from the Continental Army Command,
Fort Monroe, Virginia. Within that organizational structure, the training of
new officers and enlisted women had flourished.1
The WAC Training Battalion processed
basic trainees, reenlistees, and reservists as it had done at Fort Lee. The
WAC School operated the basic and advanced courses for officers and added a
typing and clerical procedures course and a stenography course. In 1957 the
WAC College Junior Course, too, became part of the curriculum. Headquarters
and Headquarters Company housed and administered the enlisted women who worked
throughout the WAC area and at post headquarters, Noble Army Hospital, the dental
clinic, and the Chemical Corps Training Command. The 14th Army Band (WAC) housed
and administered its members. The WAC Center commander controlled and directed
all four activities. To staff them and her own headquarters, she had approximately
100 officers and 260 enlisted women but no civilians. Except for the periods
of WAC expansion-1967, for Vietnam, and 1972, for the all-volunteer Army-few
changes occurred in these figures.2
After moving into their initial 21-building
complex, the WACs had made the area their own. To mark the 27 September 1954
dedication of the center and school, the WAC Officers Association installed
a large plaque mounted on a marble slab in a triangular area between the parade
[329]
ground and the site of the WAC chapel.
The WAC detachment in Japan contributed a Japanese stone lantern in October
1956, and it was placed in this area, known as the WAC Triangle.3
A ground-breaking ceremony for the WAC
chapel on 18 June 1955 had brought Brig. Gen. Frank Tobey, Chief of Chaplains,
and Col. Irene O. Galloway, DWAC, to the center. The chaplains at Fort McClellan
provided a silver-plated spade for the event and later presented it to the WAC
Museum. A few months later, on 28 September, at the ceremony for the laying
of the cornerstone, a copper box containing items used by WACs was encased in
the stone. The WAC detachments in the Fifth Army area donated a set of canto
chimes to the chapel and Chapter 1, Chicago, WAC Veterans' Association, contributed
a bronze dedication plaque, unveiled at the dedication on 12 May 1956. Several
years later (1964), the then chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. Charles E. Brown,
Jr., allotted $20,000 from the Chaplains' Fund to install stained-glass windows
in the chapel-the high, stained-glass window in the back of the chapel includes
a large Pallas Athene insignia and the coat of arms of the WAC School.4
Because of its large seating capacity, the chapel became the site of orientation
and graduation exercises for basic trainees, clerical students, and student
officers. And, even though attendance at church services was voluntary, the
chapel attracted capacity crowds. Enlisted men found the chapel a pleasant place
to attend services and to become acquainted with the women. On 4 November 1978,
the post commander (Maj. Gen. Mary E. Clarke) issued a general order officially
naming the chapel the WAC Memorial Chapel. 5
The post engineers added a reviewing
stand to the WAC parade ground in October 1958 in time for a regimental parade
welcoming the visit of Col. Kim Hyun Sook, Director, Women's Army Corps, Republic
of Korea. In 1960, the parade ground was named in honor of General of the Army
George C. Marshall, who had requested the formation of the Corps in 1941. The
next year, the engineers built a corner fence made of native Alabama fieldstone
on the southwestern edge of the parade ground for the name plaque, "George
C. Marshall Parade Ground."6
Buildings and other landmarks honored
the memory of other individuals who had contributed to the success of the WAC.
WAC School Headquarters (Building 1081) was named for Brig. Gen. Don C. Faith,
who had commanded the First and Second WAAC Training Centers at
[330]
Fort Des Moines and at Daytona Beach,
as well as the WAAC Training Command, during World War II. General Faith's widow,
Katherine Faith, attended the ceremony on 23 November 1963. The serenity of
the event was marred by the news of the death of John F. Kennedy. A memorial
service for the president had been held at the chapel on the night of the 22d.7
On 13 May 1957, Rice Road, running from
Fort McClellan's North Gate to WAC Center Headquarters (Building 1060), was
named for Lt. Col. Jessie P. Rice, the deputy director of the WAC from March
1944 to April 1945. In 1963, Col. Irene O. Galloway succumbed to cancer, and
Fort McClellan's North Gate and North Gate Road, which led directly into and
through the WAC area, were renamed Galloway Gate and Galloway Gate Road. The
only WAC to have a building named for her was Sgt. Maj. Florence G. Munson.
The headquarters and classroom building for the WAC Training Battalion (Building
2281) was dedicated in her honor on 29 October 1965. She died in 1964, after
serving as sergeant major of the battalion from 1959 to 1964. Through this process
of naming buildings and roads, bonds of tradition and shared memories gradually
enveloped the WAC site at Fort McClellan.8
In 1952, WAC officers at Fort Lee had
organized the WAC Officers Association as a nonappropriated fund activity (i.e.,
not supported by government funds) to raise funds to accomplish morale-building
projects. The association's members supported its projects through membership
dues, white elephant auctions, and fund-raising parties. The association moved
with WAC Center to Fort McClellan. In 1971, the group changed its name to the
WAC Association and accepted as members enlisted women in the top four grades.
For twenty-four years, the association served recreational, social, charitable,
and morale needs at WAC Center and School. It bought furniture, air conditioners,
cooking utensils, and other equipment to improve enlisted and junior officer
quarters, and it paid for nice-to-have items for special ceremonies and parties
for the women at WAC Center and School. Members dissolved the group in 1976
when the WAC Center and School deactivated and voted to transfer its assets
to the WAC Foundation to help construct the WAC Museum building. 9
[331]
Another organization that frequently
contributed to projects for increasing morale at the WAC Center and School was
the National WAC Veterans Association. The idea for this group came from the
National WAC Mothers Association that had chapters in sixty cities throughout
the United States during World War II. On 14 May 1946, a board appointed from
members of the Chicago chapter formed the Chicago WAC Veterans Association.
Women in Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh soon followed the lead
of the Chicago veterans. Membership grew, and members held their first convention
in Cleveland in March 1947. Four years later, Lt. Col. Mary-Agnes Brown Groover,
a lawyer and a WAC reservist, presented the articles of incorporation for the
national association to Esther Bentley, the association's president. The National
WAC VETS Honor Guard, established in 1951, still regularly represents WAC veterans
at ceremonies in Washington and other cities throughout the United States. The
organization's bimonthly newsletter, the Channel, keeps members informed
not only of meetings, but of VA benefits, WAC activities, and other items of
interest.10
The WAC VETS Association promotes the
general welfare of all veterans but concentrates on assisting veterans of the
WAAC and the WAC, particularly those in adverse circumstances. Many chapters
devote their activities to providing services for veterans in Veterans Administration
hospitals. The association also supports a number of nonprofit organizations,
including the WAC Foundation; the WAC Veterans Redwood Memorial Grove, Big Basin
Redwoods State Park, California; the Hospitalized Veterans Writing Project (creative
writing for recreation and therapy); and the Cathedral in the Pines Memorial,
Ringe, New Hampshire, a memorial to the dead of World War II. On 30 October
1984, President Ronald Reagan signed H.R. 4966 giving the WAC VETS Association
a federal charter and national recognition as a veterans' organization. 11
The third organization of importance
to the WAC is the WAC Foundation, established as a nonprofit corporation under
the laws of the state of Alabama in July 1969. Authorized by the post commander
to operate at Fort McClellan, the WAC Foundation succeeded in raising almost
$400,000 to build the WAC Museum. After the building was constructed and dedicated
on 13 May 1977, the WAC Foundation gave it to the Army which now operates it
with government funds. The WAC Foundation continues to raise money to purchase
equipment and services for the WAC Museum and to educate the public on the past
and present role of women in the Army. It issues a biannual newsletter, the
Flagpole, and conducts a WAC Museum Reunion in May of every even year.12
[332]
In size and mission, WAC Center with
its subordinate activities WAC School, WAC Training Battalion, and Headquarters
and Headquarters Company-was the equivalent of a regiment or a brigade and was
organized along brigade lines. The 14th Army Band (WAC) belonged to Third Army
but, operationally, it also came under the center commander. The commander's
staff included a deputy commander, an S-1 (personnel officer) and adjutant;
an S-2 (intelligence officer) combined with the S-3 (training officer); an S-4
(supply officer); a management officer; and an information officer. The staff
developed and implemented plans and policies to manage and distribute the commander's
resources to perform her various missions. Each staff member had a counterpart
in the school, training battalion, and Headquarters and Headquarters Company.
Because of the need to encourage young officers to enter the Regular Army, and
to groom other Regular Army officers for the positions of director and deputy
director, WAC, the Corps usually filled the staff positions with regular rather
than with reserve officers on extended active duty. The WAC Center was the only
Army command of brigade size that required and assigned women in such staff
and command positions, and women prized assignment in them. Col. Dorotha J.
Garrison was the only reserve officer to command WAC Center (1970-1972).
WAC Center did differ from most Army
brigades in one way-it was commanded by a lieutenant colonel until 1968. After
the elimination of restrictions on women officers' promotions in 1967, the WAC
Center commander's position was elevated to the grade of colonel, along with
the positions of deputy commander of WAC Center and assistant commandant of
WAC School.
Few men filled WAC Center or WAC School
positions until 1973. Occasionally, male cooks worked in the mess halls, and
during one year (1962), a male NCO, Sgt. 1st Cl. Harold Fitzgerald, taught in
the WAC Typing and Clerical Procedures Course at WAC School. Only the chaplain
assigned to the WAC Center chapel provided a continuing male presence. The women
took great pride in their ability to operate the center and gave up these spaces
to men as reluctantly as men gave up such positions to women. Only the WAC expansion
that began in 1972 finally forced the center to requisition male NCOs to fill
vacancies. On 5 September 1973, the first male drill sergeants were assigned
to the 2d and 3d WAC Basic Training Battalions. In 1974, WAC Center accepted
its first male staff officers.13
[333]
LT. COL. ELEANORE
C. SULLIVAN (1952-1955) turns over command of WAC Center and WAC School,
Fort McClellan, to Lt. Col. F. Marie Clark (19551956) on 24 June 1955.
In the WAC hierarchy, the dual position
of commander of the WAC Center and commandant of the WAC School held importance
and prestige second only to the position of the director of the WAC. Of fifteen
WAC Center commanders between 1948 and 1976, two, Elizabeth P. Hoisington and
Mary E. Clarke, and one deputy commander, Mildred C. Bailey, advanced to the
director's position.14
Perhaps no WAC Center commander had
greater responsibilities than Lt. Col. Eleanore C. Sullivan. She and her staff
carried out the move to Fort McClellan, a job that included moving personnel
and equipment, commencing training at the new site, establishing community relations
in the Anniston area, entertaining hundreds of visitors at the new facility,
participating in parades and ceremonies, and keeping up the morale and welfare
of WACs at both sites. On 20 January 1955, the colors flew for the first time
from the flagpole at WAC Center headquarters. Colonel Sullivan also launched
a three-year landscape beautification program and
[334]
| LT.
COL. MARJORIE C. POWER |
|
LT. COL. LUCILE G. ODBERT |
established the WAC Museum. The museum
at first occupied one room of her headquarters building and later was moved
to a wing of the basic trainees' classroom building, where each trainee and
student could pass through and see photographs, uniforms, paintings, and documents
that told the history of their Corps.15
Lt. Col. F. Marie Clark, who succeeded
Colonel Sullivan in 1955, streamlined the organizational structure by eliminating
some duplicative positions in subordinate activities. She activated a reception
company in the WAC Training Battalion and gave it responsibility for welcoming,
orienting, outfitting, and processing newly arrived WAC recruits. Thus, for
the first time since World War II, the recruits entered a reception company
before being assigned to their basic training unit. Lack of space forced the
center to suspend this system in 1957, but in January 1963, it was revived with
the creation of Headquarters and Receiving Company, WAC Training Battalion.
These functions remained in the battalion until February 1973, when the post
commander activated the U.S. Army Reception Station.
[335]
In the spring of 1956, Colonel Clark
reintroduced WAC field training, which had been suspended since 1953, when heavy
storms destroyed the outdoor training area at Fort Lee. By far the most popular
phase of basic training, it taught recruits first aid, map reading, camouflage,
civil defense, and familiarity with the M 1 carbine. In 1961, field training
was expanded to include overnight exercises. Thereafter, unit commanders happily
noted that the women returned from field training with a greater feeling of
team spirit and will to succeed than they had had before.16
During Lt. Col. Frances M. Lathrope's
tour, field testing of the new Army green cord summer uniform began and fitting
tests got under way on the women's Army green winter uniform. Colonel Lathrope,
who served as WAC Center commander from 1956 to 1958, boosted the morale of
members of WAC Training Battalion's cadre and staff by allowing them to wear
a distinctive yellow cotton scarf with their winter duty uniform. Battalion
members became so fond of the scarf that in 1959, the then center commander,
Lt. Col. Lucile G. Odbert, obtained official approval for it. The College Junior
Program commenced at WAC School on 14 July 1957 as nineteen cadets entered the
first class. Also women officers of foreign military armies began attending
officer courses at WAC School beginning in August 1956. Between 1957 and 1972,
when the WAC Officer Basic Course was discontinued, 112 foreign students attended
the course as well.17
Between 1958 and 1960, the number of
recruits entering WAC basic training jumped from 2,715 to 3,220. As usual, the
input peaked between June and October, driving the trainee load over the programmed
level for these months-a challenge to Lt. Col. Marjorie C. Power, who commanded
WAC Center in 1958 and 1959. The WAC Center historian described the emergency.
"The housing shortage was only one of the problems. The battalion mess
had to feed in shifts. Training facilities were overtaxed and trainers overworked.
Battalion was forced to borrow personnel from Headquarters and Headquarters
Company and the WAC School to act as cadre."18
One of the major problems that Colonel Power encountered was the shortage of
the brown and white seersucker exercise suit. Both recruits and clerical training
students wore this uniform (shirt, shorts, skirt) to classes daily. As an emergency
measure, the quartermaster general substituted a blue exercise suit worn by
the WAFs. Later in 1958, the WACs' newly designed tan, three-piece, cotton exercise
suit became available and was issued at WAC Center. Thus, after
[336]
| LT.
COL. SUE LYNCH |
|
LT. COL. ELIZABETH H. BRANCH |
| COL.
SHIRLEY R HEINZE |
|
COL.
LORRAINE A. ROSSI |
[337]
1958, it was not unusual for a unit
in training to have women dressed in brown, blue, or tan. The combination led
some to describe the center's appearance as "molting." In March 1959,
the Army green cord summer uniform was issued, adding yet another shade to the
assortment of colors. A year later, however, uniformity returned. Trainees and
students now wore the tan exercise suit to classes and the green cord to parades
and inspections. At WAC School, Colonel Power shifted the emphasis from lecture
to student participation in the WAC Officer's Advanced Course and organized
a section to develop WAC training films for WAC basic trainee, clerical student,
and student officer courses.19
Colonel Power retired in September 1959
and was succeeded by Lt. Col. Lucile G. Odbert. To increase the prestige of
enlisted women, she enlarged the WAC NCO Advisory Council, which had been established
in November 1955, and included on it all WAC E-8s and E-9s assigned to Fort
McClellan. The senior NCO at WAC Center headquarters, in 1959 M. Sgt. Julia
Vargo, chaired the council. The council developed ideas to improve the operation
of WAC Center and WAC School, operated the WAC-of-the-Month program, and promoted
the sports program. The latter included intramural and regional competition
in softball, basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis, bowling, small games, and
marksmanship. WAC Center, with more women to select from, frequently won top
sports prizes within Third Army area. In 1960, for example, WAC Center won first
place in the Third Army Golf Tournament for the second consecutive year; 1st
Lt. Sallie L.E. Carroll won first place in the Slow Fire .22-Caliber Rifle Matches
at Tampa, Florida; and a team including Lieutenant Carroll, 1st Lt. Joyce W.
O'Claire, Sgt. 1st Cl. Marian C. Jamieson, and Sgt. Credessa W. Williams took
first place in the sharpshooter events at the Central Regional Pistol Matches
at Fort Knox, Kentucky, defeating male teams in the .22- and .45-caliber team
matches.
The advent of proficiency pay presented
a problem for women assigned as cadre and instructors at WAC Center because
they were not eligible for proficiency pay while in those positions. Colonel
Odbert set out to resolve the difficulty. In March 1960, she wrote to the adjutant
general (TAG), through channels, and asked that women who qualified for proficiency
pay in their primary MOSs be authorized to receive it while assigned at WAC
Center and WAC School. TAG denied the exception because it might invite others
and, instead, advised that women who would lose proficiency pay not be assigned
to the center. Colonel Odbert had already rejected that solution. Such a practice
would have excluded some of the best WAC NCOs and denied them promotion opportunities.
TAG tried to develop a standard MOS for WAC training cadre and military subject
instructors but, when this proved to be impractical, advised the center commander
to assign women in personnel and
[338]
administrative MOSS to the instructor
and cadre spaces. Most women held these MOSs and could continue to receive proficiency
pay if assigned in them. This complex arrangement continued until December 1971,
when the DCSPER authorized WACs to attend the Army Drill Sergeants School. There
WACs could earn the MOSS required for assignment to instructor and cadre spaces.20
Under the next center commander, Lt.
Col. Sue Lynch, the WAC School took a more prominent role in the formulation
of doctrine and policy in WAC training matters. An educator in civilian life,
Colonel Lynch broadened the faculty training program and improved the quality
of instructors and instruction at the center and school. Faculty members responded
by revising their lesson plans to present their material in more interesting
and more understandable ways and by improving their training aids. In May 1962,
CONARC gave WAC School the authority to approve changes in the basic training
program. In 1963, WAC Center hired its first civilian, a librarian for the WAC
School. Throughout the period, WAC School's Doctrine and Literature Division,
headed by Lt. Col. Mary Charlotte Lane, produced a prodigious amount of statistical
analyses, training films, historical studies, handbooks, and a text entitled
The Role of the WAC. When Colonel Lynch retired, she had served longer
as commander than anyone before or after her. Lt. Col. Elizabeth P. Hoisington
replaced her on 1 October 1964.21
Colonel Hoisington further improved
the training programs for recruits and student officers and the facilities at
the WAC Center. To the field training program she added a silent night march,
more realistic air defense and civil defense exercises, and a two-hour course
on unarmed self-defense. The latter served at least in part to replace the weapons
familiarization and firing course. That course had been deleted by CONARC from
the field training program in 1963 on the grounds that the new M14 rifle, which
had replaced the carbine and weighed one pound more, was too heavy for women.
That change had eliminated weapons training from the women's program. To the
Leadership Orientation Course, initiated in 1963 to develop leaders among recruits,
Colonel Hoisington added two more hours of theory; in 1973, the course was replaced
by the Special Leadership Program that had the same objectives. In March 1966,
CONARC introduced an Army training test (ATT 21-3, Individual Proficiency in
Basic Military Subjects, WAC) that measured the level of learning achieved by
each trainee in each basic training subject. And, also beginning in 1966, WAC
School accepted male stu-
[339]
RETREAT CEREMONY AT
HOISINGTON WALK, WAC CENTER, 30 July 1970. Brig. Gen. Elizabeth P. Hoisington
with Cols. Maxene B. Michl, Dorotha J. Garrison, and Georgia D. Hill (left
to right).
dents in the enlisted clerical courses
when class space was available. The men lived in barracks on main post but ate
their noon meal with the WACs.
At Colonel Hoisington's insistence,
the post commander built a cement walk down the steep incline from her headquarters
to the battalion area in November 1965. Officially named South Walk, the post
engineer put a sign at the bottom and unofficially designated it "Hoisington
Walk." But, in addition to introducing new ideas into the WAC Center and
the WAC School and causing new walkways to be built, Colonel Hoisington also
continued traditional activities such as march-out on Tuesday mornings, regimental
parades on Saturday mornings, WAC-of-the-Quarter (formerly of-the-Month) selections,
the annual WAC anniversary torchlight parade from the battalion to the Hilltop
Service Club, the WAC Drill Team, and the sports program. She added an Arbor
Day tree planting, a cost-
[340]
consciousness program, and a more active
social and sports program for the officers.22
In 1966, after Colonel Hoisington left
to become director of the WAC, Lt. Col. Elizabeth H. Branch, then assistant
commandant of the WAC School, replaced her. A new discharge regulation issued
that year created disciplinary problems from which the center had virtually
been free since it opened. The new regulation required recruits who were unsuitable
for additional training to be "recycled" (turned back to repeat their
earlier training) before any discharge action could be initiated. Heretofore,
the battalion commander had decided whether a recruit's performance and attitude
warranted additional training. When the new regulation was implemented at WAC
Center, many of those scheduled for recycling went AWOL rather than participate
in additional training when all they wanted from the Army was a discharge. The
WAC Center historian wrote: "The AWOL rate among WAC trainees was negligible
from January through July 1966 (.31 %). Upon implementation of the new recycling
requirement, it rose to . . . 18.7%."23
The AWOL rate continued to rise, and Colonel Branch recommended, through channels,
that the regulation be modified so that recycling could be waived for obstreperous
or unmotivated trainees. The Department of the Army agreed, and in October 1968,
the regulation was revised so that, upon the recommendation of a judge advocate
general, the commander could waive counseling and recycling procedures for certain
recruits. The WAC Center's AWOL rate fell from 31 percent to 8.3 percent for
the third quarter of 1968 and to 2.26 percent in the fourth quarter.24
Secretary of the Army Resor's decision
in May 1967 to increase WAC strength by 35 percent to support the Vietnam War
had caused the number of new arrivals to soar at the WAC Center and WAC School.
Throughout her tenure, Colonel Branch and her staff continuously developed and
revised plans to train more recruits, clerical students, and officers than ever
before. The addition of another basic training company (Company E) in 1968 relieved
overcrowding, but, throughout this period, the instructors and cadre had to
manage double loads of recruits and students. A WAC NCO Leadership Course was
inaugurated at WAC School in January 1968 to obtain more trained NCO leaders
for duty at Fort McClellan and in the WAC field detachments. This four-week
course prepared women in grades E-4 and above as cadre and as supervisors. The
training battalion dining hall that could seat 400 women at one time began operating
on shifts during the summer and set a record on 1 September 1968 by feeding
1,340 women at one meal. The Headquarters
[340]
and Headquarters Company mess hall frequently
fed the overflow from the training battalion dining ha11.25
Despite expansion problems, the WAC
Center celebrated some special occasions in 1967. Over thirty members of the
DACOWITS arrived in April to tour the facilities. They were followed by a training
inspection team from Third Army that reported "instructor and supervisory
personnel [at WAC School] were both knowledgeable and enthusiastic," and
that "the heavy training overload is being managed effectively . . . [with]
no adverse effect on the quality of training."26
On 14 May, four WAC directors, Colonels Hallaren, Rasmuson, Gorman, and Hoisington,
joined a week-long celebration marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Corps.
Highlighting these events was a retreat ceremony at the foot of Hoisington Walk
that featured fifty trainees lining the walk holding their state flags while
the garrison flag was lowered and the WAC Band played the national anthem. The
center historian wrote: "The 1200 members of the Women's Army Corps who
participated in this retreat ceremony realized that sharing the experience with
the present and former directors of their Corps made it a special and unusual
occasion." 27
On 18 July of that year, Fort McClellan celebrated its fiftieth anniversary,
and on 25 September, the WAC School marked its fifteenth year as an Army school.
Lt. Col. Maxene Baker Michl replaced
Colonel Branch in August 1968. Colonel Michl had served in Vietnam (1966-1967)
and most recently had been the WAC staff adviser to the Fourth Army (1967-1968).
When she arrived at WAC Center, the program to expand the WAC was in full acceleration.
The heavy input of trainees was overloading classrooms, instructors' schedules,
transportation facilities, and barracks. Closed-circuit TV was installed in
classrooms and barracks and soon helped reduce the instructors' platform time
and the cadre's night working hours. Colonel Michl also introduced a one-hour
evening study hall to ensure quiet time in the overcrowded barracks; group study
replaced it the following year when review lessons were shown on barracks televisions.
And, although the WAC had not experienced any drug problems, Colonel Michl added
a two-hour block on drug abuse to the basic training curriculum. Before the
end of 1968, she also introduced self paced instruction in the enlisted courses,
and by May 1969, this method had replaced the conventional instructor-taught
methods in the Clerical Typing and Procedures Course (MOS 71B) and the Stenography
Course (MOS 71C). It was also used in the Personnel Specialists Course (MOS
[342]
THE FIRST WAC CENTER
AND WAC SCHOOL COMMANDER/COMMANDANT to hold the rank of full colonel.
Col. Maxene B. Michl's silver eagles are pinned on by Maj. Gen. Joseph R.
Russ, Deputy Commander, Third Army, and Col. William A. McKean, Commander,
Fort McClellan, 4 December 1968.
71 H), which was added to the school's
schedule of courses in September 1969.28
With too many students, the school was obliged to make the students their own
instructors.
A surge of racial protests and disturbances
in U.S. cities in 1968 led Colonel Michl to introduce a series of lectures and
seminars on black studies in the officer courses. A black WAC officer, Lt. Col.
Williemae M. Oliver, Director of Instruction, developed and conducted the initial
program. Colonel Michl also established an ad hoc Committee on Race Relations
at WAC Center and WAC School in January 1970 and added a three-hour course in
race relations to the WAC basic training program in May.29
Several conspicuous individual firsts
also occurred at WAC Center during Colonel Michl's tour. On 30 March 1968, Sgt.
Maj. Yzetta L. Nelson, assigned to WAC Training Battalion, became the first
WAC
[343]
NEWLY PROMOTED COMD.
SGTS. MAJ. YZETTA L. NELSON AND CURTIS S. RAMSAY, Fort MClellan, 8 April
1968.
promoted to the new rank of command
sergeant major. On 31 July, the sergeant major of WAC Center, Elaine I. Slewitzke,
became the second WAC to achieve that rank. In a ceremony at the WAC Center
auditorium on 4 December 1968, Colonel Michl was promoted and became the first
WAC Center commander to hold the rank of colonel.30
The next year, in July, Colonel Michl formed the WAC Foundation, and, in September,
she obtained approval from the Department of the Army to publish the WAC Journal
to disseminate news and information of career interest to WAC officers and enlisted
women.31
In 1970, Col. Dorotha J. Garrison, who
had been deputy commander at the WAC Center for a year, succeeded Colonel Michl.
The influx of trainees continued, increasing each year during the Vietnam buildup.
The number of basic trainees jumped from 4,124 in 1967 to 7,139 in 1972. In
consequence, shortages of cadre, instructors, cooks, and housing plagued the
center. To alleviate these problems, Colonel Garrison and her staff initiated
a number of actions. Selected privates, first class, and corporals received
training to be assistant platoon sergeants; the battalion gave cadre and instructor
training to women newly assigned these duties; and, at the center commander's
request, the Department of the Army approved conversion of all the E-7 (sergeant,
first class) platoon sergeant
[344]
positions to E-7 drill sergeant positions
in that MOS. Thereafter, women ordered to fill these positions first attended
drill sergeants' school.32
Other changes included sending new recruits
directly to their basic training units during peak periods, rather than processing
them at Headquarters and Receiving Company. WAC Center's Headquarters and Headquarters
Company moved to a larger building on post (Building 3131) in January 1971 and
turned over its former quarters to the training battalion, which then, in February,
activated its sixth unit, Company F Provisional.33
To relieve the mess hall problems, KPs continued to report for duty in two (rather
than one) shifts (0400 to 1230 and 1030 to 1900); the battalion opened another
mess hall for trainees (Building 2203); and later, in 1972, after a study proved
it more economical, the Army hired cooks on contract to replace military cooks
at Fort McClellan.34
In anticipation of further WAC expansion, the post commander, Col. William A.
McKean, instructed Colonel Garrison to prepare a plan to accommodate thousands
more recruits beginning in 1972. Colonel Garrison proposed creating a second
and later a third basic training battalion and a reception station apart from
the battalion. CONARC and the Department of the Army approved both concepts
and later provided funds to construct or rehabilitate buildings to accommodate
them. WAC Center activated the 2d and 3d WAC Basic Training Battalions in September
1972.35
That year, CONARC ordered discontinuation of the WAC Officer Advanced Course,
the clerical training courses, and the NCO leadership courses.36
These changes further alleviated overcrowding, and, thereafter, women received
this training at other centers and schools.
At the peak of this activity, the last
WAC Officers Advanced Course class (XIX) graduated on 7 July 1972, with sixteen
WAC officers and seven foreign students (four from Vietnam, two from Indonesia,
and one from the Philippines). WAC officers thereafter attended advanced courses
at other branch schools. Speaking to the graduates, Maj. Gen. Ira A. Hunt, Jr.,
who had been deeply involved in the training aspects of the WAC expansion, outlined
the changes occurring in the Corps and explained the reasons for them:
[345]
COMD. SGT. MAJ. BETTY
J. BENSON, one of the first WAC graduates of the Sergeants Major Academy,
Fort Bliss, June 1973.
We have opened avenues to women across
the board to insure that they can get the training which will make them competitive
with men. Because no matter what you say, if the women don't have the training,
they can't get out and perform the job. So, in summary, . . . we can say that
the Army is breaking the barriers to full participation by women . . . that
discrimination is out; that institutional barriers are being removed; and having
done this, hopefully, ingrained inhibitions will be eroded.37
The last class (X) of the WAC NCO Leadership
Course graduated 41 students on 17 May 1972. Between 1968 and 1972, 380 women
had graduated from the course. Thereafter, enlisted women participated in the
Noncommissioned Officer Educational System that provided progressive training
at service schools and NCO academies at all skill levels. Both the Department
of the Army and the major commanders scheduled enlisted personnel for resident,
extension, and on-the-job training courses, ranging from primary technical courses
to the sergeants major course. The first WACs to graduate from the U.S. Army
Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, were Class I (June 1973), M. Sgt.
Betty J. Benson; Class III (June 1974), M. Sgts. Helen I. Johnston and Dorothy
J. Rechel. All later achieved the rank of command sergeant major, the highest
enlisted grade in the Army.38
[346]
On 23 August 1972, the remaining students
graduated from the WAC Clerical Typing and Procedures Course (MOS 71B), the
Stenography Course (MOS 71C), and the Personnel Specialists Course (MOS 71H).
In the future, WACs attended these MOS courses at other Army training centers
and schools to qualify in these skills. The Clerical Training Company was deactivated
on 5 October 1972.39
An eleven-week WAC Officer Orientation
Course (WOOC) for student officers and officer candidates replaced the WAC Officer
Basic Course/Officer Candidate Course (WOBC/OCC) on 1 January 1973. Upon completion
of the orientation course, the women attended an officers basic branch course
at another service school (Quartermaster, Military Police, Signal, etc.). The
average length of the courses was nine weeks. The last WOBC/OCC Class (XLII),
159 student officers and 7 officer candidates, graduated on 15 December 1972.40
Discontinuance of the courses at WAC
School provided office, barracks, and classroom space for the 2d WAC Basic Training
Battalion, which immediately occupied the vacated buildings. The 3d WAC Training
Battalion was activated in September 1972 in the area vacated by transfer of
the Chemical School training activities to other stations. A former officers
mess in the basic training area was opened to provide an additional facility
to feed up to 400 more trainees at a sitting. The WAC presence now occupied
more area of the post that it ever had before or would again.
While somewhat insulated from the racial
strife which confronted the country in the 1960s and early 1970s, WAC Center
and WAC School reflected society at large. On Saturday, 13 November 1971, those
institutions experienced racial conflict.41
Near midnight a group of black and white enlisted women (primarily clerical
training students at WAC School) and enlisted men from various units on post
left the Enlisted Men/Enlisted Women's Club (EM/EW Club) and prepared to board
Army buses to return to their barracks. As the group boarded a bus, the white
military driver allegedly said he would not take any blacks on the bus. The
blacks left and boarded the second bus, where they allegedly demanded that all
the whites get off. By this time, the first bus had left, and the whites would
have had no transportation. An altercation ensued. A military police car, standing
by to escort the club manager to the bank with his deposit, radioed for assistance.
[347]
Before assistance arrived, a group of
about sixty black men and women left the area on foot, shouting and chanting.
They marched through the main section of the post, damaged some cars along the
route, and generally impeded traffic. A car that pushed its way through the
crowd injured several marchers who had refused to move out of its way. An ambulance
removed the injured, and the crowd followed it to the post hospital about a
half-mile away. They left when hospital officials assured them that none of
their friends were seriously injured. The crowd then moved to the WAC School
area, another half-mile away. A number of the black women entered the women's
barracks, awakened the sleeping women, and encouraged them to join the group.
Many did. The group continued this process through the WAC area. Several MP
cars followed the group but did not impede its progress as it continued a noisy
march around the post. About 0400, the demonstrators tired and returned to their
barracks. The next afternoon, they met at the Hilltop Service Club near the
WAC area, discussed the night's events and their problems. They posted guards
who kept white men and women from entering the club. Late in the afternoon,
they moved en masse to the EM/EW Club and refused to leave it when ordered at
2130 hours, but they left voluntarily an hour and a half later.
The next morning, Monday, approximately
thirty black students at WAC School refused to report to their classes. Instead,
they walked to a baseball field near the center of the main post where they
joined many other black enlisted personnel. The group refused to disperse and
demanded that the post commander and unit commanders meet with them to discuss
a list of grievances. While this meeting was in progress, a white female reporter
from the local newspaper was assaulted by a group of black WACs because she
refused to stop taking notes during the meeting. At this point, the post commander
used 700 troops to apprehend and arrest approximately 139 demonstrators; 68
were black enlisted women. The Anniston city jail accommodated the women until
16 November when the military police moved them back to the post to a makeshift
confinement barracks guarded by WACs. The men were confined in the post stockade
and other jails in the area.
Within a month, the post commander and
WAC Center commander disposed of the charges. Of the 68 women confined, 2 were
promptly released because they had not been involved in the incident; 9 were
discharged; 46 were transferred from WAC Center or WAC School; and 11 remained
at WAC School to complete their clerical courses.
An investigation revealed that earlier
confrontations had preceded the demonstration. On Saturday, 7 November, about
100 black enlisted men and women had met with managers of the Hilltop Service
Club to ask why that club, predominately patronized by black service personnel,
did not hire black dance bands, had no soul music in the jukeboxes, and did
not have a black service club director. When the club employees could
[348]
not provide satisfactory answers, the
group asked for a conference with the post chaplain. When he arrived for the
scheduled meeting, however, they refused to talk to him because he was white.
They did, however, discuss their grievances with a male black major who accompanied
the chaplain at the request of the post commander, Col. William A. McKean. The
group discussed with the major the many inequities they suffered, particularly
regarding promotions and military justice, and they reported that their unit
commanders did not respond to their requests for information or assistance.
They asked for a meeting with the post commander. At that meeting, on the afternoon
of 13 November, Colonel McKean listened to their grievances and promised to
provide them with answers to their questions and resolve their problems at a
meeting scheduled for 16 November. The incident at the EM/EW Club occurred a
few hours later.
Immediately after the incident, Colonel
McKean ordered racial committees established in every unit, male and WAC, at
Fort McClellan. Each unit sent representatives to councils established at battalion,
school, and center levels where complaints could be aired, investigated, and
resolved. WAC Center had established such a council in 1970.
At the time of the incident, the WAC
School's Clerical Training Company (the unit home of most of the women demonstrators)
held 373 women of whom 20.8 percent were black. The barracks were full but not
overcrowded. Because training was conducted under the self-pace method, in which
each student progressed at her own rate, it was difficult to develop a unified
class spirit, the basis for good morale. (The inability to generate such feeling
was a frequent criticism of the self-pace method.) The company was supervised
by a commander, executive officer, first sergeant, supply sergeant, and five
platoon sergeants. The investigation report stated: "At least two weeks
prior to the incident almost complete racial polarization was effected among
the students in CTC, resulting in a complete breakdown of discipline and worsening
racial tensions. Black leaders undoubtedly contributed to the problem."
Although the unit commander and her staff knew the situation, the report continued,
they had taken no effective corrective action. During the demonstration, unit
officers and NCOs had failed to control the women, to establish dialogue with
the dissidents, or to show concern for their welfare. This lack of action had
worsened the situation. As a result of this report and her personal investigation
of the events, Colonel Garrison relieved the unit's commander, executive officer,
and first sergeant and replaced them.
The report concluded that throughout
the events preceding, during, and after the incident, the post commander and
WAC Center commander had acted with compassion, restraint, and concern and were
held blameless for the incident. The local newspapers and radio stations received
frequent, open, and detailed reports of the demonstration but had insisted upon
admittance of a reporter. The incident received meager national
[349]
publicity. The Third Army report summed
up the cause and solution to the incident:
From the onset of the Fort McClellan
experience, it became forcefully self evident that the good will, good intentions,
and total commitment of senior commanders to assuring equal treatment for personnel
are not enough to eliminate the racial problem. Many necessary actions were
indicated as a result of the racial disturbance but of all the lessons learned
or relearned, the need to improve communications upwards as well as down with
the young soldiers, and especially the young black soldiers, through the chain
of command, is most apparent." 42
On 1 October 1972, Colonel Garrison
retired and the director of the WAC selected Col. Mary E. Clarke, a former WAC
Training Battalion commander, to be the commander/commandant of the WAC Center
and WAC School. By this time, the WAC expansion campaign was well under way.
New arrivals during 1971 had averaged 360 recruits a month but rose during 1972
to 590 a month. The success of the new recruiting effort pleased Army planners,
but at WAC Center, where housing, classrooms, and personnel resources were strained
to the limit, it was a time of controlled panic. A parody composed and sung
by the training center cadre told the story.43
The WAC Center Lament
(To the tune of "On Top of
Old Smokey")
Down here at WAC Center, in August
last year
The general told us, "Expansion
is here."
She smiled and said, "Do it.
I do not care how.
It must be done quickly, so get
started now."
Headquarters is buzzing, with orders
and such.
DA gives direction but not very
much.
USAREC sends us trainees, they
come by the pack.
Last week we were busy, so we sent
them all back.
[350]
There's one NCO here for each thousand
troops.
Is it any wonder they all have
the "droops?"
For eighteen hours daily they toil
at their task.
Just how they can do it, I'd rather
not ask.
There are no replacements for those
of us here,
So we've all been extended for
at least ten more years.
So come all you women, come listen
to me.
It will be better in seventy-three.
We'll know what we're doing, we'll
get the job done.
Then we'll look back and laugh
and say "Wasn't it fun?"
[At the end, all responded with
a heartfelt and loud, "NO!"]
The huge influx of trainees forced the
new WAC Center commander to relocate more units and offices. WAC School, reduced
now to the College Junior Course and the WAC Officer Orientation Course, moved
its offices, classrooms, and student housing to buildings vacated by the Chemical
School. Meanwhile, the 2d WAC Basic Training Battalion, activated 17 September
1972, took over the WAC School (Faith Hall) for its headquarters and classrooms,
and the recruits moved into the quarters of the Clerical Training Company. The
battalion consisted of four companies, each with five platoons. Ten days later
the 3d WAC Basic Training Battalion opened with five companies, four platoons
each. It was located approximately one mile from WAC Center headquarters at
a site where the Chemical Training Command had conducted advanced individual
training and housed its students. Named "Tigerland," the area contained
old, one-story, wooden barracks that the women scrubbed, painted, and beautified
to the best of their ability with the help of male volunteers from the 548th
Service and Supply Battalion. Another major unit, Headquarters Battalion, was
activated in January 1973 in the WAC area. It supervised the Staff and Faculty
Company (permanent party instructors and administrative staff), the Special
Training Company that conducted remedial instruction for trainees, the Student
Officer Company that administered and out-processed women who failed to graduate
from one of the courses, and the 14th Army Band (WAC). Although the band moved
to a four-story building on post in September 1973, it remained under Headquarters
Battalion.44
As a result of a major reorganization
of the Department of the Army in 1973, several changes occurred in the relationships
between WAC Center, Fort McClellan, Third Army, CONARC, and the Department of
the Army. On 1 July 1973, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)
absorbed CONARC and the Combat Developments Command. A new command, the U.S.
Forces Command (FORSCOM) at
[351]
Fort McPherson, Georgia, absorbed the
missions of the Third U.S. Army and CONARC's readiness and reserve component
responsibilities. CONARC and Third Army were deactivated. Meanwhile, at Fort
McClellan a decision by the chief of staff to merge Chemical and Ordnance branches
caused discontinuance of the Chemical Center and School and dispersal of its
training and functions to other posts, primarily Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.45
In the midst of the reorganizations
and WAC expansion efforts, the Defense Department threatened to close Fort McClellan
as part of a program to reduce the number of military installations commensurate
with the reduction in military forces. Initially, in April 1973, the chief of
staff announced that the Military Police activities at Fort Gordon, Georgia,
would move to Fort McClellan and that one WAC basic training battalion would
move to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. But, in July, a new study recommended
that Fort McClellan be closed; that MP activities remain at Fort Gordon; that
WAC basic training be dispersed to other training centers; and that the WAC
School be deactivated. The women's direct commission program would be discontinued
and WAC officer candidates would be trained with male officer candidates at
Fort Benning, Georgia.46
The threatened closure of Fort McClellan
generated complaints to Secretary of the Army Howard H. Callaway from the citizens
of Anniston and its congressional representatives, principally Congressman Bill
Nichols in whose district Fort McClellan was located. General Bailey and Colonel
Clarke fought to keep Fort McClellan open. General Bailey emphasized the WAC
identification with the post: "The women have been encouraged by seeing
that they are now receiving some priority in the Army policies and planning.
Their perception that the Army now wants to close their `home' facilities will
negate these favorable reactions."47
For her part, Colonel Clarke also opposed the closing: "It seems to me
that the middle of a WAC expansion is poor timing for the discontinuance of
the USWACCS [WAC Center and School]. Particularly do I feel this to be true
when I look back on the tremendous record of achievement made by this overtaxed,
understaffed organization in the turbulent year just passed." 48
After almost a year of indecision, Secre-
[352]
tary Callaway announced on 8 February
1974 that DOD had decided to retain Fort McClellan as an active post and to
relocate the Military Police training and school activities there in July. WAC
School continued to be slated for deactivation in 1976, ending separate training
for women officers.49
Despite the threat of closure, life
had gone on at Fort McClellan. The Army reorganizations brought changes that
had to be implemented. Between January and July 1973, WAC Center absorbed WAC
School; their staffs combined and a new organization emerged titled WAC Center
and School.50
On 1 July 1973, the new organization became a subordinate command of TRADOC
rather than of Third Army. Fort McClellan, however, continued to provide logistical
and other support services. Third Army established the much needed U.S. Army
Reception Station and attached it to the WAC Center on 30 January 1973 for command
and support services.51
The director of instruction for the newly formed WAC Center and School established
the Civilian Acquired Skills Program (CASP) in August to provide two weeks of
active duty training for reserve enlisted women in one of the basic training
companies.52
To get enlisted women into the replacement stream faster, TRADOC reduced the
length of women's basic training from eight to seven weeks beginning 2 July
1973 and focused training emphasis on learning "by doing" rather than
learning from lectures. That year WAC School initiated an instructor training
course and opened an Individual Learning Center in which trainees received remedial
instruction. In 1974, recruits began a sixteen hour basic rifle familiarization
course on the M16 rifle. Although firing the weapon was voluntary, trainees
attended and participated in the weapons training classes. Over 90 percent of
the women opted to fire. In the field training program, the day march increased
from one to two-and a-half miles; the night march from one to three miles. The
time devoted to physical training increased from twenty-five to thirty-five
hours. 53
WAC Center complied with expansion directives
to provide training for 7,000 basic trainees in FY 1973. But the original directives
and WAC Center's efforts were not enough; over 9,000 trainees arrived that year.
Shortages-housing, classrooms, trainers, and uniforms-again plagued the center.
Because the Army badly needed the additional WACs, the DCSPER, General Rogers,
had allowed the U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) to exceed its monthly
quotas. The overflow placed an
[353]
almost unbearable strain on the personnel
and facilities at WAC Center and School. Relocations provided additional housing
and classrooms in the WAC area, but problems mounted in maintaining high-quality
training and morale.
Higher headquarters placed a seemingly
unending stream of demands on the WAC Center and School staff for new and revised
plans, training programs, statistics, and reports. Colonel Clarke and her staff
developed a new expansion plan to accommodate 12,000 trainees annually. They
reorganized the WAC Center and School, revised or prepared new lesson plans
for enlisted and officer training courses, revised Role of the WAC for use in
male training courses, and provided countless statistical resumes and reports
to post, TRADOC, and ODWAC. When Colonel Clarke had an opportunity to ask TRADOC
to extend some of its short suspense dates and eliminate a few requirements,
she received some sympathy but no relief. The TRADOC commander replied, "As
you stated, considered singularly or as a group, your requirements are formidable
but I have no doubt that you will complete each task in an exemplary manner."54
As the expansion progressed, a drastic
shortage of uniforms developed. In particularly short supply was the three-piece
exercise suit worn by the trainees, but other uniform items were also affected.
Many women left the center without a complete issue of uniforms, dispersing
the problem to posts throughout the continental United States. The shortages
continued because the Recruiting Command exceeded its WAC enlistment objectives
in FY 1973, 1974, and 1975, and the DCSPER could not provide the Army Clothing
Depot at Philadelphia with adequate lead time to manufacture the thousands of
uniforms needed. And, as all these expansion-related problems were being resolved,
the effort at WAC Center and School attracted high-ranking visitors. They wanted
to see, firsthand, the results of the highly successful WAC recruiting and training
program. 55
By the fall of 1973, Colonel Clarke
had made progress in managing the heavy trainee input and the administrative
burdens by gradually realigning the organizational structure and by relocating
units. Hope for a respite, however, vanished in October 1973 when the chief
of staff approved a plan to double WAC enlisted strength by the end of FY 1979.
Because WAC Center had reached its capacity, General William E. DePuy, the TRADOC
commander, directed Maj. Gen. Robert C. Hixon, the commander of the U.S. Army
School/Training Center, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, to establish a WAC training
brigade with two battalions to train approximately 8,000 WAC recruits annually.
The post also received the mission of providing seven weeks of basic training
for approxi-
[354]
mately 3,000 reserve women recruits.
When basic training began at Fort Jackson, the 3d Basic Training Battalion at
WAC Center would be deactivated. TRADOC also began planning to conduct additional
basic training for WAC recruits at other Army training centers-Fort Leonard
Wood, Missouri, and Fort Dix, New Jersey.56
WAC training was quickly organized at
Fort Jackson. On 1 October 1973, the 17th Basic Training Battalion (WAC) was
activated with nine basic training companies and a Special Training Company
(remedial training). In honor of the occasion, General DePuy attended the command's
activation, unfurled the battalion's colors, and presented them to the commander
of the new battalion, Lt. Col. Joanalys A. Bizzelle. Training began 9 January
1974. The 5th Basic Training Brigade and the 18th Basic Training Battalion (WAC)
were activated on 1 July 1974. The 18th, commanded by Lt. Col. Doris L. Caldwell,
took four companies from its sister battalion and began training immediately.
The brigade provided command and control over the battalions. Its first commander
was Col. Edith M. Hinton. Fort Jackson conducted the women's basic training
course for three years. Then, in 1977, TRADOC combined basic training for men
and women and deactivated the women's brigades and battalions at Fort McClellan
and Fort Jackson .57
During the two years that Colonel Clarke
commanded WAC Center and School, its look and pace had changed significantly.
By the end of September 1974, she commanded a center with four battalions rather
than one, a school with two courses (WCOC and College Juniors) rather than seven,
and an Army reception station. (See Chart 5. ) Command and operational control
of the 14th Army Band (WAC) had passed to the commander of the Special Troop
Command, Fort McClellan, on 1 May 1974. The commanders of the 1st and 2d Basic
Training Battalions had moved into new headquarters office buildings in February
1974, and the 3d Basic Training Battalion prepared for deactivation in December.
Construction was under way in the WAC area to enlarge the clothing issue warehouse,
the dispensary, and the post exchange and to build a small headquarters for
Headquarters Battalion. The post engineer was also renovating mess halls, barracks,
and classroom buildings so the WAC Center could accommodate twice as many recruits.
In September 1974, when Colonel Clarke prepared to leave Fort McClellan, she
wondered about the future of the WAC Center and School. Indications were still
that it would close and basic training would be reduced to two battalions. Her
fears were well founded. In November, the TRADOC commander
[355]
CHART 5- WAC CENTER AND SCHOOL, FORT McCLELLAN ORGANIZATION, 1974
Source: Historical Report, WAC C&S,
1974, p. ii.
ordered Fort McClellan to reorganize
and place all its activities under one command, eliminating WAC Center and School,
the Military Police School, and the U.S. Army School/ Training Center (USASTC).58
In 1975, the Army ended the 32-year
tradition of an all-female band in the Army and the unique career of the 14th
Army Band (WAC). Although other services had women's bands from time to time,
none had a long or continuous history. The 14th Army Band (WAC), activated on
16 August 1948, received title to the lineage and honors of the 400th Army Service
Forces Band (WAC) that had begun its career in 1943 as one of the five WAC bands
organized during World War II. After activation, the 14th Army Band (WAC) trained
for six months at Fort George G. Meade for its role as the WAC training center
band. On 5 March 1949, the band's first ten members and its warrant officer
bandmaster, Miss Katherine V. Allen, were welcomed to Camp Lee by the WAC training
center command. In the next three months, sixteen more bandswomen
[356]
DANCE BAND OF THE 14TH ARMY BAND (WAC),
WAC Center, Fort MCClellan, 1965.
joined the unit, and the band began
its routine of playing for parades, march-outs, orientations, graduations, receptions,
conferences, and dances. It also gave concerts on post, in the local community,
and at nearby Veterans Administration hospitals. When the unit acquired its
full complement of thirty-four women, Miss Allen, a graduate of the Juilliard
School of Music, formed a number of small internal groups-a dance band, a Dixieland
jazz combo, a barbershop quartet, and others-to provide a variety of musical
entertainment.59
[357]
THE 14TH ARMY BAND (WAC) in parade
formation, 1970.
In 1951, the 14th Army Band (WAC) began
touring. To assist the campaign to build WAC strength during the Korean War,
the band toured the First, Second, Fifth, and Sixth Army Areas in 1951; the
Third Army Area in 1952; and previously unvisited states in the Fifth Army Area
in 1953. After moving to Fort McClellan with the WAC Center in 1954, the band
continued to make special trips and conduct concert tours with community activity
program funds provided by the Army's Information Office, CONARC, Third Army,
or Fort McClellan. Its special trips ranged from appearances at the World's
Fair in New York in 1956 to marching in three presidential inaugural parades
(1953, 1957, and 1961). After the 269th Army Band at Fort McClellan was deactivated
in September 1960, the WAC band functioned as the post band, provided buglers
for military funerals in Alabama and Mississippi, performed its duties at WAC
Center, and continued to make tours. Tours between 1951 and 1973 took the band
through almost every state in the Union and, in November 1972, to Puerto Rico,
where it spent a week on a recruiting concert tour. On its travels, the band
played at high schools, colleges, civic centers, and for community events (festivals,
fairs, races, football games, parades). Personnel at Fort McClellan greatly
missed the band while it was on these trips; they had to endure recorded music
at parades and other ceremonies. Recruiters meanwhile welcomed the band into
[358]
their areas where its appearances increased
public awareness of the Corps and boosted WAC recruiting.
The bandmaster commanded the women and
was their musical instructor and director until 1964. After Miss Allen completed
her tour in 1952, she was replaced by 2d Lt. (later Captain) Alice V. Peters,
who remained in this position until 1961. A series of officers served in the
position thereafter, usually for a two-year tour. In 1964, after difficulty
finding a fully qualified warrant or commissioned woman officer, the grade and
nature of the position changed. The job of commander/bandmaster was upgraded
to captain, and an enlisted bandleader (E-7) was added to direct the band and
provide instruction and technical guidance. To fill this key bandleader position,
the center commander selected Sp6c. Ramona J. Meltz, an accomplished musician,
director, and instructor, and a nine-year veteran of the band. A natural leader,
Specialist Meltz quickly gained the respect and support of the other members
of the band. During the ten-year period she held the position, she continuously
sought promotions, awards, improved housing, and better equipment for the women.
At the same time, she was their severest critic and taskmaster in musicianship
and attention to duty. Her leadership developed an esprit de corps among the
members of the band that was unparalleled among WAC units. Because organizational
bands had no cadre positions authorized, the commanders usually assigned the
additional duty of first sergeant to the women who served consecutively as drum
major for the band between 1950 and 1973-M. Sgt. Janet Helker, Sgt. Eva J. Sever,
Sgt. 1st Cl. Jane M. Kilgore, Sgt. 1st Cl. Rosella Collins, and Sgt. 1st Cl.
Margaret R. Clemenson. In 1966, a bass horn musician with administrative skills,
Sgt. 1st Cl. Patricia R. Browning, accepted the additional duty of first sergeant
and held it until she transferred to another band in 1974.
Initially, the band was housed in a
combined barracks and rehearsal hall in the basic training area at Fort McClellan.
In 1967, when the WAC expansion for Vietnam began and the battalion needed more
room for recruits, the band moved into a building vacated by Headquarters and
Headquarters Company (WAC). This building was small, but the band remained there
until September 1973. It moved to a four-level building in the main post area
where, for the first time, it had adequate space for a rehearsal hall, library,
practice rooms, instrument repair room, administrative and supply offices, and
comfortable living quarters for the bandswomen.
Over the years, the band increased its
stature and prominence. In 1966, more women began to attend the bandsman's course
at the U.S. Naval School of Music. Up to then, only five women had attended,
primarily because the attendees' services were lost to the band for twenty-three
weeks. This situation was alleviated in 1968 when the band increased in size
from forty-three to sixty members. In the 1960s, the band appeared on national
television, in the movies, and in Army training and informa-
[359]
tion films. The band played at the White
House in 1967, when President Johnson signed the bill (PL 90-130) that removed
promotion restrictions on women officers and in the Rose Bowl Parade in January
1969. It also made a number of records and in 1973 won Best Military Band award
for the fifth consecutive year at the Veterans' Day Parade in Birmingham, Alabama.
Through the years, the band expanded its versatility by adding more special
groups-swing band, choral group, rock combo, country and western groups, and
a chamber music quartet.
At WAC Center, the band was an integral
part of life for recruits, students, and permanent party personnel. It was a
part of every official and unofficial ceremony that took place, and it boosted
morale by voluntarily initiating events like marching from unit to unit during
the Christmas season singing and playing carols, giving a spring and fall concert
for the trainees, and serenading various officers and NCOs on their birthdays.
Band members had a special place in the hearts and lives of the WACs at Fort
McClellan, and, for their part, band members developed such unit esprit that
few requested transfer. Women who auditioned for the band knew from the beginning
that they would serve continuously in the band unless they requested reenlistment
and training in another MOS. Most elected to remain with the 14th Army Band
(WAC) throughout their service.
The band was at the peak of its development
when, despite efforts to avert the change, the Army ordered the unit to be integrated
with male personnel. In July 1972, the WAC Center commander, Colonel Garrison,
moved to preserve its all-female status by requesting that it be designated
a Special Band. The intervening commands and the director of the WAC concurred,
but the Army staff disapproved because it could not spare the eighty-three additional
spaces required.60
The next year, an Army-wide reduction in force required the band to trim its
strength from sixty-four to an authorized twenty-eight members. The losses devastated
morale. Members went to other bands in CONUS and overseas; some retired. In
1974, several male bandsmen requested assignment to the band at Fort McClellan,
but the 14th Army Band (WAC) did not accept men. In 1975, the adjutant general
advised the Department of the Army's General Officer Steering Committee for
Equal Opportunity that "maintenance of the 14th Army Band (WAC) as a female-only
unit appears to be in conflict with EEO [Equal Employment Opportunity] policies
relating to discrimination based on sex."61
When asked to comment on integrating the band, the
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Army's chief information officer had
no objection. The commander of TRADOC felt it should take place as a matter
of equity. The commander at Fort McClellan agreed in principle, but reminded
TAG that the band annually drew great public acclaim through hundreds of appearances.
It gave visibility to women serving in the Army, and its effectiveness in WAC
recruitment, especially during the current expansion, was unparalleled. If integrated,
the commander pointed out that "the 14th Army Band would become just another
installation band ... its uniqueness would cease."62
The WAC director agreed with those comments and recommended that integration
at least be delayed until 1977 to ensure "the least adverse impact on morale."63
The steering committee, therefore, directed that the band be fully integrated
by 1 January 1977, the day after the training brigade at Fort McClellan would
assume most of the functions of the WAC Center and School. After that edict,
integration of the band began, and the acronym WAC in parentheses was removed
from the band's title effective 1 July 1976.64
Other changes also occurred. Master
Sergeant Meltz, although she had been selected for promotion to sergeant major
(E-9) in 1973 after the position was raised to that grade, decided to retire.
She received the Legion of Merit for her performance of duty between January
1962 and November 1973. Lt. Paula M. Molnar became the last woman officer to
serve a full tour of duty as commander/bandmaster (1973-1975). After some temporary
commanders, a male warrant officer was assigned as bandmaster in September 1976,
and, thereafter, the band had male bandmasters and enlisted bandleaders.65
Beginning in 1971, the U.S. Army Field
Band included WAC vocalists in its tours, and in 1973, the first WAC was assigned
to the U.S. Army Band at Fort Myer, Virginia.66
Thereafter women served interchangeably in these special bands, the U.S. Army
Chorus, and in bands at other installations and activities. Deactivation of
the 14th Army Band (WAC) closed a chapter in the history of the Women's Army
Corps and left Corps members with fond memories of marching behind the band
at parades, Arbor Day plantings, Christmas caroling, torchlight processions,
concerts, orientations, and graduations at the WAC Center and School. The pride
of the WACs, the 14th Army Band (WAC), had had a long
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and illustrious career as an all-female
band. And while its integration was both inevitable and unwelcome, the band
did survive the change.
When Col. Mary E. Clarke completed her
tour as commander of WAC Center, she exchanged positions with Col. Shirley R.
Heinze, who headed the WAC Advisory Branch (formerly WAC Career Management Branch)
in Alexandria, Virginia. The change of command ceremony was held on 4 September
1974 at Fort McClellan. Colonel Heinze was the first graduate of the Army War
College (Class of 1968) to command the center. Like Colonel Michl, she had completed
a tour of duty in Vietnam (1966-1967).
Because the expansion caused many women
to move into nontraditional jobs that required knowledge of defensive tactics
and weapons, these subjects became mandatory in WAC basic training. Even cooks
and bandsmen assigned to certain units and locations had the secondary mission
of helping their unit perform rear area security (guarding against enemy attack
or infiltration). On 25 March 1975, upon the recommendation of the DCSPER and
TRADOC, Secretary Callaway announced that this training would be mandatory for
women enlisting or reenlisting after 30 June 1975. At TRADOC's direction, Colonel
Heinze and her staff revised the basic training program and officer training
course to include weapons qualification and defensive techniques, such as digging
foxholes. Male trainees and student officers had to qualify on the M16 rifle
before they could graduate from basic training. Beginning in December 1976,
women had to do the same. During field exercises, an individual's entire unit
had to qualify on its basic weapons to pass readiness inspection.67
Earlier that year, at TRADOC's direction,
Colonel Heinze had expanded the weapons training program to include additional
small arms weapons. Up to this point, women had trained on the M16 rifle. In
July 1976, TRADOC added training on the light antitank weapon (LAW), the 40-mm.
grenade launcher, the Claymore mine, and the M60 machine gun. Women began training
on the hand grenade in the spring of 1977 after a test conducted at Fort Jackson
determined that women had the shoulder and arm strength to throw a hand grenade
accurately.68
To develop the
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women's strength and stamina, physical
training was expanded to include more exercise, and the day march was lengthened
from two-and-a-half to six-and-a-half miles. Also, at a surprise point along
this march, the unit would receive a light dose of smoke that simulated tear
gas and required the women to put on their gas masks quickly and disperse in
the woods to hide. In 1976, helicopter familiarization added interest to the
field training course. With the increased emphasis on physical training, field
training, defensive techniques, and weapons training, the women's training duty
uniform at WAC Center changed from the familiar three-piece exercise suit to
the heavy-duty fatigues, helmet liners, and combat boots worn by men in basic
training.69
In September 1975, Army Chief of Staff
Frederick C. Weyand visited WAC Center and School to observe women's training.
Maj. Gen. Joseph R. Kingston, commander of all training activities at Fort McClellan,
suggested a consolidated basic training course for men and women. A trained
infantry officer, General Kingston had seen how quickly the women had adapted
to changes in their training program, had become proficient in weapons training,
and had increased their physical capabilities. He had seen their confidence
improve. He was convinced that this new type of training, similar to the men's,
had made women feel for the first time that they were part of the whole Army,
not just the Women's Army Corps. By the end of the visit, General Kingston and
Colonel Heinze had persuaded the chief of staff to this view. When he returned
to the Pentagon, he directed that a plan be developed to consolidate basic training
for men and women.70
By the end of December 1975, TRADOC had completed an experimental six-week course
entitled Basic Initial Entry Training (Army Training Program 21-114 Test). The
course was essentially the basic combat training course given men.71
The DCSPER and the other members of
the Army staff approved the pilot program, and the TRADOC commander initiated
action to test the course. He assigned General Kingston the responsibility for
conducting the test, analyzing its results, and preparing recommendations for
the chief of staff. He directed the commander of the Army Training Center at
Fort Jackson, then Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell III, to provide the
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test site and the supporting troops,
equipment, and facilities. Upon Colonel Heinze's recommendation, General Kingston
appointed Col. Mary Jane Grimes, then the director of training and education
at WAC Center and School, as the test director. Her test committee included
men and women from the TRADOC Combined Arms Test Activity, the Army Infantry
School, and the training staffs at both Fort McClellan and Fort Jackson. Four
companies (two male and two WAC-approximately 880 recruits) completed the test
basic training course between 17 September and 11 November 1976. Some of the
major differences between the women's basic training course and the test course
are shown in Table 28.72
| Subject |
Hours in ATP 21-121 (1975) |
Hours in ATP 21-114 BIET Test |
| Basic Rifle Training |
47 |
62 |
| Hand Grenade Training |
0 |
6.5 |
| U.S. Weapons Familiarization |
2 |
8 |
| Tactical Training
Techniques |
3 |
7 |
| Fire and Maneuver |
0 |
6 |
| Defensive Training |
5 |
10 |
| Confidence Course |
0 |
4 |
| Physical Readiness
Training |
35 |
39 |
Source: USAMPS/TC & FM, Test
Report, Basic Initial Entry Training (BIET), 30 Dec 76, App D-1, ODWAC Ref File,
Basic Training (BIET), CMH.
At the conclusion of the test involving
the 880 recruits, General Kingston reported to the chief of staff that "the
female graduates met the standards in every area except the Physical Readiness
Training Program," which, he believed, could "be modified for the
women without changing the content of the training or reducing the value of
the training received."73
On 17 February 1977, the chief of staff approved initiation of consolidated
basic training for men and women using the modified basic initial entry training
course. Colonel Hallaren's 1950 proposal for it had been too progressive for
its time. Now the time was right, and consolidat-
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ed training began at Fort McClellan
and Fort Jackson on 1 September 1977 and at Fort Dix and Fort Leonard Wood in
October 1978.74
In addition to consolidating basic training
for men and women, in 1977 TRADOC combined basic and advanced individual MOS
training at installations where it was feasible. In the program, called one-station
unit training, recruits learned some MOS skills while undergoing basic training
at posts that also conducted branch advanced individual training in specific
MOSS. After completing the basic training program, the trainee remained in the
same unit to receive advanced individual training in the MOS he or she had selected
upon enlisting in the Army. This system reduced training time, improved use
of training facilities, and eliminated the travel costs usually incurred by
moving an individual from a basic training post to another for advanced individual
training. For example, a woman who enlisted in MOS 95B, Military Policeman,
received basic training and advanced individual training at Fort McClellan,
the home of the Military Police Corps. If she enlisted in MOS 72B, Teletype
Operator, she completed basic and advanced individual training at Fort Gordon,
Georgia, the home of the Signal Corps. One-station unit training (OSUT) continues
in the Army today.75
Another major reorganization had occurred
at Fort McClellan after the Military Police School moved there in the summer
of 1975. TRADOC directed a reorganization to place all post activities under
one command. This eliminated the WAC Center and School and the U.S. Army School/Training
Center and placed the Military Police School and the other activities under
the same command. From November 1974 until the summer of 1976, the WAC Center
staff worked with the other headquarters staffs on detailed plans for the transfer
of functions, units, and personnel to the centralized command, the U.S. Army
Military Police School/Training Center and Fort McClellan (effective 4 October
1976). In the midst of the reorganization planning, Colonel Heinze completed
her tour as commander and was replaced on 2 June 1976 by Col. Lorraine A. Rossi,
who had been deputy commander for over a year and who, as a lieutenant, had
helped move WAC Center from Fort Lee to Fort McClellan.76
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The completed operational plan, entitled
OPLAN CONSOLIDATE, was issued 1 July 1976. The training brigade of the new centralized
command absorbed the two WAC basic training battalions on 1 December 1976 and
assumed control over the WAC Officer Orientation Course, the Staff and Faculty
Company, and the Student Officer Company. Company F of Headquarters Battalion
that conducted the Civilian Acquired Skills Program (USAR) became part of the
2d Basic Training Battalion (WAC), and Headquarters Battalion was deactivated.
Colonel Rossi and her staff transferred their property, functions, and personnel
to their counterpart activities on post or in the Training Brigade. On 31 December
1976, the U.S. WAC Center and School ceased to exist.77
The year 1976 brought other milestones
in women's training. With congressional approval, 119 women entered the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point (Class of 1970) on 7 July. The first women graduated
from Army ROTC programs and were commissioned in May and June 1976. The WAC
Student Officer Program ended with the graduation of 108 students in the last
College Junior Class (XIX) on 1 August 1975. The program for enrolling women
in ROTC proved so successful that the WAC Officer Orientation Course was discontinued
with the graduation of 129 students in Class XVII on 27 September 1977. After
1 October 1976 women trained with male officer candidates at the U.S. Army Officer
Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia.78
The WAC Center and School ceased to
exist twenty-two-and-a-half years after it had opened at Fort McClellan. Until
Congress eliminated the WAC as a corps within the Regular Army, however, women
continued to be enlisted and appointed in the Women's Army Corps. And, as expansion
continued, thousands of women arrived for the now combined basic training at
Fort McClellan. But the mess halls at WAC Center no longer rang solely with
the sounds of women talking and laughing; the streets no longer resounded with
their chanting the "Jody" tunes to keep in cadence; the torchlight
parade no longer held silence in the air; and the drum and cymbals no longer
echoed off the hills as the WAC band played and the women sang: "Duty is
calling you and me; we have a date with destiny . . . ."
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Endnotes
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