Chapter V: Officer Procurement and Career Development

Chapter V

Officer Procurement and Career Development

Upon entering the permanent military establishment, the WAC had one source of officers and only vague plans for their career development. In World War II, large numbers of enlisted women had applied eagerly for Officer Candidate School (OCS); consequently, WAC planners assumed that applicants would continue to provide the annual requirement for second lieutenants. But between 1948 and 1950, few enlisted women rushed to apply for OCS, and many of those who did failed the long and difficult course. The WAC sorely needed another source of officers. It also needed a program to keep its current officers interested in remaining on active duty despite the restrictions on promotion. Wartime personnel planning had been minimal. Career management planning was needed to ensure proper officer training and challenging assignments. But, because the WAC was a temporary part of the Army, a long-range officer development program was not proposed. When the Corps became permanent in 1948, WAC planners had to prepare career plans that would give WAC officers job satisfaction and offer hope for career advancement. The task would be difficult because WAC officers received little training beyond OCS and could not advance beyond the grade of lieutenant colonel.
WAC Officer Procurement

Until 1948 the Corps had been concerned with only the total number of officers on active duty. After the Corps became part of the Regular Army, WAC planners became preoccupied not only with increasing the number of its regular officers but also with obtaining supplementary reserve officers willing to serve on extended active duty to meet the total officer requirement. Traditional male officer procurement sources-the U.S. Military Academy and ROTC programs-were not available to the WAC. The Organized Reserve, however, was. And, in 1948, Congress authorized retirement pay for reservists who served twenty years on
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active duty. It, thus, became easier to attract reservists for active duty. 1 Eligible women could choose between becoming regular officers with a generally accepted commitment of thirty years on active duty or becoming reserve officers and spending twenty years on active duty. WAC officers showed a preference for the shorter reserve career over the longer, more prestigious and advantageous status of a regular officer. (See Table 9.)

TABLE 9-OFFICERS AUTHORIZED AND ON DUTY, 1949, 1950, 1951

Source: Strength of the Army Report (STM-30), 30 Jun 49, 30 Jun 50, 30 Jun 51; Army Progress Report, Military Personnel, 30 Jun 51, p. 7.

Within a year Colonel Hallaren saw that OCS alone would not produce enough second lieutenants to fill the Corps' requirements. For each biannual OCS class, she had anticipated receiving 100 or more applications from which to choose 75 outstanding candidates-a total of 150 annually. With an estimated attrition rate of 11 percent, the average OCS loss during World War II, about 135 officers would enter the Corps each year. But only 81 women applied for the first class-69 were selected, 37 graduated. For the second class, 86 applied, 61 were selected, 42 graduated. In 1949 the Corps gained only 79 of the required 135 officers. 2

There were several explanations for the low number of OCS applications. During World War II, women between 20 and 50 years of age could apply, but after 1948, women (like men) had to be at least 20 years and 6 months old and could not be 28 or over. The educational requirement was not considered a deterrent for applicants because the requirements for enlistment and for OCS were the same-a high school diploma or a passing score on the General Educational Development Test. The necessity to obtain passing scores on the Army General Qualification Test (110) and the Officer Candidate Test (115), however, eliminated many
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applicants. As a matter of choice, some women with all the qualifications for OCS simply preferred enlisted status. Others considered the length of training interminable-eight weeks of basic training, eight weeks in Leaders Course, and twenty-four weeks in Officer Candidate School.3 News of the high rate of attrition, spreading to WAC units in the field, may also have deterred some applicants.

WAC planners were perplexed by the number of women candidates who failed to complete OCS successfully. The attrition rate for the first eight classes averaged 34.3 percent. (See Table 10.) The WAC School tried several methods to reduce attrition. Screening of applicants was tightened in 1951. Candidates received a four-hour remedial reading course before they began OCS. An analysis of the failures in the first seven classes showed "deficiencies in leadership" to be the most frequent cause. Such deficiencies included the inability to solve leadership problems, to conduct close order drill, to exercise good judgment, or to maintain the appearance, demeanor, and deportment of a leader. The staff and faculty tried to resolve these problems through extra tutoring and counseling sessions. But nothing seemed to help; attrition remained high.4

TABLE 10-WAC OCS, 1949-1953

Source: Staff Study, WAC School, "Analysis of Candidates Relieved According to Cause, Classes I through VIII, WAC OCS, 1949-1953," file OCS, History Collection, WAC Museum.

The WAC was not alone in experiencing such high rates of attrition. In 1951 the chief of Army Field Forces, General Mark W. Clark, appointed a board of officers to study officer candidate school operations throughout the Army. The board's final report showed that attrition in male OCS courses at Fort Riley, Fort Sill, and Fort Benning averaged
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37.12 percent; attrition from WAC OCS was only slightly higher at 37.81 percent. The study group, presided over by Col. George G. Elms, the assistant commandant of the Army Ground School, concluded that "imperfect procurement and selection rather than weaknesses in the OCS system constitute the principal reasons for the present attrition rate." Based on their recommendations, screening of all officer candidates was tightened to narrow the selection of applicants. Screening so reduced WAC selectees for enrollment in OCS that in 1954 the officer candidate class had to be merged with the WAC Company Officers Course (WCOC), the class for direct commission students.5

Earlier, in 1949, when Colonel Hallaren had seen that WAC OCS would not provide enough officers to fill regular and reserve requirements, she had obtained approval to initiate a direct commission program similar to one used by the Navy. Under the WAC program, women college graduates received appointments as second lieutenants in the Organized Reserve, and upon successfully completing the WCOC, they applied for appointment in the Regular Army. Each applicant had signed a statement that read, in part, "I further agree to apply for a commission in the Women's Army Corps, Regular Army, upon successful completion of such training." 6

The merger in 1954 of OCS and WCOC classes produced a surprising effect. OCS classes that graduated between August 1954 and June 1962 had an average attrition rate of only 18 percent. Although leadership deficiencies still led other reasons for failure, fewer failures occurred. The reason for the reduction in attrition perhaps lay in the merger of the student officer and officer candidate classes. One theory was that the officer candidates benefited from the more understanding attitude that cadre and faculty members exhibited toward college students new to the Army. Previously, all class members had had some Army experience they had been selected because of their excellent leadership ability, knowledge, appearance, and ambition. Many cadre and faculty members, therefore, maintained such high standards in these areas that only overachievers could qualify. Some candidates became discouraged in trying to succeed; many finally just gave up. When the course for student officers and officer candidates was combined, a more balanced approach to achievement prevailed, and the learning atmosphere improved for the candidates. Another theory about the lower attrition was that the candi-
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dates competed more strongly against the student officers to show that experience in the enlisted ranks was more valuable than a college education. Whatever the explanation, after the merger, attrition was never again a problem in OCS.7

Three routes were available for appointment in the Regular Army, WAC, in 1949: the WCOC direct commission program, designation as a distinguished graduate of OCS, and the Competitive Tour Program. Under the latter, reserve officers could apply for a one-year tour of special assignments in which their skills and performance were closely assessed and rated. Those who received the highest ratings were offered Regular Army appointments. In 1951, a fourth program allowed commanders to nominate outstanding Regular Army enlisted women and WAC warrant officers for appointments as second lieutenants in the Regular Army, WAC.8

To inform college women and their deans about the new direct commission program that led to appointment in the Regular Army, Colonel Hallaren selected Maj. Eleanore C. Sullivan to visit sixty-seven colleges and universities throughout the United States during November and December 1949. She stopped at each major Army headquarters to brief the commander and appropriate staff members, including the WAC staff adviser, who then accompanied her to the colleges and the recruiting stations within the command.9 After Major Sullivan's visit to a college, WAC recruiting officers paid follow-up calls to distribute applications and to interview interested candidates.

The WCOC did not produce many WAC Regular Army officers. (See Table ll. ) The initial effort to obtain students for it was fairly successful in 1950 and 1951, but fewer young women participated as the Korean War waned. Also, WAC School counselors reported that most students regretted having made a commitment to apply for the long-range Regular Army status. The great unpopularity of that commitment persuaded the WAC director, then Colonel Irene O. Galloway, to discontinue that entrance requirement effective 31 December 1953.10
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TABLE 11-WAC COMPANY OFFICERS COURSE, 1950-1953

Source: Historical Reports, WAC C&S, years shown, History Collection, WAC Museum.

As the Korean War continued into 1951, the WAC Career Branch was besieged with requisitions for WAC officers to fill vacancies created by the reassignment of male officers to Korea. The Corps itself also required more and more officers for recruiting, training, and administrative positions. To help satisfy these requirements, the direct commission program was expanded in 1951. It offered reserve commissions as second lieutenants and above and active duty to three groups: college graduates with at least one year of military service, enlisted women and warrant officers on active duty or in one of the reserve components of any service, and former members of any of the armed forces who had received an honorable discharge. In return for a commission as a second lieutenant, first lieutenant, or captain-depending upon her academic degree and work experience -the applicant agreed to serve on active duty for two years and during that time to complete a thirteen-week Associate WAC Company Officers Course (AWCOC). Applicants had to be single, between 21 and 39, and have no dependents under 18. In some cases, the college degree requirements could be waived. To receive a commission in a grade higher than second lieutenant, applicants required a combination of years of work experience plus a baccalaureate or higher degree, as shown in Table 12. For example, a woman applying for appointment as a captain required a baccalaureate or masters degree plus five or six years' experience in a field that demanded leadership ability, e.g., teaching, business, or personnel.11

The WAC considered the AWCOC a success because it produced high-quality students and had a low attrition rate. An analysis of the six classes conducted under this program indicated that the lower attrition resulted from enrolling older students with more college and work experience than officer candidates or WCOC students. Of the 182 students in
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TABLE 12-DIRECT COMMISSION PROGRAM, GRADE DETERMINANTS, 1951

Source: SR 140-105-7, 21 May 51, Appointment as Reserve Commissioned Officers of the Army for
Assignment to Women's Army Corps Branch.

the classes, 162 graduated-an attrition rate of 10 percent that slightly exceeded the rate for officer candidates during World War II.12

As mentioned earlier, the tightening of the application and screening processes and the decline in applications after the Korean War led to the 1954 decision to merge the direct commission courses and the officer candidate courses. The WAC Company Officers Course, the Associate WAC Company Officers Course, and the WAC Officer Candidate Course were merged into a twenty-week course offered twice a year, the WAC Officer Basic Course. The continued existence of a WAC Officer Candidate School was ensured by identifying the course as the "WAC Officer Basic Course and Officer Candidate Course (WOBC/OC Course)" and assigning each section a separate class number. However, because few women applied for OCS, officer candidates participated in only one of the sessions each year.13 The merger provided efficient use of funds, faculty, classrooms, cadre, and administrative staff personnel.

That same year, 1954, in an effort to increase officer procurement, Colonel Galloway and her staff began work on a new approach-the WAC College Junior Program. The concept, a modification of one used successfully by the Women Marines, was implemented in the summer of 1957. WAC recruiting officers distributed literature on the new program to colleges and universities throughout the country. Beginning in 1955, two WAC officers were assigned to each Army area to find applicants for the College Junior Program as well as the direct commission program. They contacted college officials, talked to students, and processed applications.14
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WAC OCS GRADUATES receive the oath of office as second lieutenants from Col. Maxene B. Michl, Commandant, WAC School, Fort McClellan, June 1970, while the graduating members of their sister class, WAC Officer Basic Course, look on.

The primary purpose of the program was to give women in their junior year of college a taste of life as a WAC officer. For four weeks each summer (later three), approximately sixty college juniors entered the Army as corporals in the Army Reserve. While on active duty, the Army paid for their transportation, gave them the pay and allowances due an E-4, and provided them with uniforms, food, and housing. In return, they attended introductory classes on Army organization, leadership, training, administration, close order drill, and physical training. They also went on field trips to other Army posts and worked at WAC Center headquarters, at the basic training battalion, or at WAC School. After the orientation course, they returned to college but remained in the Army Reserve on inactive duty. Upon graduating from college, they were commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army Reserve, and they reported on active duty to the WAC Officer Basic Course the summer after graduation. Those
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COLLEGE JUNIORS in a map reading course at WAC School, Fort McClellan, instructed by Capt. Ann B. Smith, July 1964.

who did not graduate or declined a commission were simply discharged from the enlistment.15

Extraordinary effort was exerted to make the College Junior Program informative and interesting so that most participants would apply for appointment and return to WAC School the following summer. After the summer program, the WAC School commandant wrote each participant, sent pictures of her graduation and other events, and wished her luck in her senior year. The commandant also wrote the dean of women or dean of students, whichever was appropriate, to describe the program and the student's participation in it and to send photographs.

The training given the college juniors was not as rigorous as that given regular officer students, but the faculty was instructed to portray life in the WAC realistically and not to impart any false information or impressions about work, training, additional duties, social life, or career opportunities. While at Fort McClellan, the cadets, as the college juniors were called, observed the full scope of a WAC officer's life.
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Enrollment in the program gradually increased. Only 19 cadets had entered in the summer of 1958; 147 were enrolled in the class of 1967. In 1966, the Army Audit Agency estimated that the service had spent less than $3,050 annually on each student. Thus, while only 50 of the 591 students who had entered the program between 1957 and 1966 accepted commissions and served on active duty, it was the most economical of the Army officer procurement programs.16 In comparison, the cost of maintaining one student through four years at the U.S. Military Academy was $48,000; a non-scholarship ROTC student, approximately $5,000; and a scholarship ROTC student, approximately $10,000.17

The mid-1950s also saw some college women enrolled in a reserve officers training corps program. Like the WAC, the WAF had experienced a steady decline in officer procurement after the Korean War. Its sources matched those for the WAC: officer candidate school, a direct commission program, and reserve officers recalled on active duty. In September 1954, the director of the WAF obtained permission to include women in the Air Force ROTC program at ten colleges and to initiate legislation that would include women permanently in the program. A WAF officer was assigned to each college to advise and supervise the students.18 For the first time, women were enrolled in an ROTC program in any service.19 Great speculation arose about whether the WAC would enroll women in the Army's ROTC programs. In response to several inquiries, Colonel Galloway wrote: "The position taken by the Department of the Army is that it interposes no objection to the proposed legislation insofar as it pertains to the Department of the Air Force but similar authority to enroll female students in the Army ROTC is not desired." 20 The WAC preferred its College Junior Program.

The WAF ROTC experiment was not successful and after several years of failing to attract sizable numbers of women, it was discontinued. In June 1958, four women received commissions through the program and served on active duty. None received commissions in 1959, and the program was discontinued that year. Ten years later, in 1969, the WAF again ventured into ROTC. The program then proved so successful that
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all the women's services began using ROTC as a major source of officer procurement. Its popularity increased after cadets began to receive higher pay and full academic credit for ROTC courses taught by military personnel. Cadets could also substitute academic courses in history and political science for some ROTC courses.21

A Question of Status

The postwar decision to permit reserve officers to serve on extended active duty for twenty years and qualify for retirement helped the Army achieve its active duty strength, but it also created problems in maintaining Regular Army strength.22 Given a choice between a twenty or a thirty-year career, WAC officers almost always chose the shorter term. In 1954, the Reserve Officers Personnel Act enhanced reserve status when it gave reserve and regular officers almost the same responsibilities, rights, and privileges regarding promotion, retention, and discharge.23 Reserve officers who desired career status could sign indefinite agreements when their initial active duty obligation expired.24

By the mid-1950s the Army became concerned about the imbalance between regular and reserve officers-only 21.1 percent were regulars. To achieve a more balanced force, the Army and the other services asked for and received from Congress legislation that raised the strength ceiling for regular officers and provided a continuing program for assimilating reserve officers into the Regular Army. The Army's strength ceiling for regular officers thereby increased from 30,600 to 49,500. If, as part of this action, Army leaders had used the 2 percent formula for WAC officers, the WAC ceiling would have been 990 regular officers. Instead, the G-1 directed that the WAC ceiling remain at 600-a figure more realistically attainable. After conducting a three-year campaign (1955-1958) to acquire regular officers, the Army was still 2,000 short of its goal for male and WAC regular officers. The WAC contribution to this goal was negligible. On 30 June 1958, of 779 WAC officers on duty, 318 were regulars (40.8 percent). Four years earlier, on 30 June 1954, the WAC had had on duty 1,019 officers of whom only 329 were regular officers (32.4 percent). By 1958 the WAC had lost 11 regular officers-the percentage had risen because total strength had decreased.25
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Regular Army status, although a symbol of prestige to the men of the Army, held little attraction for WAC officers.26 The inequities between the status of male and WAC officers more than likely caused the WACs' rejection of regular status:
-WACs could not be promoted beyond lieutenant colonel.
-WACs had to prove dependency status for children under 18 and husbands.
-WACs could not remain on active duty with dependents under 18.
-If a WAC officer was married to an Army officer, her quarters allowance and quarters assignments were based on her husband's rank and status rather than her own, even if hers were higher.
-No places were reserved for WAC officers at the senior service colleges, e.g., Army War College.
-WAC duty assignments were usually limited to administrative or WAC branch duties.

Women officers knew these inequities existed, and those who chose to remain on active duty did so with the knowledge that a WAC officer's career was permanently stunted by the cutoff of promotion beyond lieutenant colonel. Nonetheless, many women did remain for the benefits of being in service (leadership experience, equal pay for equal rank, retirement, travel opportunities, post exchange and commissary privileges). The opportunities for promotion and advancement far surpassed those generally available to women in civilian life in the 1950s. The Army was a man's world, but so was civilian life.

Career Planning

Despite the inequities, or perhaps because of them, the Corps, on becoming a permanent part of the Army establishment in 1948, began to develop plans to provide full and satisfactory careers for women officers-whether they were regulars or reservists on extended active duty. That same year the Army had issued its first publication on career planning for officers. Although initially intended for regular officers, within a few years the directive included planning for career reserve officers as well. Like everything the Army did, career planning was done by branch. Each branch, including the WAC, prepared a plan for an officer to progress from second lieutenant through colonel. The WAC
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career plan provided that, during the first seven years of their Army service, WAC officers would obtain a firm foundation of training and experience in military duties by serving as WAC unit officers, recruiters, instructors, trainers, or administrative staff officers. During the next seven-year period, many, not all, would attend the WAC Officer Advanced Course or the advanced course of a branch related to a current or potential MOS, e.g., The Adjutant General's Corps, Quartermaster Corps, Finance Corps. Also, during this period the officers were encouraged to focus on a specialty in which they could receive recurrent assignments and advanced training. If they desired, they could remain generalists in a career field such as administration or training. Women interested in specialist training took correspondence courses offered by various branch schools, or they enrolled in college courses. During the third seven-year period, a WAC officer alternated between branch duty assignments and assignments in her area of specialization. A few attended Command and General Staff College. By the last phase of their career pattern-the twenty-first to thirtieth year of service-most WAC officers had achieved their last promotion to major or lieutenant colonel and were assigned to WAC Center or WAC School or a major headquarters somewhere in the Army. Their male peers, meanwhile, were attending a senior service college, commanding a battalion or brigade, or managing a large staff division in a major headquarters. Men could look forward to promotion to colonel or even general officer rank and to assignment to positions such as division, corps, or army commander or even chief of staff of the Army.27

In career management, attendance at the right schools was one of the keys to job satisfaction and to promotion. Each branch operated a school that taught officers and enlisted personnel the skills required by the MOSS it controlled, as well as general skills-leadership, management, instruction, administration. After attending a precommission school-U.S. Military Academy, ROTC, OCS-a male officer attended his branch's basic officer course. In the WAC, however, precommission and basic officer training were accomplished in the same course. Also, because the WAC did not control any MOS other than the one for WAC staff advisers, WAC School did not conduct officer specialty courses leading to the award of an MOS.28 A male officer went on to the advanced officers
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course conducted by his branch. In these courses, the branch prepared its officers to perform staff and command duty at field grade level (major and lieutenant colonel) at higher Army headquarters and the Department of Defense. A few WAC officers attended advanced courses given by other branches (The Adjutant General, Quartermaster), but the WAC had no advanced courses of its own. For officers, an advanced course was important because it was a prerequisite for attending the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

In 1951 Colonel Hallaren asked the G-3 of the Army to approve a WAC Officer Advanced Course at the WAC School. The G-3 saw the need for the course. Of almost 1,200 WAC officers on active duty, only 29 had attended the short World War II Command and General Staff Course.29 The G-3 also directed the chief of Army Field Forces to prepare a program of instruction and to initiate action to provide instructors, material, and equipment for the course. The first WAC Officer Advanced Course was conducted at Fort Lee, and on 10 July 1954 twenty-nine officers graduated. Thereafter WAC School conducted one advanced class a year until the course was discontinued in 1972.

With the opening of the advanced course, WAC officers gained access to a prerequisite for the Command and General Staff College, attendance at which almost guaranteed promotion to lieutenant colonel for men and women. Beginning in June 1955, the G-1 annually allocated four spaces for WAC officers to attend a 13-week Associate Command and General Staff Course. None attended the 43-week regular Command and General Staff Course until 1968, when the associate course was discontinued.30

In June 1955, the first WAC officer graduated from a senior service college. Based on her outstanding performance of duty in G-4, Department of the Army, and other logistical assignments, Lt. Col. Hortense M. Boutell was selected to attend the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. This ten-month course trained students in joint logistic planning, strategic planning, and national economic policies. No other WAC officer attended a senior service college until 1968.31

In the early 1950s the Army offered career specialization to officers who had achieved sufficient training in general military assignments, both command and staff, and who had demonstrated the ability to become specialists in logistics, intelligence, public information, civil affairs, or a
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foreign area. In the last-named specialty, for example, an officer received training in the language, culture, and economy of a specific foreign area. Because the training was extensive, only Regular Army officers with a career expectancy of thirty years were selected for such specialization. In addition to long periods of military and civilian graduate-level schooling in his specialty, a male officer also had to maintain proficiency in the skills associated with his branch. For WAC officers this requirement meant returning occasionally to command a WAC unit, to be assigned to recruiting, to instruct at WAC School, or to fill a staff position at the WAC Center or WAC School. The first WAC officers to enter specialization fields were Maj. Martha F. Schuchart, Army Security Agency; Maj. Elinor J. Connor, Intelligence; Maj. A. Nora Howes, Public Information; Lt. Col. Ruth Briggs, Foreign Area; and Lt. Col. Hortense Boutell, Lt. Col. Lillian Harris, and Maj. Mary L. Sullivan, Logistics.32

In June 1961, the judge advocate general agreed to accept WACs who were lawyers for duty and temporary detail (a three-year assignment away from the basic branch). Lt. Col. Nora G. Springfield was the first to be approved for duty as an Army lawyer. In a few years, the Army approved a program under which civilian lawyers and senior law school students could apply for appointment in the WAC with permanent detail
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to the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Their careers would be managed by that corps rather than by the WAC Career Management Branch. On 21 July 1966, 1st Lt. Adrienne M. McOmber became the first lawyer permanently detailed in the Judge Advocate General's Corps directly from civilian life.33

By 1960, 23 of 735 WAC officers on duty had entered the specialization programs. All 23 were Regular Army officers. By 1972, specialization had increased as career reserve officers also entered these programs (Table 13).34

TABLE 13-WAC OFFICERS IN SPECIALIZATION PROGRAMS

Source: Report of Major Events and Problems, DCSPER, DA, FY 1960, Chapter V, WAC, and Memo, Office of Personnel Operations, Officer Personnel Management Task Group, to Chief, WAC Career Branch, 28 Sep 72, sub: WAC Participation in OPMS Career Fields and Specialists, ODWAC Ref file, Specialization, CMH.

By law and regulation WAC officers could not be promoted above lieutenant colonel, could not command men, and could not be assigned combat duties. A wide range of assignments, however, was now available to them. The MOS in which most WAC officers served was administrative officer; next were unit commander, adjutant, personnel officer, recruiting officer, training center unit officer, supply officer, special services officer, troop information and education officer, public information officer, and intelligence staff officer. Technology opened new fields in the 1960s and 1970s, and WAC officers were trained and assigned in automatic data processing, computer science, and logistical systems.
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Because the WAC branch primarily controlled women officers and not a specific Army function as the male branches did (Signal, Ordnance, Medical, etc.), WAC officers not in a specialization program could be assigned more easily than men to "branch immaterial" positions jobs common throughout the Army in administration, personnel, training, or supply duties. Most male officers spent months being trained by their branch in a technical MOS or another branch area. Without jeopardizing their careers, they could not move into generalist positions or take positions outside their MOS. However, assignments that required WAC officers to be moved into other branches did not disrupt their career patterns. Many WAC officers served repetitive tours with other branches.35 Table 14 shows the number detailed to other branches in selected years.

TABLE 14-WAC OFFICERS DETAILED TO OTHER BRANCHES

Source: Strength of the Army Report (STM-30, DCSPE -46) for 30 June of years shown. DA Cir 52, 1953, discontinued authority to detail WAC officers the is Service Corps after 1955.

At no time did WAC officers as a group interfere with the progress of male officers' career development or assignment. The restrictions on WAC officer assignments prevented this. A study completed in 1964 concluded, "There is no evidence that broad utilization of WAC officers has prevented male officers from receiving appropriate career experience to any appreciable extent." Fewer than 100 WAC officers, the study continued, held staff positions that might be career enhancing for male
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officers and "even in these cases it may be argued that the Army is just as well off. They [WAC officers] may do just as much or more for the male officer's career advancement or improved promotion opportunity." The women could not relieve the Army's true shortage, which was combat officers, but they could "reduce the possibility or necessity for diverting combat arms officers into branch immaterial or noncombat assignments." 36 Apparently no WAC officer held a job that a male officer would want or one in which the assignment of a male would have been more advantageous to the Army.

Another study completed the following year analyzed the entire WAC program for the deputy chief of staff for personnel. Its goal was to review the Corps' strengths and weaknesses and to assess its future. With regard to WAC officers, the study concluded that because they were few in number, they had been more easily assimilated into the Army than enlisted women. "There is, therefore, no great impact on total male requirements from a WAC asset of less than 1 percent of the whole. On the other hand, distribution of WAC officers throughout the active Army is quite broad." 37 (See Table 15. )

TABLE 15-DISTRIBUTION OF WAC OFFICER ASSETS DECEMBER 1964

Source: Staff study, Utilization Div., Directorate of Manpower, ODCSPER, 12 Jun 65, sub: The WAC Program, Annex B, p. 4, ODWAC Ref File, Studies, CMH.
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The study showed that 25 percent of the WAC officers performed duty in WAC jobs; 75 percent, in branch immaterial assignments. The study group summed up its findings, "There are no restrictions on officer utilization from a career field point of view or from a promotion point of view, as there are with enlisted personnel. In effect, WAC officer utilization follows the same pattern as male officer utilization. Accordingly, WAC officer utilization is quite flexible and can be responsive to Army requirements." 38

The 1965 study did bring out the interesting fact that the overall age of WAC officers had been decreasing. In 1960, WAC officers aged twenty-five and under constituted 5 percent of the Corps; in 1964, officers in this age group comprised 20 percent. In 1960, officers in age group forty-one through forty-five made up 20 percent of the Corps; in 1964, they were 15 percent. The trend toward a younger Corps had been expected because the average age of WAC officers in World War II had been thirty. By 1965, many of these older WAC officers had reached retirement age. The increased youth of the Corps was a healthy sign. It showed that a steady stream of second lieutenants was entering the Corps and remaining for at least a twenty-year career.39

The chief of the WAC Career Branch played an important role in every WAC officer's career. She was responsible for assigning officers upon their graduation from a school or upon completion of a tour of duty. Because all officers sent a preference statement to the chief of their branch every year, she knew their choices for location of assignment, their hopes for additional military or civilian school training or specialization, and personal or family factors that required consideration. If they did not send a preference statement, the career branch chief assumed that their preferences were unchanged or that they had no strong preferences for reassignment when their current tour ended. Myth had it that the preference statement brought officers the opposite of their requests, but few tested the theory. Because the chief of the WAC Career Branch occupied such an important position, the director of the WAC personally nominated, to the G-1 or chief of personnel operations, the woman she considered best qualified to provide job satisfaction to the officers and fulfill WAC and Army requirements for officers of the Corps.40
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The order of priority for filling requisitions for WAC officers was established by the G-1 of the Army. The first priority in most years was filling projected vacancies in WAC units, WAC recruiting, and WAC training, because male officers could not be substituted. When these requirements were filled, requisitions submitted by the major commanders were filled in an order that depended upon the urgency of the mission being performed or supported. The chief of the WAC Career Branch first filled the urgent requisitions with the best qualified available officers. After that, she could consider the personal wishes of the officers.41

The small size of the Corps, averaging 800 officers between 1948 and 1972, was a boon because officers could receive individual attention and sometimes get a choice of assignments. Because their upward mobility was limited, WAC officers made the most of a life of travel and interesting assignments in the Army. The fact that their retention rate was higher than that of male officers indicated that they were not displeased with their prospects or with Army life. Most WAC officers enjoyed relocation and assignment to a new position every two or three years-until they approached mandatory retirement. At that point most of them had achieved their career goals, had reached the limit of promotional opportunity, and were content to buy a house and settle in a community near an Army post.

By 1957 the WAC had in place three procurement programs for its officers. The new procurement programs (the direct commission and the College Junior Program) were the best the Army could produce, but they could not achieve the WAC officer strength objective, even though that objective was lowered by an Army-wide strength reduction ordered by Congress. WAC officer strength on 30 June 1953 was 1,109; on 30 June 1957, 740. The decrease in officer accessions could be attributed to the end of the Korean War and an economy that offered plentiful employment in the civilian sector. In a 1955 letter to the commanders of the continental armies, Adjutant General John A. Klein suggested, "When there is placed in colleges and universities accurate information on commissioned military service as a vocation for young women, the needs of the Women's Army Corps can be met." He felt sure that young women would volunteer as soon as they knew about the opportunities for them in commissioned status.42 Civilian women's advancement to executive levels in business, education, government, and the professions was just as limited as it was in the Army. Advancement in civilian life, however, was not restricted by law, only by custom; and hope existed for upward mobility particularly in periods of a prospering economy. Army life on the other
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hand had proved satisfactory to only a small number of American women because its limitations were too marked and its opportunities for career fulfillment developed too slowly to give it mass appeal. The women officers procurement programs needed a great public relations effort to help the WAC achieve its officer objectives.

Warrant Officer Procurement and Career Management

The procurement and career development of male warrant officers were managed by the branch that controlled the individual's primary MOS. A major change in the MOS of a warrant officer usually affected both the control branch directing his assignments and the basic branch managing his career. Under the law, a WAC warrant officer's basic branch remained the WAC even though her MOS and control branch changed. The WAC Career Management Branch monitored WAC warrant officers' careers to ensure that the officers were promoted and retired on time, but the branch that controlled the women's MOS assigned and reassigned them and ensured the proper MOS training. To be appointed as a warrant officer, an enlisted man or woman had to have served at least one year on active duty or, if a civilian, possess a highly technical skill in short supply in the Army. The various branches obtained additional warrant officers primarily by inviting proficient enlisted personnel to apply for appointment in a certain MOS. Most WAC warrant officers served in an administrative, intelligence, or supply MOS; their assignments were managed by The Adjutant General, Intelligence and Security branch, or Quartermaster branch.43

Legislative action, the Warrant Officer Act of 1954, improved the attractiveness of careers for regular and reserve warrant officers by creating four warrant officer grades-there had previously been two-and by aligning the services' regulations regarding promotion, retention, separation, and retirement. Surprisingly, Congress decided to align the retirement laws for women warrant officers with those for women commissioned officers rather than with those for male warrant officers. Whereas male warrant officers with over twenty years' service did not face mandatory retirement until they reached age sixty-two, women warrant officers had to retire at age fiftyfive.44 WAC commissioned officers in the grade of major and lieutenant colonel retired at fifty-three and fifty-five, respectively. In 1967, Congress finally aligned retirement laws for male and WAC officers .45
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In other respects, women warrant officers received the same treatment as men. Women could be promoted to all warrant officer grades (W-1, the lowest, through W-4), and they competed on the same list with men for promotion in their MOS or career field. Women, however, still could not hold an MOS associated with combat duties.

At the time the Warrant Officer Act of 1954 went into effect, the WAC had forty-eight warrant officers, five of whom were Regular Army. Two of these five required a private bill in Congress to remain on duty beyond the mandatory retirement age to acquire twenty years' active service for retirement.46

Warrant officer status did not achieve popularity in the WAC primarily because it offered neither the advantages of a commission nor the status of a senior NCO. But it did provide higher pay than an enlisted person received, and it also ensured that a woman could continue to be assigned in the same MOS or occupational area throughout her career. Often women who qualified for a warrant officer appointment also qualified for a reserve appointment as a commissioned officer and chose the latter because the pay was higher and the prestige more attractive. A higher retirement age equal to the men's might have improved warrant officer status for women; it would have given them a longer period on active duty than women commissioned officers. Lack of appeal of warrant officer status to women is indicated by the fact that on 30 June 1975, the WAC had on active duty only twenty-two, of whom only one was Regular Army.47

Being a WAC officer was not a career that beckoned many women in the 1950s and 1960s. Compared to the opportunities available to male officers, the opportunities of a WAC officer were few. Many who entered the program left as quickly as possible when they encountered the male bias against women in service, the odds against promotion above major, and other disadvantages. Army life meant living in one room, eating out, working long hours, taking orders, going where sent, wearing uniforms without jewelry, scrimping on Army pay, and keeping one's hair above the collar. Assignment restrictions included prohibitions against serving in combat, commanding men, serving as chaplains or aviators, or being assigned below theater army level. On the positive side, however, were factors important to young women just leaving college. Army life meant self-supporting freedom; a guaranteed job, housing, and pay; social life and camaraderie; and educational and travel opportunities.

As the years passed, WAC officers earned some career-enhancing benefits. Major among them were the opening of an advanced course for
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WAC officers in 1954 and the allocation of four spaces annually in the Command and General Staff College. Also, beginning in 1955, WAC officers could enter specialization programs that could give those with special talent greater job satisfaction. The WAC officer corps survived on these few career benefits and the fact that Army life meant excitement, leadership opportunities, travel, retirement, veterans benefits, and higher expectations than they might have had in civilian jobs.

While some decline in Army strength was anticipated after periods of mobilization, the downward trend in WAC officer strength presented a continuing problem for a succession of WAC directors. Between 1953 and 1965, for example, WAC officer strength fell from 1,109 to 742.48 The DCSPER studies in the 1960s showed that the Army could have filled many more officer positions with WACs if it had had them. Not only was this decline apparent to the WAC directors, but they knew that the effectiveness, if not the continued existence of the Corps, depended on their attracting more women into the service.
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	1949	1950	1951
Authorized	Actual	Authorized	Actual	Authorized	Actual
Regular Army, WAC	500	267	500	314	600	329
Reserve, WAC	300	259	300	372	800	681
Total	800	626	800	686	1,400	1,010

Class No.	Graduation Date	Entered	Graduated	Percent Attrition	Length (weeks)
I	1 Apr 49	69	37	46.4	24
II	29 Sep 49	61	42	31.1	24
III	11 Apr 50	63	50	20.8	24
IV	19 Dec 50	42	26	38.1	17
V	24 Jul 51	48	21	56.3	17
VI	8 Mar 52	41	35	14.6	17
VII	19 Jul 52	13	10	23.1	17
VIII	14 Mar 53	25	13	44.0	20

Class No.	Graduation Date	Entered	Graduated	Appointment in
Reserve	Regular Army
I	19 Dec 50	47	41	20	21
II	11 Feb 52	72	56	35	21
III	7 Feb 53	19	15	9	6
IV	19 Dec 53	27	23	21	2

Grade	Maximum Age	Combined Years of College and Work Experience
Second Lieutenant	27	4
First Lieutenant	33	7
Captain	39	11

Program	1960	1972
Army Security Agency	1	-
Civil Affairs	1	-
Foreign Area Specialist	4	-
Information	3	15
Intelligence and Security	10	8
Logistics	4	38
Added after 1960
Automatic Data Processing	-	2
Research and Development	-	1
Total	23	64

Army Branch	1955	1963	1966	1970
Adjutant General	21	11	31	48
Chemical	9	2	1	1
Engineer	1	1	0	1
Finance	3	7	8	7
Intelligence	1	1	6	13
Judge Advocate General	0	4	4	6
Medical Service Corps	1	0	0	0
Military Police	5	0	0	0
Ordnance	4	12	0	1
Quartermaster	18	5	4	21
Signal	8	3	2	5
Transportation	7	1	0	0
Total	78	47	56	103

Occupational Area	Percent
WAC Command and Staff	12.5
WAC Recruiting and Training	12.0
Chief of Staff Area	2.5
G-1 Area	12.5
G-2 Area	3.5
G-3 Area	4.0
Comptroller Area	1.5
AG Area	19.0
Information Area	5.5
Duties Unassigned, Special Duty, Faculty, Student	15.0
Other	1.5
Detail to Other Branches	6.5
Total	100

Endnotes

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