Chapter VI: Strength Goals and the Move to Fort McClellan

The subject of WAC strength was uppermost in Colonel Galloway's mind at her first WAC staff advisers conference in May 1953. In her opening remarks, she outlined the problems ahead: "The matters of primary concern to us include our strength trends and our future procurement. We can take definite and corrective action and build increased interest and impetus in the matters of recruiting and reenlistment."1 Reinforcing that concern, Brig. Gen. Herbert B. Powell, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1, Manpower Control, told the attendees: "I stress to you, and urge your continued emphasis on, the need for the services of volunteer women in the Army. The utilization of women in the Army is an integral and carefully evaluated factor in the overall national manpower potential .... The second consideration which I stress with equal emphasis is the matter of reenlistments." 2

For the second consecutive year, WAC losses had exceeded gains. Recruiting and reenlistment rates had gone downhill for both men and women beginning in June 1951 and had continued downward-a trend not totally unexpected with an expanding wartime economy and an unpopular war. But in the spring of 1953, peace seemed to be in sight, and it was hoped that civilian attitudes toward military service would improve so that recruiters could again interest young women in an enlistment or a career in the Women's Army Corps. Such changes were needed for the Corps to continue as a creditable manpower resource to the Army. Colonel Galloway and her staff, unable to influence prevailing attitudes, began examining the discharge policies on marriage, pregnancy, and parenthood to find a way to reduce the Corps' heavy losses in those areas.

Discharge Policies

During most of World War II, no policy had existed under which women could be discharged on marriage. After V-E Day, women could request discharge when their husbands were demobilized. Later, any
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WAC who had married before V-E Day could be discharged without regard to demobilization points or to her husband's status as civilian or military. After demobilization ended, WACs could be discharged on marriage upon request. The policy, however, was stiffened when the WAC entered the Regular Army in 1948. Thereafter, neither officers nor enlisted women could be discharged on marriage unless they had completed one year of their current enlistment or appointment contract. This policy was included on enlistment applications so that the women would be aware of the obligation.3 With the Korean War, discharge on marriage had been suspended. When it was reinstated, the eligibility requirements had again changed. Enlisted women had to have completed one year of service beyond their initial training and arrival at the first duty station; officers needed two years' continuous active duty. Women stationed overseas at the time of their request had to complete one year of their foreign service tour in addition to attaining the basic eligibility for discharge.4

Few changes had occurred in policy regarding discharge for pregnancy. From the days of the Auxiliary Corps, women had been discharged as soon as possible after a doctor had certified the condition. During World War II, women at posts in the United States were usually processed out of the Army within fourteen days after certification; women stationed overseas were returned to the United States by air and then discharged. After the war, women who were pregnant could be discharged overseas if their husbands were there. Whether they were married or single, women being discharged on pregnancy received honorable discharge certificates; women who had illegal abortions did not. Instances of the latter were rare. If women who were to be discharged for some cause other than pregnancy (unsuitability, demobilization, etc.) were found to be pregnant during their final physical examination, they were discharged for the original cause, but their discharge papers noted that they were pregnant. This enabled them, if they had an honorable discharge, to receive maternity care at an authorized military facility.5

During its 1948 hearings on the WAC bill, Congress had made clear that the service should not interfere with the accepted pattern of women's lives. Congressman Carl Vinson stated: "We should not put anything in
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the law which should cause them to hesitate getting married or to raise a family; on the contrary, we should encourage it." 6 As a result, the WAC and other women's services continued their World War II policies that permitted women to marry, have children, and leave the service. Congress stopped short of encouraging family life for women in the service by not extending dependency allowances to the husbands or children of military women. The law stated that "husbands of women officers and enlisted personnel . . . and children of such officers and enlisted personnel shall not be considered dependents unless they are in fact dependent on their [wives or] mothers for their chief support."7 Congress allowed dependency status to wives and to children under eighteen whether or not they were capable of working, but it would not automatically grant that status to husbands, who were presumed to be capable of working to support their wives and children.

WACs had received no maternity care until the last months of World War II. After November 1944, women honorably discharged or released from active duty could receive prenatal and postnatal care (including delivery) at an Army facility provided that their honorable discharge papers showed they were pregnant when they left the service. Before being discharged, pregnant women forwarded a request through channels to the surgeon general of the service command in which they would be living; he designated which Army hospital in their area would provide the necessary care. From 1951 on, women honorably discharged from any armed service on pregnancy could receive prenatal and postnatal care from any military medical facility without written approval.8

Until 1949, the termination of a pregnancy by miscarriage, stillbirth, or therapeutic abortion did not deter the progress of orders for discharge on pregnancy. Prevailing opinion assumed that by becoming pregnant, an unwed woman proved she did not meet the moral standards necessary for military service and should be discharged. And since a married woman would probably become pregnant again, she too should be discharged. In February 1949, the women's services agreed to modify this rule. Officers and enlisted women whose pregnancy terminated before the date of their discharge from the service could request retention on active duty. The requests went through channels to the Army area commander. The regulation did not bar unmarried women from requesting retention, but few wanted to suffer any further embarrassment, and, given the prevailing attitude toward illegitimate pregnancy, it was almost certain that such requests would be disapproved. If a living child were born before the
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mother was discharged from the service, the officer or enlisted woman was discharged under the pregnancy regulation.9

In 1951, President Truman issued an executive order (EO-10240) that provided authority to discharge military women "on parenthood." Although the order did not require the services to discharge on parenthood, each service made such a discharge mandatory and issued new regulations in 1954. If a servicewoman married a man with children under eighteen years of age in his household for more than 30 days a year, the new regulations required the woman to request discharge. Each service permitted women to request retention on active duty if extenuating circumstances existed. Requests from unmarried women to adopt or otherwise acquire full-time custody of a child under eighteen were rarely approved.10

Colonel Galloway's review of women's discharge policies produced no new recommendations. Believing that the discharge policies were already as liberal as possible, she felt unable to change or eliminate any of them to reduce losses. To abolish discharge on marriage or pregnancy would make Congress and the public think the Army forced married women and mothers to remain in service against their will. For its part, the Army had no desire to keep on duty women who could not work full time, or be transferred, or receive additional training, or perform shift or fatigue duties. Colonel Galloway and her staff, therefore, turned their attention to recruitment and reenlistment policies in their continuing search for a means of increasing gains and reducing losses.

Recruitment and Reenlistment

An examination of WAC recruitment and reenlistment programs disclosed that Regular Army enlisted women received no choice of station, unit, or training course in return for a three-year, or longer, enlistment. Qualified male enlistees, on the other hand, could chose from an array of assignment guarantees-overseas duty, a certain command or division, school training. Pointing to the Corps' obvious need for more enlistments, Colonel Galloway convinced the G-1 to open the special school training option to women too. Under it, women high school graduates who met
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the mental and physical requirements and agreed to enlist for at least three years would be guaranteed assignment in one of seventeen specialist courses.11 The option, advertised as the "Reserved Seat Program" or the "High School Enlistment Option," opened in March 1953. Though it did not immediately increase WAC enlistments, it was a step forward.

A two-year enlistment had been made available to women in 1952. To young women, eighteen to twenty years of age (the average enlistment age for WACs), the shorter alternative was more appealing, especially when a longer enlistment provided no obvious advantages. Long range, however, the two-year enlistment was disadvantageous to the Army in two respects. First, like draftees, few two-year women reenlisted; and second, after completing four months of training, two-year women had only twenty months left to spend in the Army versus thirty-two months for three-year women. For the women who signed up, the two-year program had several drawbacks as well. They could not enroll in school training programs longer than eight weeks because most required students, male or female, to have eighteen to twenty-four months remaining on their enlistments when they completed the course. They could not be assigned overseas because WACs had to serve at least one year on active duty before becoming eligible for such duty, and all volunteers needed at least one year remaining on their enlistment when they arrived at a port of embarkation. Recruiters, however, liked the two-year enlistment because it sold easily, and it gave them the same amount of credit as an enlistment for three years. Thus, in FY 1953, which ended just two months after the Reserved Seat Program went into effect, of the 2,638 women who enlisted directly from civilian life, 2,354 chose the two-year enlistment.12

To strengthen the recruitment process, a new mental screening test was introduced in January 1953-the Armed Forces Women's Selection Test (AFWST). For women, it replaced the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), in use since 1950, which men continued to use. Because the AFQT was designed primarily to test men, it contained a high concentration of questions on mechanical skills, knowledge of motors and tools, the sciences, and physics. By contrast, the AFWST emphasized verbal skills, arithmetic reasoning, and pattern analysis. This test more aptly measured a woman's potential to be trained in clerical and administrative positions, typical assignments in the 1950s. The AFWST retained some questions to
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evaluate knowledge of mechanics, science, and other subjects, but such questions were few. With periodic revisions, the AFWST was used as the primary mental screening test for WACs and the other women's services until 1978.13

WAC reenlistment programs were examined next. In 1952 a reenlistment option had been opened to all personnel returning from overseas. Under this provision returning personnel could select the Army post to which they wished to be assigned. If a vacancy in their MOS and grade existed at the post, they were able to reenlist for it. If it did not, they reenlisted without a guaranteed assignment.14 Women who were due for reenlistment while in the United States had no comparable choices. Men reenlisting under similar circumstances had a variety of options-assignment to the Far East, Europe, Alaska, Australia, or the Caribbean; assignment to a particular branch (Infantry, Engineers, Signal); or duty (airborne, counterintelligence, a band); or a specific division (1st Cavalry, 2d, 3d, 7th, 24th, or 25th Infantry).15 In mid-1953, however, Colonel Galloway was able to obtain some reenlistment options for women. They could reenlist for duty in a specific geographic Army area or the Military District of Washington (MDW); at a specific post, if it had a WAC detachment; or for duty in Europe or the Far East commands, provided that a proper vacancy existed.16 Beginning in 1955, servicewomen could reenlist for special school training courses just as women enlisting directly from civilian life could do.17

On 30 June 1950, the reenlistment rate for all services had been 59.3 percent; by 30 June 1954, it had fallen to 23.7 percent. These low reenlistment rates concerned Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson. Before the Korean War ended, he had appointed a committee to determine why the rates had dropped so drastically since 1950, and what could be done to increase them. The committee, headed by Rear Adm. J. P. Womble, Jr., conducted its study during the summer of 1953 and sent its report forward in October. It pinpointed the high civilian employment rate as the basic cause for the lack of reenlistments and noted that civilian pay was "lucrative, particularly for the skills taught within the services." The committee also noted that increases in military pay had not kept pace with increased costs of living, increases in pay in industry, or increases in government civilian pay. Contributing factors were the country's world-
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wide commitments, which meant increased hardships for soldiers because of longer overseas tours and family separations; a decline in public respect for military service; and a service-wide dilution in discipline, morale, and attention to personal problems. To counter these factors, the Womble Committee advised eliminating incompetent personnel; estimating the impact of new policies before implementing them; and improving housing, dependent care, retirement programs, travel allowances, reenlistment incentives, and pay.18

These proposals generated a wave of improvements in the military services. Chief among them was the passage of legislation that provided a new method of computing reenlistment bonuses. Up to this time, men and women received a lump cash sum of $40, $90, $160, $250, or $360 for reenlistment for two, three, four, five, or six years, respectively. Now, individuals reenlisting for the first time would receive an amount determined by multiplying their monthly base pay by the number of years on their new enlistment contract. For example, a WAC corporal (E-4) reenlisting for three years would receive $390-her base pay of $130 times three. Under the old law she would have received only $90 for reenlisting.19

Using the new legislation, the Army launched a major reenlistment campaign in 1954. Reenlistment NCOs were appointed to assist unit commanders in canvassing, interviewing, and counseling enlisted members on the advantages of remaining in the service. Each individual qualified to reenlist was interviewed at least three times before his or her enlistment ended. The counselor pointed out options for which the individual qualified, computed the reenlistment bonus money, and explained the other benefits of military life-retired pay, further training and educational opportunities, medical and dental care, etc. Prospective reenlistees were scheduled to see films designed to encourage them to reenlist-"Ninety-Day Wondering," "It's Your Future," or "A Look
Ahead."20

With the higher reenlistment bonus, the Army became more particular about the qualifications of reenlistees. The Army laid the groundwork for this selectivity in 1953 by introducing the idea of a "bar to reenlistment." Unit commanders could document habitual misconduct or inadequate mental ability and record the information in an individual's service record. At the end of the individual's tour, that information would bar the person's reenlistment unless the problem had been eliminated. A WAC reenlistment guide admonished commanders "to reenlist as many
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good WACs as possible .... One of the most important parts of your job as Unit Officer is to promote a high rate of re-enlistment of desirable WACs." 21

Congress passed a number of other laws that had a good effect on the Army's and the other services' reenlistment programs. In 1955 and 1958 military pay was increased and, in 1958, two enlisted grades were added: E-8, master sergeant or first sergeant, and E-9, sergeant major. Increased pay made military service more competitive with private industry; the additional grades increased the prestige of the enlisted ranks. To provide proficiency incentives, the 1958 pay bill allowed additional pay for enlisted personnel who demonstrated excellence in their MOS performance. The first proficiency level, P-1 pay, gave a man or woman an additional $50 a month; P-2 pay added $100 a month; and P-3 pay added $150 a month. As an additional benefit, the 1958 bill also offered one year of college for every three-year enlistment or reenlistment and two years of college for every six-year enlistment or reenlistment. And, at the beginning of this period of goodwill and good public relations, the Defense Department, at the urging of Director Galloway and several veterans groups, had sponsored a bill, passed by Congress on 24 August 1954, giving VA benefits to WAACs who had been honorably discharged on physical disability between 14 May 1942 and 30 September 1943.22

Between 1953 and 1955, by providing options for women in duty stations and schools, Colonel Galloway succeeded in bringing the women's reenlistment program almost in line with the men's. The WAC reenlistment rate, which had fallen to 18.7 percent in 1954, had swung upward to 35.6 percent by June 1955.23 Greater freedom of choice, increased enlistment bonuses, and higher pay all contributed to the improved reenlistment rate. Another major event during 1954 also had a favorable impact on WAC recruiting and reenlistment-the opening of a new WAC center and WAC school at Fort McClellan, Alabama.

The Move to Fort McClellan

Discussion about a new WAC center and WAC school had begun after a November 1950 visit to Camp Lee by Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Administration. On his return to the Pentagon, he asked the G-1, then General Brooks, to find a better training area for the WACs. General Ridgway observed: "The
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barracks these young American women occupy . . . can never create any pride of occupancy. They are the dirty old temporary type of wooden shack. I think we can do better." 24 General Brooks agreed and forwarded the memorandum to Colonel Hallaren, then the director of the WAC, and received a surprising reply. Colonel Hallaren recommended that the WAC training center concept be eliminated and that men and women be trained together in the Army's basic training system. She pointed out that few differences existed in their training programs except for the weapons and tactical training given men. She proposed for a pilot model that "a training battalion be activated at a permanent post such as Fort Benning to provide joint training for men and women in common subjects. If successful, similar battalions might be activated at other training divisions until the entire function of a WAC training center had been absorbed."25 Men and women would be assigned to separate companies but would share classrooms, instructors, training aids, and equipment. Such a program, she felt, would reduce training and travel costs, "create a highly desirable orientation for both men and women entering the Army," and, hopefully, improve soldiers' attitudes toward women in the Army.26

When her proposal received no support, Colonel Hallaren dropped the idea and turned to the selection of a post suitable for a WAC training center. A site selection committee, appointed by the chief of staff, was already at work. The members of the committee, who represented the G-1, the G-3, the G-4, the director of the WAC, and the chief of Army Field Forces, reviewed the availability of land and facilities at the sites considered only a few years earlier when Camp Lee had been chosen: Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, Fort Riley, and Fort McClellan. Their choice was Fort McClellan. The Alabama location had a mild climate, allowing a maximum number of outdoor training days; adequate transportation, both ground and air; and proximity to the service schools where the WACs would receive specialist training. In December 1950, the chief of staff approved Fort McClellan as the site of the WAC Center and WAC School .27

Located five miles north of Anniston, Alabama, in a valley west of the Choccolocco Mountains, Fort McClellan was first opened in 1917. Named in honor of the Civil War general-in-chief of the Union armies, George B. McClellan, the post had been an infantry training center during both world wars and had been closed, reverting to custodial status, after those wars had ended. During World War II, Fort McClellan's large hospital (1,728 beds) and station complement had included two WAC detachments-one white, one black-whose members worked in
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the hospital, post headquarters, motor pool, bakery, service club, supply offices, and warehouses.28

On 4 January 1951, the Department of the Army announced that Fort McClellan, closed in 1947, would reopen as a permanent post and that the Chemical School and Replacement Training Center would move there from Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. Chemical training activities would occupy the existing buildings on post. Meanwhile, a task force prepared detailed descriptions and justifications for moving the WAC Center to Fort McClellan and constructing facilities there for both the WAC and the Chemical Corps. The plan was presented to Congress and approved by the lawmakers. On 21 September 1951, President Truman signed the appropriations bill that authorized $23,333,250 for the projects at Fort McClellan.29

Bids on construction opened in June 1952. In September a contract was signed with Bruce Construction Company of Miami, Florida. The WAC deputy director, Lt. Col. Emily C. Gorman, reported: "When the bids were let and the actual working construction got underway, the cost of the WAC Center . . . was established at $7,300,000." 30 Initial construction costs, however, totaled $10.5 million, even though in the legislative process, approximately $3 million had been deleted from the WAC project and some needed buildings were lost.31

A formal ground-breaking ceremony took place on 7 October 1952, with Maj. Patricia E. Grant representing the director of the WAC, who could not be present. During the construction phase, Major Grant had been the only WAC officer at the post. She represented the director in monitoring the progress of the construction and assisted the post commander and his staff in their planning. She contacted the merchants and civic leaders in the Anniston area and gave talks on WAC history and training courses to business, church, and school groups throughout the state. She established the goodwill that future WACs would enjoy within the community. The WAC staff advisers at Headquarters, Third Army, in this period-Lt. Cols. Rebecca Parks and Verna A. McCluskey, and Maj. N. Margaret Young-visited frequently and provided what assistance they could.

Strikes, bad weather, and shortages of building supplies caused by the Korean War slowed construction. The contractor, after changing the
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MAJ. GEN. CHARLES D. PALMER, G-3, ARMY FIELD FORCES, FORT MONROE, confers with officers from WAC Center and WAC School regarding the move from Fort Lee to Fort McClellan. Left to right: Maj. Martha D. Allen, S-3, WAC Center, Maj. Sue Lynch, Assistant Commandant, WAC School, Lt. Col. Eleanore C. Sullivan, Commander, WAC Center, and Commandant, WAC School, March 1953.

"moving in" day three times, finally set 25 June 1954 as the date, and the WAC Center commander, Lt. Col. Eleanore C. Sullivan, immediately set in motion the detailed moving plan that her immediate staff had prepared. 32

Beginning on 10 May 1954, advance parties of WACs began arriving at Fort McClellan, which, effective 10 June, would become the home of
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the WAC Center and WAC School. The largest group led by Lt. Col. Lucile G. Odbert, deputy WAC Center commander, arrived on 12 June. The enlisted members of the group cleaned buildings, arranged furniture and equipment, and received property as it arrived from Fort Lee. The first shipment of property, supplies, and equipment left Fort Lee on 1 June. By 16 August, over 120 tons of station and personal property had arrived at Fort McClellan. To reduce transportation costs, no new basic trainees were sent to Fort Lee after 17 June, and of those already there as many trainees and students as possible were graduated. From 1 July to 9 August, the WAC officially operated two training centers so that no training time would be lost. Some trainee transfers, however, were necessary, and two platoons of Company A, WAC Training Battalion, who had begun their training at Fort Lee in early June, completed it at Fort McClellan in August.33

WAC recruiters outdid themselves in obtaining new enlistees and officers to enter the courses at the new center and school that summer. Two hundred women began their basic training on 5 July. The WAC Clerical Procedures and Typing Course, restored to WAC School after being disbanded in 1950 to make room for more recruits at Fort Lee, commenced its first class on 16 August with forty students. Class VI of the WAC Officer Basic Course and Class X of the WAC Officer Candidate Course, the first combined class, began on 26 August with twenty-two student officers and six officer candidates.34

The WAC area was divided into two major sections-the WAC School and the WAC Center, which included the WAC Training Battalion. The Center's main building contained offices for the battalion commander, her staff and instructors, twenty-five classrooms, and a small gymnasium. Across the street were six cream colored barracks buildings, made of steel-reinforced concrete blocks, with asphalt tile floors and pastel-painted interiors. Basic trainees occupied five of the barracks, and members of the 14th Army Band (WAC) lived in the sixth, part of which was converted into rehearsal rooms. Also in the battalion complex were a mess hall, which could seat 400 at a time, and a building for fitting and issuing WAC uniforms.35
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NEWLY ENLISTED WOMEN arrive at the train station, Anniston, Alabama, to begin basic training at the new WAC Center, Fort McClellan, July 1954.

Each barracks had three stories and a basement. On the first floor were offices for the company commander and her staff, a kitchen, reception area, dayroom, and bathroom with private toilets, individual showers, and two bathtubs. The basic trainees lived on the second and third floors in large bays without partitions, two bays per floor. Each bay contained forty-five to fifty cots, footlockers, wall lockers, and steel clothes closets. In addition, each floor had a laundry room with automatic washers, dryers, and ironing boards; a large bathroom; and several cadre rooms in which the unit's platoon sergeants lived. The basements contained offices for the unit supply officer and her assistants, storage rooms for the unit's supplies and for the basic trainees' suitcases, and a mailroom.

The WAC School was about a half-mile from the basic training area. The main building contained offices for the assistant commandant, her staff, and the instructors as well as twenty-five classrooms, a bookstore, and a library. Student officers and officer candidates lived in a barracks designed like those at the Center for basic trainees, except that partitions
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WAC AREA, FORT McCLELLAN, 1954

were provided between each two cots in the bays. Enlisted students lived in another barracks in open bays without partitions. Headquarters and Headquarters Company, also located in this area, held the permanent party enlisted women who were assigned to WAC Center headquarters, WAC School, Fort McClellan's post headquarters, the hospital, or another activity on post. Another large mess hall was located in this area to serve the women who lived in these barracks.

WAC officers assigned to activities on post lived in bachelor officer quarters in the WAC area. Lieutenants and captains shared a suite, which consisted of two bedrooms separated by a bathroom. Majors and above had individual suites-living room, bedroom, and bath. The few small cottages available were assigned to the officers who occupied key positions, e.g., the WAC Center commander/School commandant, assistant commandant, battalion commander.

WAC Center headquarters, which stood on a hill in the center of the area and overlooked the parade ground, held offices for the commander and her immediate staff, a small auditorium, message center, and printing shop.
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Colonel Sullivan, Center commander, arrived on 15 July to assume command of the new WAC facility from her deputy, Colonel Odbert. A few days later, the citizens of Anniston welcomed their new neighbors by proclaiming 21 July as "WAC Day." The main streets of the city (population 26,000) were draped with bunting and welcome banners; merchants placed placards of welcome in their store windows; and the local newspaper and radio station featured WAC activities throughout the day. WAC Day initiated an enduring and warm relationship between the members of the WAC at Fort McClellan and the citizens of Anniston and the adjoining towns of Oxford, Jacksonville, Weaver, and Heflin.

Dedication of the WAC Center and WAC School was deferred until 27 September 1954, when all activities were fully operational. General Ridgway, now Army chief of staff, was the principal speaker at the ceremony. He told the 700 or so military and civilian guests: "Here the traditions of the Women's Army Corps will be passed on to those yet to wear the proud insignia of the WAC. They will become familiar with the splendid achievements of their predecessors and with the great honor and responsibility that is theirs in wearing the uniform of their country's Army forces."36 He concluded the ceremony by unveiling a large bronze dedicatory plaque that read: "The WAC Center, dedicated to members of the Women's Army Corps who served their country in peace and war. Fort McClellan, Alabama, 27 September 1954." The plaque was later mounted on a marble slab and permanently placed in an area called the WAC Memorial Triangle across the street from the WAC chapel.37

Support in the field as well as in Washington had helped make the new WAC "home" possible. Lt. Gen. Alexander R. Boning, Commanding General, Third U.S. Army, at Fort McPherson, Georgia, the area commander, took an active interest in the construction and operation of the Center, ensuring the resources necessary for its success. Providing day-today assistance were the Fort McClellan post commanders-Col. Michael Halloran, who retired in August 1954, and his replacement, Col. William T. Moore, who served until 1958.

Attainment of the branch "home" made a difference in the progress of most WAC programs. It provided visible proof that Congress and the Army appreciated the Women's Army Corps and wanted it to prosper. The new Center and School thus enhanced the prestige of the WAC within the Army, improved the morale of women on duty, and gave WAC recruiters a significant new selling point for obtaining recruits and student officers. During the year that ended 30 June 1954, 2,958 enlisted women entered the Corps; in the year that followed, 4,384. And while only 90 women received commissions in FY 1954, and only 53 in FY 1955, 115 were appointed in FY 1956.38
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GENERAL MATTHEW B. RIDGWAY, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF, speaking at the dedication of the new WAC Center and WAC School at Fort McClellan, 27 September 1954. To General Ridgway's left are Senator Lister Hill of Alabama, Brig. Gen. Charles G. Hone, Corps of Engineers, and Col. Irene O. Galloway, Director, WAC. In the background are Pfc. Flora G. Thompson and 1st Lt. Edna Lee Gray, escorts.

Expanding Enlisted Utilization

In her continuing search for ways to increase WAC personnel strength, Colonel Galloway also worked to improve job satisfaction. A survey conducted in August 1945 had reported, "Satisfaction with her job is probably the single most important factor in an enlisted woman's evaluation of her role as a member of the Women's Army Corps and, consequently, her general morale and adjustment in Army life."39 Thus, if ways could be found to increase job satisfaction, the reenlistment rate should also rise.

Job satisfaction to most WACs meant doing work that was meaningful and that occupied them fully during duty hours. During World War II, after the WAAC had overcome the Army's initial resistance to the idea that women could be more than clerks, cooks, telephone operators, and drivers, opportunities opened in hundreds of military occupational specialties (MOSs). This large bank of jobs contributed most to the successful employment of women during the war. Although the majority of women worked in administration, communications, and medical care and treatment, they knew that some of their peers worked in a variety of
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unusual occupations. They, thus, sensed that the Army offered women increased opportunities. Knowing they had a choice in work assignment, location, and even the uniform they wore was important to the women and contributed to their job satisfaction.

After World War II, the G-1 ordered a major study aimed at developing a modern personnel management system and MOS structure for enlisted personnel. The new system, introduced during the first year of the Korean War, encompassed 490 MOSS arranged in 31 major career fields and 194 areas of specialization. Each new MOS description included a detailed outline of work performed, its physical and mental requirements, its training requirements, and a statement about whether or not a WAC could be assigned to it. From this, the G-1 developed the first authorized list of MOSS in which WACs could be trained and had it issued as a special regulation. Although revised periodically in the years to follow, the list was the controlling factor in determining WAC assignments.40
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During the development of the new system, other studies were also conducted. In 1949, Surgeon General Raymond W. Bliss authorized a test to determine "to what extent women could be substituted for men in the operation of Army hospitals."41 The experiment began on 1 June 1949 at Murphy General Hospital, a 500-bed facility near Boston, Massachusetts. Military and civilian women gradually replaced males in the majority of medical and administrative jobs in the hospital and in the facility support jobs required when the hospital functioned as a military post. Civilian and Army nurses and members of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps filled positions in the hospital's clinics, wards, and offices. WAC officers, warrant officers, and enlisted women received either school training or on-the-job training so that they could fill administrative and technical positions. By the end of the year, 16 WAC officers, 2 WAC warrant officers, and 240 enlisted women had been assigned to the hospital.

Women, however, did not fill all positions. No women Army doctors were available to participate because the law permitting them to be commissioned in the Army of the United States (AUS) had expired in 1948. And costs precluded the hospital's hiring of civilian women doctors for the experiment. In another case, enlisted women did not replace the janitorial staff, mostly male civilians, because no comparable MOSS existed for such jobs. The test administrator also excluded WACs from positions that were located in isolated areas, that called for physical strength beyond a woman's capacity, that would require women to discipline men, and that would offend the "modesty of the average woman and sense of delicacy of male patients" and "would make the service of a male attendant desirable."42

On 30 April 1950, Murphy General Hospital was deactivated and the study was discontinued. Col. John M. Welch, commander of the hospital, reported that during the experiment, the hospital had operated with full effectiveness. He recommended that the maximum percentage of women in hospital activities be 92; in hospital-post activities, 60. In hospital functions, however, he recommended that men be assigned for such tasks as heavy lifting in connection with male-patient care and treatment. WAC officers had performed well as hospital executive officer, management officer, personnel officer, medical supply officer, mortuary officer, and transportation officer. A WAC warrant officer had served competently as hospital registrar, and a WAC master sergeant had served successfully as sergeant major of the hospital. The jobs to which women were not assigned were those usually associated with great physical strength: fire fighter, prison guard, psychiatric attendant, boiler fireman, and butcher. The study supported the conclusions of other studies being conducted
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during the period, but it did not result in any changes in utilization of women in the medical career field .43

A different study began in October 1949 at Walter Reed General Hospital (Forest Glen Section), Washington, D.C. Twenty-nine enlisted women entered an experimental 48-week course in practical nursing-the Advanced Medical Technicians Procedures Course. The course curriculum, developed by Maj. Isabelle A. G. Mason, ANC, was taught by her, five other Army nurses, and one dietitian. Based on objective periodic reviews, tests, and evaluations, the course was considered a success. Twenty-one WACs graduated from the first class. The surgeon general and the chief of Army Field Forces approved continuance of the course, and enlisted men were admitted to subsequent classes.44

For the next three years, the practical nursing course was conducted solely at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Korean War increased the demand for its graduates, and beginning in 1952, similar courses opened at Letterman and Fitzsimmons General Hospitals in San Francisco and Denver, respectively. Graduates took practical nurse licensing examinations in the states in which they were assigned. The commanding general at Walter Reed Army Medical Center commented: "Many practical nurses are serving overseas where they assist Army nurses in giving the highest quality of nursing care. In augmenting the nursing service, these technicians have become a most welcome asset in the medical field."45

Despite the results in the medical area, the enlisted personnel management system initiated in November 1950 was not a complete success. Commanders complained that the MOS and classification structure with its 31 career fields and 194 specializations was too complicated to administer. The exigencies of the Korean War also made it difficult to implement some of the innovative provisions of the new system, such as efficiency reports, competitive promotions, pooling of grade vacancies, and MOS testing. These provisions were suspended until the war ended. In December 1951, Army Chief of Staff J. Lawton Collins directed the chief of Army Field Forces to devise a new MOS structure, career fields, and classification program. Work on the project-with the major commanders, the chiefs of the administrative and technical services, and the Army staff at the Pentagon participating-began early in 1952.46
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The WAC did not have a role in the new study, and no WAC officer was included in the study group. Upon reviewing the new MOS structure when it was proposed in 1953, Colonel Galloway compared each MOS declared suitable for WACs against the women's utilization policies then in effect. She told the chief of the study group that seventy MOSS on the "suitable" list did not meet the criteria laid down in the policies and recommended the list be made compatible with WAC standards. She noted, for example, that eighteen MOSs in the artillery series were not appropriate for the training and assignment of WACs. Although Colonel Galloway wanted the widest possible spectrum of MOSs, she also wanted the selection and assignment of women to be guided by what she considered sound policies. Assignments that would require combat training and possibly combat duty for women were unacceptable.

A new MOS structure introduced by the Army in 1955 made a number of changes in enlisted personnel management. Ten occupational areas replaced the thirty-one career fields. Under the new MOS code, a WAC administrative specialist who formerly held MOS 1502 now held MOS 717.60. The first two digits (71) showed her occupational area (Administration-71); the third digit her specialty (Personnel-7). The suffix digits (.60) indicated her skill level and special qualifications, if she had any. The new system also provided separate grades and titles for NCOs and specialists. Under this restructuring, 128 of the 385 Army MOSs were opened to enlisted women. The criteria for WAC utilization were now included in the same regulation that outlined policies for men (AR 611203, Enlisted Personnel Selection and Classification, 2 March 1955). This was a small step forward. Those facets of the new system whose implementation had been suspended during the Korean War-enlisted efficiency reports, MOS testing to determine proficiency, and an Army-wide promotion system based on merit-were put into effect between 1955 and 1960. These changes brought marked improvement in the management of enlisted personnel, but neither opened new fields nor closed old ones to the WACs.

Colonel Galloway's tenure as director was a time of sound WAC accomplishment: enlistment gains had finally exceeded losses; three-year enlistments had surpassed two-year enlistments; and the reenlistment rate was higher than in 1953. These improvements were, in part, a result of increased military pay and reenlistment bonuses, the Army's new management system for enlisted personnel, and the WAC's move to a new home at Fort McClellan. They were also the result of Colonel Galloway's success in adding enlistment options and improving job satisfaction for the WACs-achievements that earned her the respect and affection of the women of the Corps.
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