Morden, Bettie J., 1921-

The history of the Women's Army Corps, 1945-78 / by Bettie J. Morden.

p. cm. 1. United States. Army. Women's Army Corps-History. I. Title

UA565.W6M67 1989            89-600225

355.3'48'0973-dc20            CIP

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402

U.S. Army Center of Military History

This is the second volume published by the U.S. Army Center of Military History on the history of the Women's Army Corps from its beginning in World War II until it was discontinued by Congress thirty-six years later. The first volume, by Mattie E. Treadwell, dealt with the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and its successor, the Women's Army Corps (WAC), throughout World War II. This volume covers the thirty-three years of Corps history between V-J Day and the decision by Congress in 1978 to end the WACs' separate status and assimilate them into the other branches of the Army (except the combat arms).

 

The current volume tells how the directors of the Women's Army Corps struggled to achieve the goals that we take for granted today. It tells of the years they spent pushing and prodding the Army, the Department of Defense, and Congress to achieve Regular Army and Reserve status, military credit for their WAAC service, and promotion above the grade of lieutenant colonel. While early WAC directors had the task of fighting for progress and equity, their successors fought a losing battle to keep entry standards high and to retain their separate corps status.

 

The author of this volume served as a WAC throughout the existence of the Corps. She provides readers with a comprehensive picture of WAC growth and development and the transformation in the status of Army women brought by the advent of the all-volunteer Army and the women's rights movement of the seventies. The book makes a significant contribution to women's history and the history of the Army.

Colonel Bettie J. Morden enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps from Michigan on 15 October 1942 and served throughout World War II. Discharged from the Army in November 1945, she entered Columbia University, completed her baccalaureate degree in 1949 and her masters degree in June 1950. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve in 1950, she reentered active duty as a first lieutenant in May 1952.

 

She is a graduate of the WAC Officers' Advanced Course (1962); Command and General Staff College (1964); and the Army Management School (1965). She has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Colonel Morden retired on 31 December 1972 and was recalled on active duty to write the WAC history in February 1974. She reverted to retired status on 31 December 1982.

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In 1974, twenty years after it published a volume of history on the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in World War II, the Army directed the preparation of a sequel to cover the subsequent twenty-seven years of WAC history, 1945-1972. However, it soon became clear that the Women's Army Corps as a separate corps of the Army would be discontinued in 1978, and the scope of the new volume was extended to include the final years of the Women's Army Corps.

 

The initial volume, The Women's Army Corps, was written by Lt. Col. Mattie E. Treadwell and was published in 1954. Colonel Treadwell chronicled the actions taken by members of Congress, senior officers of the War Department, and the director of the WAC in mobilizing, organizing, and utilizing women in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and, after 1943, in the Women's Army Corps. She also detailed the reaction of the women of the Corps to Army life and to their reception by the men of the Army. The first chapter of this volume summarizes Colonel Treadwell's work in order to provide the reader with the background needed to understand subsequent events.

 

For many years, Colonel Treadwell's volume stood alone as an official account of the plans and policies that directed the lives and careers of the women in the military services. In 1986, the Marine Corps published Col. Mary V. Stremlow's A History of the Women Marines, 1946-1977. The Army Nurse Corps, the Air Force, and the Navy have in recent years begun work on the history of women who served in their organizations.

 

This volume, like Colonel Treadwell's, focuses on the interaction of plans, decisions, and personalities at the highest levels of the Department of the Army that affected the Women's Army Corps. The main players in the story are the secretaries of the Army, the chiefs of staff, the deputy chiefs of staff for personnel, the directors of the Women's Army Corps, the WAC staff advisers, and the commanders of the WAC Center and the WAC School. So many high-level plans and decisions had to be described that little space remained to describe the day-to-day happenings in a detachment, the humorous things, the serious things, the exhilaration of promotion, the joy or agony of transfer orders, the suspense of mail call, or tears when the national anthem was played. For this reason, it is hoped that many WACs will follow Maj. Camilla Mays Frank, Capt. Georgia B. Watson, and others in publishing their stories, or the family of Lt. Col. Emily U. Miller who provided the funds for a graduate student, Kathleen E. R. Smith, to write a biography of their sister.

 

Many of the ideas and moral attitudes that existed in the middle decades of this century will seem strange to modern readers, but they existed and they influenced policies affecting the WACs. For example, until 1971 the Corps did 

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not accept the initial enlistment of a married woman. Society expected that a woman would stay at home with her husband. Also until that year the Corps would not even consider enlisting a woman who had had an illegitimate pregnancy, whether or not a child was delivered from that pregnancy. Until the late 1960s most WAC detachment commanders did not allow enlisted women to wear blue jeans or slacks outside the unit area unless the women were en route to the softball field or bowling alley. A WAC in uniform could not enter a liquor store or a bar, smoke while walking, or chew gum in public. The rules were strict and were sometimes disobeyed, but the women learned high standards of deportment and they knew their officers and NCOs cared about them as individuals as well as members of the Corps. By the late 1970s, society had taken such a wide turn in attitudes toward unwed mothers, unmarried couples living together, dress codes, conduct in public, and other standards that the strict morality and social proprieties of earlier years faded from existence.

 

For the most part, this volume follows a chronological arrangement structured around the tenures of the successive directors of the Corps. Only Chapter XII interrupts this order. That chapter, on the history of the WAC Center and WAC School, recounts the history of the training center at Fort McClellan, Alabama, from 1954 through 1976, when the center was discontinued. I have not singled out any ethnic group for a separate chapter because in one way or another each WAC belonged to a minority group, but together we made up the mosaic that was the Women's Army Corps. Women of every ethnic group made notable achievements in their WAC careers; most are not mentioned here only because they did not become involved with this part of the WAC history.

 

For assistance, guidance, and advice in preparing this volume, the author is indebted to a number of people. Brig. Gen. Mildred Inez Caroon Bailey, the eighth director of the WAC, suggested and obtained approval for the project, with strong support from Brig. Gen. James L. Collins, Jr., chief of military history and commander of the U.S. Army Center of Military History (19711982). The work proceeded initially (1974-1983) under the overall supervision of Dr. Maurice Matloff, chief historian of the Army, and under the daily guidance of Robert Ross Smith, chief of the Army Center of Military History's General History Branch, whose detailed editorial comments laid a steady track for the WAC manuscript. Later, the author profited from the advice of Brig. Gen. William A. Stofft, who became the chief of military history and commander of the Army Center of Military History in 1985. The author is also greatly indebted to the panel members who reviewed the initial manuscript: Dr. Cynthia E. Harrison, George Washington University; Brig. Gen. Elizabeth P. Hoisington, former director of the WAC; Dr. David F. Trask, who succeeded Dr. Matloff as chief historian of the Army; Lt. Col. Richard O. Perry, chief of CMH's Histories Division; and Dr. Albert E. Cowdrey, chief of CMH's Special History Branch. A particular debt of gratitude is owed Dr. Cowdrey, who patiently provided advice and suggestions to improve the volume's style and organization. I am grateful for the editorial assistance provided by Sara J. Heynen of CMH's production staff who also coordinated the work of the Editorial Research Asso-

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ciates whose chief, Mary F. Loughlin, provided the substantive editing that eliminated many of my errors and repetitions and added some life to the man script. Craig Skates did a masterful job on the copy editing of the manuscript Three outside readers provided valuable suggestions-Col. Elizabeth H. Branc USA Retired, Dr. Margaret Conrad Devilbiss, and James Charles Gibbon

 

During the years that the volume was being prepared, I frequently contact the former directors WAC for information or clarification. Each director, fro Col. Mary A. Hallaren through Maj. Gen. Mary E. Clarke, read portions of the revised manuscript and provided valuable insights. Many WAC officers and noncommissioned officers, too numerous to name but deserving of recognition responded promptly and unselfishly to my calls for information. From 1974 through 1981, I was fortunate to have the assistance of two outstanding USA mobilization designees: Col. Jean Bakkom, who researched discharge and uniform regulations and analyzed statistics; and Col. Shirley J. Minge, who researched and wrote material on women in the USAR and the National Guar Mattie E. Treadwell not only provided advice and encouragement but also frequently helped me with background information.

 

My research was greatly assisted by many archivists who gave generously c their time, particularly William H. Cunliffe and Edward Reese at the Nation Archives and Hannah M. Zeidlik, Geraldine K. Judkins, Larry A. Ballard, an Mary L. Sawyer at the Army Center of Military History. My sister researches and writers, Maj. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm, USAF Retired, Maj. Rita G. DeArmond, U.S. Air Force Reserve, Col. Mary V. Stremlow, U.S. Marine Corp Reserve, and I exchanged ideas and research material, and I benefited frog reviewing sections of their manuscripts. Providing encouragement and support ; the Army Center of Military History were the Army Nurse Corps historian Col. Anna E. Antonicci, Col. Rosemary T. McCarthy, Lt. Col. Mary E.Frank, Maj. Cindy A. Gurney, and Maj. Winona Bice-Stephens. The curator c the WAC Museum at Fort McClellan, Gabriele Torony, and her assistant, Elizabeth Avery, frequently helped me locate files and historical references. I am grateful to Robert Mayfield, Training Aid Service Command, Fort MCClellal for many of the photographs in the section on uniforms, and to the many women who modeled the uniforms for this section, including Brig. Gen. Mildred Bailey, Sgt. Janice L. Cosey, Sgt. Lori Cousins-Powell, Capt. Paula Gienapp, L Lois Grey, Sgt. Helen M. Harris, Lt. Linda C. Jones, Pvt. Mary Milolajozak, L Linda L. Norman, and others not identified on U.S. Army photographs.

 

I am indebted to John W. Elsberg, Editor in Chief of CMH publications, who skillfully directed the editorial and production processes. My volume benefited from the talent and ingenuity of the center's graphics personnel led by Arthur Hardyman under whose direction Linda M. Cajka prepared the photographs an Howell C. Brewer the charts. My thanks also go to LaJuan R. Watson, Terrenc L. Offer, Gina Wilson, Gabrielle S. Patrick, and others at CMH who typed the chapters and inserted changes.

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Throughout this labor of love, my family encouraged me, my WAC friends inspired me, and my colleagues at the Army Center of Military History provided a stimulating and cheerful atmosphere during all my days in their midst.

 

If, despite my efforts to present an accurate chronicle, errors have been made, they are solely my responsibility.

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Contents

Tables (excluding Appendixes)

Charts

Illustrations

Illustrations courtesy of the following sources; p.320, Army Times; p.397, H. K. Barnett. All other illustrations from the files of the Department of Defense and U.S. Army center of Military History. Paperback cover: Retreat, Women's Army Corps Center by Robert Norton, Courtesy of the WAC Museum, Fort McClellan, Alabama.