Note on Sources
 
The framework for this volume is the chronological history of the Corps maintained by the Office of the Director, WAC (ODWAC). This chronology is a part of the ODWAC Reference File held by the Army Center of Military History (CMH) in Washington, D.C. In published form, it is included in The Role of the WAC (ST 35-150), a special text prepared by the WAC School, Fort McClellan, Alabama, to present a narrative history of the WAC, its training centers and schools, and its participation in the national defense effort. First issued in 1962, the volume was revised several times.
 
Archival Material
 
The bulk of the source material used in this volume is from documents that originated in the offices of the assistant chief of staff, G-1, (ACofS, G-1) and the director of the Women's Army Corps (DWAC). Beginning in 1944, the ODWAC was assigned to the ACofS, G-1 (Personnel) on the Army general staff for administrative services including records management. Thus, correspondence, reports, and records of permanent value originated by the DWAC are included with the ACofS, G-1, files, held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., or in its regional record centers.
 
The files of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the Women's Army Corps (WAC) 1942 through 1950 are in Record Groups (RGs) 165 and 319 in the Modern Military Branch, NARA, Washington, D.C. These record groups also contain files retired by the various general and special staff divisions of the War Department and the Department of the Army (e.g., G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, Budget Division, Information and Education, etc.). Record Group 165 holds WAC correspondence, administrative reports, legislative background material, and the "Hobby files," which contain Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby's personnel files and WAAC records accumulated in 1942 and 1943. Record Group 319 occasionally overlaps RG 165, but it primarily contains correspondence between 1942 and 1950, papers collected by WAC historian Mattie E. Treadwell, correspondence concerning the National Civilian Advisory Council on the WAC 1944-1948, WAC recruiting campaign publicity 1943-1944, files of the special assistant to the DWAC 1942-1943, and records relating to WAC personnel and administration 1945-1950. Record Group 319 also contains the files of the director of personnel and administration which
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include WAC records for the period 1950-1954. WAC records after 1954 are held in the Military Archives Division, Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland.
 
In locating the ODWAC records it is useful to know the various titles held by the G-1 (Personnel) after 1945. Between 1946 and 1950, he was known as the director of personnel and administration (DPAD), Department of the Army. In March 1950, he reverted to the title assistant chief of staff, G-1 (ACofS, G-1) and held it until January 1956 when another reorganization gave him the title deputy chief of staff for personnel (DCSPER), the title he holds today.
 
ODWAC Reference Files
 
The DWAC often initiated requests for new or revised policies affecting women but, because her duties were advisory rather than functional, she seldom initiated the official staff work that went to the chief of staff or to the secretary of the Army for approval. For example, to change a recruiting policy, the DWAC would forward her recommendation on an interoffice memorandum to the chief of the DCSPER directorate having functional responsibility for enlisted procurement (i.e., the Directorate for Procurement and Distribution). That directorate would prepare the staff action and coordinate it within the DCSPER directorates, including the DWAC, and with other staff divisions or agencies having an interest in the action before sending it up to the chief of staff or higher for approval.
 
This staff procedure was generally followed when any division or agency wanted to change an Army policy. The directorate that prepared the official staff work was responsible for maintaining and, later, retiring the file that accumulated on a particular action. An office that had a vested interest in a particular staff action was authorized to collect copies of the action as it progressed through the staffing procedure. These files, known as "convenience" or "reference" files, could be retained as long as desired by an office. Often the availability of storage space determined the length of stay. In the ODWAC three or four file cabinets held reference copies of official staff work on the subject ranging from "assignment" to "weapons training." Between 1948 and 1971, as storage space diminished, each director would transfer some of her reference files to the WAC School for safekeeping. There, the director of doctrine and literature and, later, the school librarian integrated these files with reference files from the WAC Center commander's office and that of the assistant commandant of the WAC School; the collection became known as the "WAC Archives." Before the WAC Center and School was deactivated in December 1976, the WAC Center commander transferred the "WAC Archives" to the curator of the Women's Army Corps Museum. In 1977, the newly constructed WAC Museum building was
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opened at Fort McClellan and these files were placed in the research room where they are available for use by serious researchers. The collection occupies approximately eight steel file cabinets and is called the WAC Historical Reference Collection. In this volume, the collection is cited as History Collection, WAC Museum. The WAC Museum also maintains a collection of WAC photographs, clippings, films, scrapbooks, periodicals, regulations, books, and audio-visual items that may also be consulted with the curator's permission.
 
In 1978, the last DWAC transferred custody of her convenience or reference files to the author at the Army Center of Military History. In this volume, these files are cited as ODWAC Reference File, CMH, with a folder title.
 
Unpublished Monographs
 
A number of unpublished monographs in the Army Center of Military History helped in the preparation of early chapters of the volume. Those covering World War II included "The History of Military Training, WAAC/WAC Training in the Army Service Forces" by Maj. Lavinia L. Reed, 1945; "The WAC Program in the Army Forces" by Lt. Col. Betty Bandel, 1946; and "The WAC in the Army Ground Forces, World War II" by Lt. Col. Geraldine P. May, 1947. The last named contained numerous appendixes including an interesting and candid daily journal kept by the WAC plans officer, Lt. Col. Anna W. Wilson, between August and November 1945. Information on utilization and location of WAC personnel during the Korean War was found in "Personnel Policies in the Korean Conflict" by Maj. Elva Stillwaugh, 1953. "The History of Army Service School Training in the Quartermaster Corps (1945-1953)" by Thomas A. Johnson contained information on WAC specialists training during the period when the WAC Training Center was co-located with the Quartermaster Training Center at Fort Lee, Virginia.
 
The Doctrine and Literature Division of the WAC School produced a number of studies between 1955-1965 that are retained in the WAC Historical Reference Collection. Among these are the "Feasibility of Establishing an NCO Academy for WAC Personnel" (1956), "WAC Necrology 1941-1963," "WAC Decorations and Awards" (1963), "Comparative Attrition Rates WAC OCS 1942-1962" (1964), "Statistical Analysis of the College Junior Program 1956-1965" (1965), "Women in the Military Services of Countries Other than the United States" (1963), "WAAC/WAC Staff Conferences" (1963), and "Summary of Information on Negro Women Who Have Served or Are Serving in the Women's Army Corps 1942-1963 with Particular Reference to WAC Officers" (1963). Most of these studies were written or inspired by Lt. Col. Mary
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Charlotte Lane, who headed the Doctrine and Literature Division between 1961 and 1965.
 
Historical Reports
 
The internal reports of historical activities prepared by commanders and chiefs of staff divisions at the WAC Center and WAC School provide a valuable source of information on WAC training activities. These reports were furnished monthly or quarterly to the WAC Center historian who prepared the semiannual, annual, or biennial summary of major events and problems for the command. Most of these annual reports are in the Reference Branch, CMH. A complete set of the reports (1948-1978) and the feeder reports prepared by the commanders and division chiefs are preserved in the WAC Historical Reference Collection of the WAC Museum.
 
Histories of WAC detachments in the field, prepared by the unit commander, were included in the summary of major activities of their next higher command, usually the commander of special troops or the headquarters 
commandant. Historical reports submitted by the latter were consolidated and included in the summary of major events and problems submitted by the post commander through channels to Department of the Army.
 
 
The DWAC submitted her annual historical report to the G-1 (Personnel)/DCSPER, who then included it as a separate chapter in his overall summary of major events and problems.
 
WAC Conference Reports, Memos, Newsletters
 
Colonel Hobby initiated the annual WAC staff advisers conference. Beginning in 1950, lack of travel funds frequently prevented the DWAC from convening her staff advisers that frequently. The director's staff prepared a report of each conference. During the early years, the report was a verbatim record of the talks and discussions. After 1950, the report included an agenda for each day and copies of talks and reports made during the conference. To ensure a timely flow of information to the staff advisers, in December 1958, Colonel Milligan began sending them a monthly memorandum containing news and reminders of Army and WAC plans and policies. Subsequent directors continued sending the memorandums until January 1970. Thereafter, news for the staff advisers was included in the WAC Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the WAC School until December 1975 when funds for such publications were curtailed. While some of these records are in the ODWAC Reference File, CMH, a complete collection is maintained in the WAC Historical Reference Collection at the WAC Museum.
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Other publications were also helpful to the author. The WAC Newsletter (1944-1946) was published by the Information and Education Division of the War Department. A private national magazine, the WAC Journal (originally titled Squeaky Crumbs), was edited and published between 1946 and 1950 by a former WAC officer, Alva Christensen, and several friends. In 1949, the National WAC Veterans Association began publishing a monthly newsletter, the Channel, to keep members informed of meetings, organization, and general WAC news. The Channel continues to be published today. The WAC Foundation, a private corporation that supports the WAC Museum, publishes a semiannual newsletter, the Flagpole. Almost complete sets of these publications are on file at the WAC Museum.
 
Army Publications
 
The Army uses regulations, circulars, memorandums, and letters (listed in descending order of permanence) to publish official policies and procedures. Until the WAC entered the Regular Army and Reserve in 1948, the adjutant general (TAG) issued circulars to publish directives affecting the WAC. However, Army regulation (AR) provisions were extended to include women by adding the sentence: "Whenever the term `enlisted men' is used, it will be construed to include enlisted women of the Women's Army Corps unless obviously inappropriate." In 1949, TAG assigned a block of AR numbers "625" to the Women's Army Corps, as it did to other branches. Early in World War II, TAG had assigned the WAC a basic number, "35," to identify its field manuals, mobilization training programs, and pamphlets.
 
The first Army regulation devoted to the WAC was AR 625-5, Women's Army Corps General Provisions, 25 January 1949; the first special regulation (SR) was SR 625-5-5, Discharge of Officers and Warrant Officers on Marriage and Pregnancy, 11 January 1949. Special regulations, created in 1949, added detailed information to the basic policies of a parent AR. Usually an AR generated several SRs to explain any complex provisions. In 1955, the Army discontinued SRs and lumped all the information into the basic regulation. A few years later, the Army discontinued the practice of assigning a series of AR numbers to each branch and, instead, assigned blocks of numbers by subject matter. WAC Regulations, General Provisions, were renumbered AR 601-110 on 8 July 1958 and listed under "Personnel, General." On 26 July 1967, the WAC regulation was renumbered AR 600-3.
 
The WAC regulation contained extensive information for the convenience of commanders and personnel officers who administered WAC officers and enlisted women. It contained the mission and organization of the Corps and described the duties of the director, WAC staff advisers,
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and detachment commanders. It outlined policies and procedures (e.g., utilization, separation, detention, training, promotion, etc.) for WACs that differed from those for men and listed other regulations that affected WAC management, housing, uniforms, or investigations.
 
When special regulations were discontinued, nine concerning the WAC were integrated into others for men on the same subject. Only two ARs pertaining to WACs (AR 600-3, General Provisions, and AR 67030, Uniforms and Insignia for Women in the Army) remained by 1960. An AR on the WAC Student Officer Program, AR 601-115, initiated in 1967, was discontinued in February 1975. AR 600-3 was discontinued directly after the Corps was disestablished in 1978, and AR 670-30 was absorbed by AR 670-1, Army Uniforms and Insignia, February 1979.
 
Oral Histories
 
Between 1974 and 1978, students at the Army War College interviewed several WAC officers as part of the school's oral history program. Interviews with Maj. Gen. Mary E. Clarke, Brig. Gen. Mildred LC. Bailey (two volumes), Col. Mary A. Hallaren, Lt. Col. Hortense M. Boutell, and Lt. Col. Lucy C. Bond were audio-taped, and, by 1984, all but the latter had been transcribed and were available to researchers at the Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
 
In 1981 and 1984, the WAC Foundation, located in the WAC Museum, prepared video-tape oral histories on Colonels Hobby, Hallaren, Rasmuson, Gorman; Brigadier Generals Hoisington and Bailey; and Maj. Gen. Mary E. Clarke. The Foundation also video-taped interviews with dozens of other officers and enlisted women on a range of subjects including service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, recruiting duty, serving as cadre, in the WAC BanU, in the 149th WAAC Post Headquarters Company, the move to Fort McClellan, and many others. These tapes are available for research at the WAC Museum.
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