"A group of women of Latin-American extraction took the Army oath before more than 6,000 persons in San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium to become the second section of the Benito Juarez Air-WAC Squadron, named for the hero who helped liberate Mexico from European domination in 1862."
"Led by an honor guard from the first Latin-American WAC squadron, the new war-women, marched into the auditorium to be sworn in and to hear words of greeting from Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby (1905 – 1995) and from Mrs. Dwight Eisenhower (1896 – 1979)."
The first Hispanic WAC was Carmen Contreras-Bozak.
Click here to read about some of the Puerto Ricans who served with distinction during the war.
From Amazon:
Dressed for Duty: America's Women in Uniform, 1898-1973
A
Click Magazine photo-essay about the hard-charging WAACS of the Motor Transport School in
glamorous Daytona Beach, Florida. Trained to operate and maintain two-ton trucks, the American women of the WAACs were mobilized to run the vast convoy system within the U.S. in order to free-up their male counterparts for more dangerous work in hostile regions.
Click here to read about the most famous woman truck driver in all of World War II...
"The Women's Army Corps (
WAC), first organized as an auxiliary May 14, 1942, became 'regular army' a little more than a year later...They were secretaries and stenographers for generals. They operated switchboards which kept communications alive throughout the European theater of operations...Their keen eyes and quick fingers made them expert as parachute riggers. They became weather experts [charting the aerial routes for the long-range bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force]."
140,000 women served as WACs - - although this article stated that there were only 100,000.
"Like other Army and Navy personnel, the members of the Women's Army Corps have coined their own slanguage. If you hear a WAC say:"
"I'm off on an orchid hunt, kids - and no PFC. My night maneuvers are gonna be with a varsity crewman."
-you'll know what she means after you've studied this [attached] glossary."
"They're career women, housewives, professionals, factory hands, debutantes. They've taught school, modeled, supported themselves, as secretaries, salesgirls, mechanics. Single and married, white and colored, between the ages of 21 and 45, they're corresponding with a beau, in Ireland, a husband Australia, or the 'folks back home' in Flatbush. But varied as their background may be, they've enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (
WAAC) with a common purpose: to get behind America's fighting men and help win a lasting peace."
"When well-versed in army-administrative methods, the WAAC will cause the transfer of 450 enlisted men to combat areas each week. It realizes full-well its responsibility and has dedicated itself to the idea that the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps will prove itself equal to the opportunity."
Attached are a few interesting factoids about the American lassies who served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps throughout the Second World War.
All thanks to the efforts of a private donor, three lounges were built explicitly for the women volunteers of the WACs and WAVES. Furnished with vanities, hair dryers, magazines and ping-pong tables; they must have been a big hit - they look very much like the sets of a Fred Astaire movie.
Click here to read about the U.S.O. entertainers...
"Fort Warren, Wyoming, is bleak, windswept, desolate. It is no wonder that the soldiers stationed there looked forward to the arrival at the lonely post of a unit of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). [When the women arrived] The men of Company H, Fifth Quartermaster Training Regiment, sent over an invitation to a party... The party was informal but military. The hosts marched in formation to their guests' barracks where the two companies fell in behind their respective officers for the return trip. The evening included a buffet supper, attendance at boxing matches and refreshments afterwards."
Although the WAAC uniforms were designed by Dorthy Shavers (1893 - 1959) of Lord & Taylor, this short article credits U.S. Army Colonel L.O. Grice - who actually served more in the capacity as the Army's "artistic director" who supervised the designer.
"He picked everything from purses to panties for Uncle Sam's powder-puff army..."
Click here to read about the WAVE's uniform...
Here is the skinny on Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby (1905 - 1995). This article begins at a crucial point in her life, when she took charge of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps). With no prior military experience, Hobby entered the U.S. Army as a major and immediately began organizing the Women's Army Auxiliary into an efficient clerical element within the army. Her abilities were evident and she was soon elevated to the rank of colonel; in a similar light, the skills and abilities of the WAACs were also recognized and they, too, were given more challenging jobs. After the war, Hobby went on to distinguish herself in a number of other government positions.
Click here to read about WAC accomplishments by the end of 1945.
By the time the war ended the WACs were 100,000 strong -
they had earned 314 medals and commendations, including 23 Legion of Merit awards and fourteen Purple Hearts. Throughout the war, seventeen thousand WACs had served overseas but by Christmas of 1945 their global strength had been cut in half.
"When recruits in the new Women's Army Auxiliary Corps - commonly dubbed WAACS - reported for training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, women for the first time in American history became members of Uncle Sam's Army."
(The title concerning "the first woman in the Uncle Sam's Army" is believed to go to a lass named Deborah Sampson who served in George Washington's army in 1781, under the name "Robert Shurtliff".)
Newsweek reporter Vera Clay was not slow in accepting the U.S. Army's invitation to don the khaki uniform and learn what goes into the training of a WAAC. In the company of fourteen other women reporters, she took the train to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and for the next six days, the group began to learn about all things WAAC.
