Women's Army Corps

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Image:WAC Air Controller by Loser V. Smith.jpg

WAC Air Controller by Dan V. Smith, 1943.

The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the US Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942, and converted to full status as the WAC in 1943. Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby, the wife of a prominent politician and publisher in Houston, Texas. [Campbell, 1984]

About 150,000 American women served in the WAAC and WAC during World War II. They were the first women other than nurses to serve with the Army. While conservative opinion in the leadership of the Army and public opinion generally was initially opposed to women serving in uniform, the shortage of men necessitated a new policy. The women were not allowed overseas --not even to Hawaii until late in the war. After the war they served in Europe.

Some men feared that if women became soldiers they would no longer serve in a masculine preserve and their masculinity would be devalued. Others feared being sent into combat units if women took over the safe jobs. [Campbell, 1984]

During the same time period, other branches of the U.S. military had similar women's units, including the Navy WAVES, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, the SPARS of the Coast Guard and the (civil) Women Airforce Service Pilots, .

The WAC was disestablished in 1978. Since then, women in the U.S. Army have served in the same units as men.

1 Popular culture
2 Bibliography
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Popular culture

The movie Francis Joins the WACS was released in 1954. In it, Francis the Talking Mule joins the Women's Army Corps.
The movie Keep Your Powder Dry (1945) gives us Lana Turner joining the WACs, starring with Agnes Moorehead while sporting uniforms designed by Hollywood designer Irene (1) and hair styled by Sydney Guilaroff.
The movie I Was a Male War Bride (1949) depicts a French officer who married an American WAC, and their escapades as he attempts to emigrate to the United States under the auspices of the 1945 War Brides Act.
The song Surrender by Cheap Trick is about a babyboomer child of a former member of the WAC who served in the Philippines and has been covered by no less than 13 bands.

[edit] Bibliography

WACs operate teletype machines during World War II.

Judith A. Bellafaire. The Women's Army Corps (1972) short history online
Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Harvard University Press, 1986)
Earley, Charity Adams. One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC (1989)
Jeanne Holm, Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution (1994)
Morden, Betty. The Women's Army Corps, 1945-1978 (2000) official detailed history, online
Brenda L. Moore. To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African-American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II (1997)
Mattie E. Treadwell. The Women s Army Corps (1954), long official history online