WACs

Learn about Women in the WACS during World War II with these old magazine articles. Find information on the women in the U.S. Army during the 1940s.

She Lead The WAACs (Newsweek Magazine, 1944)

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.

She Lead The WAACs (Newsweek Magazine, 1944) Read More »

‘What Kind of Women are the WAACs?” (Click Magazine, 1942)

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.

‘What Kind of Women are the WAACs?” (Click Magazine, 1942) Read More »

WAAC Truck Drivers (Click Magazine, 1943)

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…

WAAC Truck Drivers (Click Magazine, 1943) Read More »

Hispanic Women in the WACs (Yank Magazine, 1945)

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, 1898-1973style=border:none

Hispanic Women in the WACs (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

The Man Behind The WAAC Uniforms (The American Magazine, 1942)

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…

The Man Behind The WAAC Uniforms (The American Magazine, 1942) Read More »

The WACs (Think Magazine, 1946)

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.

The WACs (Think Magazine, 1946) Read More »