The Historical Society of East Rockaway & Lynbrook, Inc.

PO Box 351 - East Rockaway, NY 11518-0351

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ADVENTURING IN HISTORY

WOMEN IN THE MILITARY May 15, 1942

East Rockaway Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps are pictured above. These ladies

played an important part in the history of East Rockaway. After World War II, they

were able to purchase the home wherein the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars of East

Rockaway are currently housed. They held the mortgage until it was paid and

then gave the bungalow to the veterans.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Government officials and the military were

reluctant to recognize the potential value of women in the armed forces. The

incentive to form a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps came from Massachusetts

Congressional Representative Edith Nourse Rogers, who introduced the WAAC

bill in May 1941. Action was not taken until after Pearl Harbor. Much of the

opposition to women in the military was based on traditional notions of women:

“Who will do the cooking, the washing, the mending, the humble homey tasks to

which every woman has devoted herself; who will nurture the children?”

The importance of female contributions to the war effort became obvious after

Pearl Harbor and wartime demands increased. A Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps

garnered support from influential women and women’s organizations which

asserted that women had the right to exercise all the responsibility of citizenship,

including military service. The increasing demand for military personnel

overcame resistance to women in the military. The WAAC bill passed Congress

on March 15, 1942. With Congressional approval, President Franklin Roosevelt

signed the bill on May 15, 1942

The Navy experienced a similar shortage of personnel. Thus the WAVEs were

created and women accepted for emergency service. There was one significant

difference between the WAACs and the WAVEs. The WAVES from their creation

were in the Navy, not considered auxiliary.

Auxiliary status was not a viable solution for either the Army or the WAAC

enlistees. The women were not regular Army, yet they performed Army jobs.

There went overseas, but did not have the same benefits as members of the

Army, if injured. WAACs received unequal pay, had no entitlements for

dependents, lacked military rank and were aware that their counterparts in the

Navy were regular military. The solution came in 1943 with the passage of the

Women's Army Corps Bill which was signed into law on July 1, 1942 and WAACs

became WAC the Women’s Army Corps with full military status. Applicants had

to be US citizens between the ages of 21 and 45 with no dependents, at least 5’

tall and weigh 100 pounds or more. For the first 1000 anticipated positions,

35,000 women applied. The press was banned from Fort Des Moines after the

first day of basic training because the training of the women because an

important part of the military effort. Distractions could not be allowed.

The forty black women who entered the first WAAC officer candidate class were

placed in a separate platoon. Although they attended classes and mess with the

other officer candidates, post facilities such as service clubs, theaters, and

beauty shops were segregated. Black officer candidates had backgrounds

similar to those of white officer candidates. Almost 80% had attended college;

the majority had work experience as teachers and office workers.

About 150,000 American women served in the WAACs and the WACs in World

War II. These women relieved the equivalent of 7 divisions of men for combat.

Altogether more than 400,000 women served in the US wartime military.

The WAC was disbanded in 1978. Since then, women in the US Army have

served in the same units as men, although they have only been allowed in or

near combat situations since 1994, when Secretary of Defense Les Aspin

ordered the removal of “substantial risk of capture” from the list of grounds for

excluding women from certain military units.

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Date: 04/16/2009