Women train for active duty at Fort McClellan in 1955. (Alabama Archives)
In 1944 the Birmingham News characterized the Women’s Army Corps, or WAC, post at Anniston’s Fort McClellan as being more like a sorority house on a university campus than like a military barrack housing enlisted women. Noting the bowling alley, golf course, and post club, the paper lauded the role of WACs in the war eff ort but also patronizingly saw their work as largely frivolous when compared with that of their male counterparts. As the paper observed of a woman repairing a large rifle, “[I]t is not a soldier, it’s a WAC.” Even as women who served in the WAC during World War II (WWII) faced questions about their contributions, however, they felt that serving their country was worth the trials of basic training, the low pay, and the scrutiny they received. Indeed, during WWII and the Cold War that followed, the WAC evolved to overcome these challenges by improving the benefits of women’s service, countering opposition, and ultimately illustrating its commitment to female soldiers by making the post at Fort McClellan into a permanent training facility.
In 1941 Massachusetts Congresswomen Edith Nourse Rogers introduced a bill to establish the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, in the belief that it could simultaneously give women the opportunity to assist in the war eff ort and free up additional men for combat. Though this initial legislation did not provide the equal pay and service benefits for women that Rogers had hoped for, in 1943 legislators removed the “auxiliary” title from the Corps and granted enlisted women full military status, along with pay and benefits similar to those provided to men in the Regular Army. WAC legislation also opened jobs for women in the military beyond those of clerical and domestic work and increased the number of recruits. Bases around the country soon adjusted their barracks and other facilities to accommodate the influx. By 1944 more than three hundred women were stationed at Fort McClellan alone, working in mess halls, hospitals, motor pools, and communication divisions. No matter whether they worked as switchboard operators or mechanics, WACs—moved to enlist either by witnessing male relatives joining the military or simply from patriotic motives— considered their service essential. As one WAC at Fort McClellan remarked, “You can’t win a war by staying home.”
By the end of WWII, more than 100,000 women had served in the Corps. Although the WAC became a permanent part of the Army in 1948 and supplied critical noncombat support during the Korean War, the lack of a permanent home for the Corps presented training and organizational challenges. Army officials scoured the country for a location, eventually determining that Alabama’s mild winter temperatures and the proximity of Anniston to regional airports made Fort McClellan the ideal spot. In 1952 Congress approved funds to build the WAC Training Center there, and it opened in 1954 after a multimillion-dollar renovation, ready to house 2,400 enlisted women.
By the end of WWII, more than 100,000 women had served in the Corps. Although the WAC became a permanent part of the Army in 1948 and supplied critical noncombat support during the Korean War, the lack of a permanent home for the Corps presented training and organizational challenges. Army officials scoured the country for a location, eventually determining that Alabama’s mild winter temperatures and the proximity of Anniston to regional airports made Fort McClellan the ideal spot. In 1952 Congress approved funds to build the WAC Training Center there, and it opened in 1954 after a multimillion-dollar renovation, ready to house 2,400 enlisted women.
By 1944 more than three hundred women were stationed at Fort McClellan alone, working in mess halls, hospitals, motor pools, and communication divisions.
By that point, however, military officials found themselves confronted with recruitment problems. Recruitment eff orts, in fact, had sputtered somewhat even during WWII. In part, this was because legislators, military leaders, and the general public expressed concern about women assuming combat roles, a notion that no one actually suggested. In somewhat larger measures, however, many feared that women’s military service threatened their traditional roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, and that WACs might usurp supposedly male responsibilities to protect the family and the state. As one congressman had scoffed at Edith Nourse Rogers’s original bill, “A Woman’s Army to defend the United States of America! Think of the humiliation. What has become of the manhood of America that we have to call on our women to do what has always been the duty of men?”
To alleviate these sorts of anxieties, government recruitment campaigns stressed links between WAC training and acceptable expressions of femininity. For example, as part of “The Big Picture,” a weekly television series that highlighted Army activities, Corps leaders made sure to note that among the first lessons WACs learned at the new facility at Fort McClellan were those in “meticulous grooming and feminine grace.” Narrators of the episode about the new training facility told viewers that appearance was of the utmost importance for the WACs and that the Corps had hired fashion icon Hattie Carnegie to design their uniforms. They focused further attention on the wholesomeness of the facility, where female residents would be encouraged to decorate their rooms, play on the golf course, attend coed dances, and join the WAC band.
To alleviate these sorts of anxieties, government recruitment campaigns stressed links between WAC training and acceptable expressions of femininity. For example, as part of “The Big Picture,” a weekly television series that highlighted Army activities, Corps leaders made sure to note that among the first lessons WACs learned at the new facility at Fort McClellan were those in “meticulous grooming and feminine grace.” Narrators of the episode about the new training facility told viewers that appearance was of the utmost importance for the WACs and that the Corps had hired fashion icon Hattie Carnegie to design their uniforms. They focused further attention on the wholesomeness of the facility, where female residents would be encouraged to decorate their rooms, play on the golf course, attend coed dances, and join the WAC band.
Compounding concerns about gender roles and problems with recruitment for the WACs were lingering racial conflicts. ... Though racial problems remained muted through the 1960s, they never disappeared altogether, and they burst to the surface again late in 1971.
Compounding concerns about gender roles and problems with recruitment for the WACs were lingering racial conflicts. Despite the integration of the armed forces in 1948, African American WACs regularly reported institutionalized racism at Fort McClellan. In 1955 they informed a member of Congress that the post’s club was restricted to whites only and that fort staff forbade them from fraternizing or dancing with white soldiers, and they charged that only black barbers would cut and style their hair. Though racial problems remained muted through the 1960s, they never disappeared altogether, and they burst to the surface again late in 1971. One night in particular held several conflicts: two male soldiers—one black and one white—got into an altercation at an off -base nightclub, and several black WACs sustained injuries when a white officer ran them down with his vehicle as they walked back to the fort. Afterward, more than one hundred black WACs and male soldiers refused to dress and report for duty. Instead, the group marched on a base field to protest persistent discrimination and, when a meeting with a representative for the post commander failed to alleviate their concerns, military police charged sixty-five black WACs with disorderly conduct and disobeying orders. Within weeks the post commander dropped the charges, and a report on the incident acknowledged “the need to improve communications upwards as well as down with the young soldiers, and especially the young black soldiers.” Still, the incident was resolved largely through the transfer of many of the black service members involved in the protest.
WACs encountered a range of experiences between the 1940s and the 1970s. They traveled, learned new skills, faced discrimination, and saw war, serving in Vietnam as they had in all foreign entanglements since the inception of the Corps. But the post-Vietnam era saw significant changes. By that time, the women’s movement had posed serious challenges to traditional gender norms, and WAC basic training had evolved such that it steadily incorporated combat skills. Both the Army and Congress came to recognize the inefficiency and illogic of continuing to segregate women in the service, and consolidated training and the enrollment of women at West Point began in 1976. With women integrated into Regular Army training, a separate WAC unit was no longer necessary. Women began joining their male counterparts at training bases around the country, and on December 1, 1976, the Army transferred the WAC Center from Fort McClellan to Fort Lee in Virginia in preparation for dismantling the Corps altogether. Ironically, only when the task was completed in 1978 did one of the songs of the Fort McClellan WAC band ring true: “The WAC Is a Soldier Too.”
This article was originally published in Alabama Heritage Issue #112, Spring 2014.
WACs encountered a range of experiences between the 1940s and the 1970s. They traveled, learned new skills, faced discrimination, and saw war, serving in Vietnam as they had in all foreign entanglements since the inception of the Corps. But the post-Vietnam era saw significant changes. By that time, the women’s movement had posed serious challenges to traditional gender norms, and WAC basic training had evolved such that it steadily incorporated combat skills. Both the Army and Congress came to recognize the inefficiency and illogic of continuing to segregate women in the service, and consolidated training and the enrollment of women at West Point began in 1976. With women integrated into Regular Army training, a separate WAC unit was no longer necessary. Women began joining their male counterparts at training bases around the country, and on December 1, 1976, the Army transferred the WAC Center from Fort McClellan to Fort Lee in Virginia in preparation for dismantling the Corps altogether. Ironically, only when the task was completed in 1978 did one of the songs of the Fort McClellan WAC band ring true: “The WAC Is a Soldier Too.”
This article was originally published in Alabama Heritage Issue #112, Spring 2014.
Author
Stephanie Chalifoux graduated with her PhD in history from the University of Alabama in 2013 and is currently an adjunct instructor for the history department. Joshua D. Rothman, standing editor of the “Alabama Women” department of Alabama Heritage, is professor of history at the University of Alabama and director of the university’s Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South, which sponsors this department.
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