UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
Special Studies
THE WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS
by
Mattie E. Treadwell
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 53-61563
First Printed 1954-CMH Pub 11-8
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
Kent Roberts Greenfield, General Editor
Advisory Committee
(As of 1 May 1953)
James P. Baxter President, Williams College |
Brig. Gen. Verdi B. Barnes Army War College |
John D. Hicks University of California |
Brig. Gen. Leonard J. Greeley Industrial College of the Armed Forces |
William T. Hutchinson University of Chicago |
Brig. Gen. Elwyn D. Post Army Field Forces |
S. L. A. Marshall Detroit News |
Col. Thomas D. Stamps United States Military Academy |
Charles S. Sydnor Duke University |
Col. C. E. Beauchamp Command and General Staff College |
Charles H. Taylor Harvard University |
Office of the Chief of Military History
Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith, Chief*
Chief Historian | Kent Roberts Greenfield |
Chief, Histories Division | Col. G. G. O'Connor |
Chief, Editorial and Publication Division | Col. B. A. Day |
Chief Editorial Branch | Joseph R. Friedman |
Chief, Cartographic Branch | Wsevolod Aglaimoff |
Chief, Photographic Branch | Maj. Arthur T. Lawry |
*Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward was succeeded by General Smith on 1 February 1953.
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... to Those Who Served
Foreword
This history of the WAC is comprehensive and detailed. The author has written it not only from available records but also out of personal experience. She was a WAC staff officer, who, together with all the other WACs, found herself in a man's army that was somewhat shocked by the advent of a women's corps in its midst.
It is usual for both newcomer and old resident to have suspicions of each other, but after the characteristic period of false starts prejudices disappear and confidence is established. So it was with the WAC and the Army.
This book stresses the misunderstanding, appropriately enough, since it affected many decisions reached at the policy-making level. The WAC did not always understand the Army -its customs and traditions, its organization and necessary chain of command. The Army did not always understand the WAC its needs and temperament, and the many other things that man, being the son of woman, should have known but did not, much to his continued embarrassment.
Washington, D. C. 30 January 1953 |
ORLANDO WARD Maj. Gen., U. S. A. Chief of Military History |
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The Authors
Mattie E. Treadwell, a native of Texas, holds a B.A. and an M.A. degree from the University of Texas. During World War II she was an officer, first in the WAAC and later in the WAC, holding such assignments as assistant to the Director WAC, assistant to the Air WAC Officer, and assistant to the Commandant, School of WAC Personnel Administration. She had the additional distinction of having been a member of the first class of women sent to the Command and General Staff School. While on active duty she attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.
From September 1947 to March 1952 Miss Treadwell was a historian in the Office of the Chief of Military History. Upon her departure she became Assistant Director, Dallas Regional Office, Federal Civil Defense Administration, in charge of women's activities and volunteer manpower, an office that she currently holds. Her present military status is that of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
Washington, D. C. 30 January 1953 |
LEO J. MEYER Colonel, Reserve Corps Deputy Chief Historian |
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Preface
Soon after the end of hostilities, the decision was made to devote to the Women's Army Corps one volume of the Army's major historical series, US ARMY IN WORLD WAR II. Although small by comparison with the size of the Army, the WAC at its peak strength of 100,000 constituted an enviably large group for study. Because of its 24-hour-a-day control of its personnel, the Army had access to information not easily obtainable by business or industry, concerning not only the women's job efficiency but their clothing and housing needs, and the effects of their employment upon their health, conduct, morale, and recreation.
For most of the war months, the potential importance of this material was not recognized, and little systematic effort was made to collect it. A number of Army commands had rulings against the collection of separate statistics for women, while others lacked either the time or the means to compile such material.
In postwar days, with renewed emphasis upon future planning, the present study was authorized in an attempt to pull together such evidence as remained. It was recognized that the experience of the relatively small group in World War II might provide a guide to any later and more extensive national mobilization of womanpower that might be necessary. Although no one possessed sufficient clairvoyance to predict the course of history, it was plainly evident that, in any future emergencies, the proper mobilization and employment of womanpower reserves might become a primary national issue.
The preservation of the wartime discoveries made in this field assumed added importance in view of the fact that no other American or British service has yet published a full official history of its women's corps. Significantly, comparison of the records of these groups reveals that the problems and achievements of each fall into a pattern so similar as to suggest a strong measure of predictability of the course of future groups. The Navy Department's draft narrative of the WAVES remains under classification, as do those of the Women Marines and the Army Nurse Corps. The story of the Air Forces women is included in the present volume, since the wartime Air WACs were a part of the WAC
The Army's discoveries in general appear valid and reliable, not only for militarized groups, but for most nonmilitary institutions or businesses which train or employ women. The observations on health, fatigue, accident rates, and psychological patterns should be a useful addition to current industrial studies. The discoveries in the fields of training, housing, clothing, feeding, and
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disciplining groups of women may present a fresh viewpoint to educational institutions. In particular, the conclusions on the leadership of women offer a clue to an explanation of the current misunderstandings and contradictory impressions on the subject.
It must be recognized at the outset that the problem of integrating women into an army was merely a part of the larger problem of their evolving status in civil life, accelerated by the industrial revolution and affecting every phase of modern society. Although the scope of this volume does not permit frequent comment upon the general place of women in society, few of the developments were without precedent. This was particularly true of the public skepticism and masculine hostility into which the WAC ran headlong in its first year. Admittedly, the Army had its share of a conservative element that had scarcely recovered from the shock of the mechanized horse when confronted with the militarized woman.
It should also be noted that the development and integration into the Army of a women's corps was at every turn a part of the larger development of the Army, and that few problems of the smaller group were unique. The Women's Army Corps, like this volume, must be viewed in perspective as one small facet of the larger entity.
While parallel, the problems of the employment of men and women were by no means identical in nature or solution. At the time of the organization of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps early in World War II, the misapprehension was general that women could be treated exactly like men and that little research would therefore be required for the successful incorporation of womanpower into the Army. Some believed that the WAC, as a minor group within the Army, was in the same general category as other groups dubbed minorities by reason of race, creed, or color, for whom differences of treatment would be improper. In practice it was soon discovered, however, that while a soldier might wear the same design of clothing regardless of race or creed, the same could not be said regardless of sex. The same principle was shortly found true in the fields of medicine, conduct, recreation, recruiting, physical capacity, and others. While all authorities were agreed that equal treatment must be given to men and women in the Army, it was soon apparent that equal did not mean identical in every case. The Army was thus faced with the problem of what styles of garments, though not identical with those of men, gave equal comfort, fit, and military appearance; what medications and surgery, although not identical, promoted equally good health; what standards of conduct, well-being, recreation, and training would enable the military service to answer to the American public for the women in its keeping as conscientiously as it customarily did for the men. In most cases, by the end of the war, these problems were successfully solved or the key to the solution was known.
As the following pages will reveal, the final conclusions of the wartime heads of the women's services were far from optimistic concerning the dangers of employing women in the armed forces if their special needs were not constantly understood and dealt with by trained specialists and well-informed commanders.
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Several major decisions concerning the scope and nature of this volume were dictated by the wide range of subjects it must cover, by the fact that its material was scattered through world-wide Army commands, and by the fact that only one writer-researcher could be assigned to the task. One such decision was that the approach must generally be on the level of policy and planning, rather than upon that of individual unit histories and statistics. Army commands employing WACs activated and inactivated hundreds of companies, and sent thousands of women back and forth among them individually and in small groups, to an extent that would have required another volume to record. Even could statistics be included upon the locations and movements of such personnel, the significance for future planning would be small.
However, in the interests of proper emphasis and perspective, it should be noted that an account at this high level is not necessarily a complete picture of the Corps. The efficiency of a WAC unit in the field was often relatively untouched by the struggles concerning the nation's womanpower which raged over its head. A WAC unit could, and often did, exist happily for months without proper uniforms, training, or other advantages, no matter how distressing to the War Department such deficiencies might be.
A generally more unworried tone could be given this volume only if it were possible to place in a row, beside the headaches of headquarters, the approximately five hundred separate stories of field achievement, which by sheer weight would reduce the policy and planning problems to their proper proportion.
Another decision which affected the nature of the history was that it should include all possible material of assistance to future planners. A considerably shorter volume could have been produced by a rapid account of the Corps' formation, strength, employment, and achievements, with no indication of its problems, the private controversies they engendered, or the means by which they were surmounted. However, for those specialists whose assigned mission is the efficient employment of womanpower, or even for the general Army reader, such a surface analysis would have been of small value.
In preparing this volume, I have had the advice of almost all of the wartime leaders, men and women, of the Women's Army Corps. Col. Oveta Culp Hobby has not only commented upon the manuscript, but has answered specific questions and has given me generously of her time in discussing puzzling references. Lt. Col. Helen Hamilton Woods, WAAC preplanner and later Deputy Director, read and reread various drafts, and opened her Washington home to me for interviews with prominent participants including Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers. Dr. Betty Bandel has submitted a detailed commentary on each chapter in its draft form, and has answered innumerable questions concerning the 40,000 Air Forces women, whom she represented, and the Corps as a whole, of which she was Acting Deputy. Lt. Col. Katherine R. Goodwin has clarified many points regarding the Army Service Forces WACs, for which she was advisor. Before her death, Dr. Jess Rice, the wartime Deputy Director, commented upon early parts of the manuscript and gave me many
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admonitions concerning historical technique, which I have endeavored to follow, as well as strictures against making her a heroine of the story, which I have endeavored to ignore in the interests of historical accuracy.
Gen. George C. Marshall has read and commented upon various passages, appealing on one occasion to the former Director to know if she had actually encountered all of the recruiting difficulties described.* Maj. Gen. Miller G. White, the Army man who, as G-1 of the War Department, worked most closely with WAC policy, has read all of the manuscript and added comments and excerpts from his diary. The Auxiliary Corps portion has been commented upon by, among others, Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring, Brig. Gens. Don C. Faith and Thomas B. Catron, and Cols. Harold Tasker and Gilman Mudgett.
To the hundreds of other Army men and women-from general officer to private-who have given me their opinions-each chapter will make proper acknowledgment.
Within the Office of the Chief of Military History, I have received great assistance from the Chief Historian, Dr. Kent R. Greenfield, the Deputy Chief Historian, Lt. Col. Leo J. Meyer, and their entire staff, whose aid will be particularly acknowledged in the chapters concerned. Dr. Mae Link has contributed valuable research on the Army Service Forces, and Maj. Margaret Bacchus on the British services. For typing and preparing the manuscript I am indebted to Sgt. Amelia Madrak, Mrs. Lorraine Bonifant, Mrs. Lois Riley, and Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips and her staff.
My particular aid and counsel has been Miss Ruth Stout, the editor of this volume, who has provided much-needed help and encouragement as well as perspective, advice, and good judgment. We are both grateful to the Chief Editor, Mr. Joseph R. Friedman, for his sympathetic interest and advice, and to Mr. Allen R. Clark for care and precision in copy editing. I am also indebted to Mr. Clark for the comprehensive index. The work of selecting illustrations has been performed by Miss Margaret E. Tackley, who lent the project not only her technical skill but her experience as a wartime officer of the WAC, thereby avoiding the errors common to inexperienced judges of WAC photographs.
Credit for the successful planning and launching of the project belongs to the early staff of the Army's Historical Division, especially Col. Allen F. Clark, Col. John M. Kemper, Col. Allison R. Hartman, and the first Chief Historian of the Army, the late Dr. Walter L. Wright. Jr. And finally, the broad and constructive criticism, based on years of military experience, offered by Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, Chief of Military History during the last months of the volume's preparation, was of great assistance in completing the work.
Washington, D. C. 15 April 1953 |
MATTIE E. TREADWELL |
*Her answer: "No, more."
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Charts
Illustrations
Photographs are from the Department of Defense files.
Page updated 3 February 2003