Subordinate commands in the Army Air Forces (AAF) were allowed to send Woman's Army Corps (WAC) personnel to overseas stations. The Air Transport Command (ATC) was granted this authority in November 1943. The Army Airways Communications System (AACS) and AAF Weather Wing soon gained similar authority.

  Not only in decentralization but also in guidance of its commands, the AAF was leading the way in this phase of the WAC program, in the opinion of the WAC historian, "No other Army command so thoroughly explained to the field the problems and the best means for selecting women for overseas duty."

Women's Army Corps Personnel with Army Forces Overseas (January 1945) European Theater 2,835 Mediterreanean Theater 457 Pacific Ocean Area 2 China-Burma-India Theater     287 Air Transport Command 2,755 Other (AACS, etc.) 285

  The AAF required that WACs selected for such duty be fully qualified, be recommended by the appropriate WAC squadron commander, and insofar as possible, be desirous of overseas duty.

  Well before this system went into effect, WACs had been sent to the 8th Air Force in England. The satisfactory perfomance of this group led to many requests from other theaters. For Air Forces in the CBI, for example, came a request for several hundred WACs, while the Far East Air Force asked for more than 2,000. By no means could all the requests be filled, but monthly shipments were begun in April 1944 and continued until January 1945. By that time, WACs were serving in every major theater of operations.

  With a peak strength of about 7,000, the AAF WAC overseas program involved a relatively small group of women, but this number was sufficient to demonstrate - even to the most skeptical, apprehensive and half-mused airmen - that the Air WACs could contribute to the effective operations of higher headquarters in many different parts of the world. Before WAC units arrived in the theaters, officers charged with their reception often showed concern over the extra trouble which would be required to house and care for female personnel. Visions of disciplinary health and morale

WACs arriving in Chungking

problems caused some commanders to hesitate in requesting WACs. The experience of the WACs overseas soon showed that most of the fears were groundless.

  Housing accomodations proved to be bothersome only in the more isolated areas, such as New Guinea, where they were a problem for all troops. In more than one theater headquarters, troops enjoyed accomodations frequently superior to those occupied by troops at home, whether men or women.

   In July 1945, one year after their arrival in India, Air WACs were reported to have a beauty parlor on the base and Indian laborers to keep their barracks in order. After the headquarters moved up into China in the summer of 1945, about 70 WACs were transferred to the new station, where they were housed in a modern three-story apartment building with enough privacy to satisfy the shyest, most introspective WAC; instead of 70 women to one large room, only two or three were assigned to a room, while the mess hall had small tables, each seating four women, and native labor was available to do the general housekeeping and run the mess.

Madame and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek greet WACs at reception in Chungking

  With regard to health, the WACs in all theaters, like the Army Nurses, proved to be no special problem despite frequent moves necessitated by combat and despite a variety of weather conditions. During the war, the attrition rate for WACs serving in Europe, India and China was about the same as that for noncombatant men.

  In the matter of discipline and courtesy, the overseas WACs maintained a high standard. With an uncanny ability to scrounge or create cleaning and pressing facilities, they frequently gained the reputation of being "the

Over The Hump to China

most smartly and neatly dressed troops" at their stations. Violations of regulations and offenses of all types were significant by their negligible numbers. According to statistics compiled by the Air Provost Marshal, men in the European Theater committed offenses from ten to 150 times as often as women. "Serious misconduct was lacking and the advance plans for a group of female military police were never carried out."

  In all theaters, the WACs standards of conduct and devotion to duty led to a comparative situation resulting in improved discipline and courtesy among the male personnel. The general rise in morale, which stemmed from the combined use of men and women, led many commanding officers to requisition additional WACs.

  In the words of one officer in the European Division of the ATC, "The WACs were like a tonic. They gave the men competition on the job and a new interest in social life on the base. The WAC Department was the finest morale booster that the base ever had." To both the G.I. who was homesick for the sight of an American girl and to the general who had not seen an efficient secretary in three years, WACs were a welcome addition to the overseas forces.

Air WAC: Welder for ATC in India

The Woman's Army Corps in CBI

Compiled by Lt. Col. Joseph B. Shupe, USA (ret.)
Adapted for the Internet by Carl W. Weidenburner




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