Word: waacs
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...last the first class of WAACs gathered at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. "More was learned about women's uniforms than had been discovered in the past six months of research . . . When WAACs walked or marched, the skirts climbed well above the knee unless a desperate grip on the skirt was substituted for the required arm swing. Shrieks of dismay arose as the women tried on the WAAC caps, uncharitably christened 'Hobby hats.' " It soon became apparent that the WAAC difficulties were far more serious than had at first been thought. Items...
...vicious slander campaign threatened the existence of the WAAC, reaching its climax when New York Daily News Columnist John O'Donnell wrote (falsely) that WAACs were being issued contraceptives because "Mrs. Roosevelt wants all the young ladies to have the same overseas rights as their brothers and fathers...
...With a premature attempt to expand the WAAC organization, physical and moral admittance requirements plunged, e.g., at least 30 pregnant women passed the physical examination for admittance...
...WAAC did not have full military status. Even the chaplains had to have special permission to distribute to WAACs the New Testaments that were issued routinely to servicemen. Moreover, WAACs who went overseas had no hospitalization or death benefits, and overseas volunteers were looked on as specially brave. Once, when Mrs. Hobby asked for volunteers, "there were 300 women in the room, of whom 298 volunteered upon the instant. At this, Director Hobby was unable to continue speaking and hastily sought privacy in a broom closet...
Congress did its best to remedy the situation by giving the WAAC full military status. The WAAC became the WAC. Nonetheless, in August 1943 nationwide recruiting fell to 839-and the WAC was on the brink of extinction. Then, into the mind of Captain Jessie P. Rice, a former Georgia schoolteacher and sports reporter, came the idea of the "All-States Plan," under which each state was to recruit a WAC company that would carry the state flag and wear the armband in training. Business was persuaded to help, e.g., Standard Oil Co. of Indiana sent out posters...