Newly added to my very casual vintage women's military collection, I was thrilled to acquire this from an WAC officer who joined up in 1950s. She was sent to train at the Women's Army Corps, Ft. McClellan, Alabama.
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She held on to this sweet little cotton sweater, and now it is mine!
It's a simple cotton sweater, not part of a uniform as far as I can tell.....a memento.
Fort Des Moines, Iowa, was selected as the site of the first WAAC (Womens Army Auxiliary Corps) training center in 1941.
The Women's Army Corps School was founded at Fort McClellan on September 25, 1952. In 1954, it became the first permanent home of the U.S. Women's Army Corps Center. Fort McClellan remained its home until the Corps was disestablished and its flag retired in 1977.
In May 1955 at Fort McClellan, Alabama the Women's Army Corps (WAC) Museum opened and remains today. It showcases the history of women in the Army in modern times as active soldiers.
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"At the WAC museum at Ft. McClellan....
Margaret Corbin, from the American Revolution, Dr. Mary Walker from The Civil War and Cathay Williams, Buffalo Soldier, depict the rich history and contributions of women in service to their country."
"Over 150,000 American women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army. Both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform.
However, political and military leaders, faced with fighting a two-front war and supplying men and materiel for that war while continuing to send lend-lease material to the Allies, realized that women could supply the additional resources so desperately needed in the military and industrial sectors. Given the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national war effort, women seized it. By the end of the war their contributions would be widely heralded."
1968 recruitment poster
here According to the Government Publication Office this book "Chronicles thirty-three years of WAC history from V-J Day 1945 to 1978, when the Women's Army Corps was abolished by Public Law 95-584 and discontinued by Department of the Army General Order 20, with the WAC officers assimilated into the other branches of the Army (except the combat arms). "
