To Remember Soldiers, is to Respect Them and Question the Necessity of War

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.



here 





here



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.

PALLAS ATHENS, insignia of the Women's Army Corps.

here

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. 



 
 here




here

"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). "

elvis

My first 2 wheel bike* was an old 50s model with fat tires, fenders, a big saddle seat, and a wire basket. I got it in 4th grade, in 1963, just after I turned 9. Tom Roe painted it green, sparkle green, in his Auto Body Shop in Yountville, down Washington St, near the Catholic Church. As a special treat, my dad let me choose the color and I asked him to ask Tom to paint "Elvis" on the front fender.
Yeah, that's right.
I do love Elvis but not in the mindless white trash way. That's my Elvis tapestry, that's my Elvis tshirt Annie gave me (awesome!), and that's my Elvis watch. No really, I love  Elvis, but not like that....
Happy Birthday !
*first full size 2 wheeler,that is.
similar to this:

Elvis Aaron Presley was born January 8, 1935 and is a cultural icon.
Last weekend Mark and I went to dinner with his dad and Sally to celebrate Dick's 70th birthday! As we passed the theater in the mega-mega-huge Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn (which is an acid trip without the drugs)...an Elvis impersonator, Steve Sogura, was singing.

My first Elvis album was Acapulco. I still know all the words by heart to "No Room to Rhumba in Sports car"...



Oh No! Elvis joins the Army ! He entered the United States Army at Memphis, Tennessee, on March 24, 1958, because Selective Service told him to do so....




Army clothes! yes. Love the clothes hate the war. I am a flower child after all.

The AAF, The Army Air Forces began on June 20, 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor.
>U.S. Army personnel have traditionally been assigned to branches and so
air services were in the Army long before that and their names changed over time.
1907 - Aeronautical Section of the Signal Corps.
1914 - Aviation Section (Signal Corps).
1918 - United States Army Air Service
1926 - United States Army Air Corps
1941 - United States Army Air Forces
1947 - United States Air Force ....left the Army and became their own service branch.

and the ladies? yes, Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the most well-known aviators of that time, tried to interest the Army Air Corps in women pilots who would be trained to fly military aircraft within the United States. On Sept. 10, 1942, Nancy Harkness Love, with the support of the U.S. Air Transport Command, organized 25 women pilots into the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).
The purpose of the WAFS was to deliver planes from the factory to military bases. On Aug. 5, 1943, the WAFS and WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment ) merged into the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). The history of the WASP

Early 40s Army Air Force shirt, AAF patch on the shoulder soldier.
Dark Olive wool officer uniform shirt is early 40s, World War Two, with a felt embroidered AAF patch.
The AAF patch dates to 1942, and the felt is the first in the series of these patches issued.

40s WWII US Army HBT Trousers

WWII Planes B17 B29 with Nose Art casual print Mens Shirt
What a great tribute to the fighting men and women of World War II  !

Fun print of many Boeing planes..B17 Flying Fortress, B29 Superfortress, B25 Mitchell, B24 Liberator, B26 Marauder.

50s Field Trousers M 1951 Olive Drab US Army HBT

There's certainly many wonderful sad and evocative songs from the Big Band era, and the years of World War 2....but this one by Vera Lynn never fails to make me tear up....just a bit...after all these years...every time I hear it....Lynn's song in the final scene of Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, and was also used in the closing scenes of the 1986 BBC television serial The Singing Detective....and I love that series and Michael Gambon. oh yes. Songs by the Ink Spots were in it too...songs of my little childhood.