2.+Women’s+Army+Corps+(+WAAC)+and+General+George+Marshall

Marc Gliozzi October 20, 2008

Name: Susan Ackerly Birthdate: September 22, 1914 Date Bill was Passed: May 15, 1942 Occupation: Nurse Background info: Husband of a World War II veteran. Has an 8 year old son and 3 year old daughter.

Picture of some female soldiers of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps: http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/Vignettes/Vignet220.gif Picture of General George C. Marshall: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/C/catletgeorge/warnecke.gif

Towards the beginning or World War II, all of the men were going off to the war leaving us women to fend for ourselves. We just had to sit and watch as the men went off to fight in the war. It was even more terrible because we wanted to help in some way, but we were not allowed to do much of anything. Although, with the help of General George C. Marshall, that all changed. Marshall was the chief of staff for the military between 1939 and 1945. He had to lead and assemble one of the biggest armies known in history (__Nobel Lectures__ 1). During the war, there was a greater and greater need for helping hands, and resources were stressed because so many men had already been sent to the battle lines or were utilized in some other way. Marshall realized that by using women to do certain jobs than war affairs could be done much smoother. He was one of the few men of the time that believed women had the ability to perform certain tasks better than men could so he proposed a bill to Congress for the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). A lot of Congress believed that the bill for the WAAC was ridiculous and pointless, but George fought for my rights, as well as all others womens’ rights as he pushed the bill which was originally passed on May 15, 1942. Thousands of women enlisted, including myself, and the “Auxiliary” was dropped from the name making it the WAC. I served as a nurse because of my knowledge of medicine, but plenty of other women served as “ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots—nearly every duty not involving direct combat” (Danzer 563). Over the course of the whole war, over 150,000 American women, of whom I am glad to include myself, served in the Womens Army Corps. We were the first women serving in the ranks of the military (short of nurses) and we were able to gain some social rights thanks to Marshall. It was hard for people to accept at first, but people started realizing how much more helpful women could be in American society (Bellafaire 2).

B ellafaire, Judith A.. "brouchures/wac/wac." __US Army Center of Military History__. 17 Feb 2008. CMH. 20 Oct 2008. . Danzer, Gerald A.,et al. __The Americans Reconstruction to the 21st Century__. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2005. __ Nobel Lectures __, Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972. Above source obtained by: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1953/marshall-bio.html