Viewing page 4 of 124

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

SECTION I
PLANS AND EXPERIMENTS

  In 1944 and 1945, after the WAC program had long been an established part of the Army Air Forces' wartime structure it was difficult to mention Wacs at an air base anywhere without having some veteran AAF officer - frequently a commanding general - comment that he had been interested in the program ever since World War I showed how effectively Waacs had been used in the British Army. It would usually develop, in the course of the conversation, that the officer had, indeed, done a staff study on the subject of possible use of American women in the military service, sometime during the 1920's or 1930's.
  This rather widespread interest, among the men who pioneered America's development of military air power, in the possible use of women soldiers - an innovation almost as revolutionary as the introduction of the airplane as a weapon of war - not only provided for general acceptance of the WAC program by ranking AAF officers as soon as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was established, but also resulted in the writing of a number of papers, long before the WAAC was actually established, urging the organization of such a group. As early as December 6, 1917, a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives (HR 7112), and survived long enough to reach the committee on military affairs, which would have

-1-