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increasingly ambitious plans for the use of Waacs. Almost all plans during that first year and a half centered around the use of women to operate the stations which the AAF was providing throughout the country, but particularly on the east and west coast, as part of its defense against possible air attack. IN those early months of the war, when the threat of air attack was very real and this country's defenses were only just beginning to be built, the AAF was relying tremendously upon alert civilians and a handful of soldiers at such stations to detect approaching enemy airplanes and give warning in time to permit this country's defense force to prepare for the attack. Women volunteers were doing yeoman service as "plotters" and "filterers" at these AWS stations, but the AAF realized both that it was necessary to demand of these women far more than part-time service and also that it would be much simpler to administer the group if it were part of the military service.

Plans for Aircraft Warning Services

In March of 1942 a memorandum for the Chief of Staff from the Personnel Division of the Services of Supply (1) outlined the plans which had been drawn up by the AAF Director of Air Defense for use of Waacs. It stated that the commanding general of the "First Interceptor Command" was to establish

1. Memorandum for the Chief of Staff from the Personnel Division, SOS, dated 9 March 1942, subject; Organization of Units of the Women's Army Corps for Duty with The Aircraft Warning Service.

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