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and was developing, and there was simply insufficient information available to cover many situations, so that the long distance telephone wires between Washington and the air command headquarters were, for a time, filled with questions on WAAC.

In April Troop Carrier Command asked for a "laundry company", and had to be told that WAAC personnel was not used on such basic assignments, because of the heavy manual labor involved and because of the adverse effect upon recruiting that women's holding such assignments might have. In April and May First Air Force asked for medical companies, and had to be told that no trained personnel was available for such duties. On 28 June the AAF branch of Army Emergency Relief sent a letter to AAF commands asking for the names of Waacs possessing theatrical talent who could be used for "soldier shows" - and both the commands and AER had to be told that Waacs could not be used in such shows, since the public, not yet convinced of the advisability of having women in the military service, were prone to think, if they saw women in theatrical performances, that the army had no real need for them.(1) On 22 July the Eastern Flying Training Command (then the Southeast Training Center) asked whether Waacs could enter the Military Government School at Charlottesville, Virginia, and had to be told "not yet". Earlier, however, the 


1. The question of utilization of Waacs in theatrical performances remained one of the most confusing aspects of the WAAC program, to many army officers, for months and even years.

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