Viewing page 84 of 124

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

already partially fitted them.(1)  On 9 November of the War Department published Circular 289 of its 1943 series as a digest of all regulations affecting Wacs which had been covered by earlier WAAC regulations or by piecemeal War Department regulations printed since the dissolution of the WAAC in September.  Much of the material in this circular was reflected in AAF Regulation 35-44, the basic guide to AAF administration of Wacs which was published later in November.(2)  It was during November, also, that the office of the Air WAC Officer was moved from the Office of the AC/AS, M,M, and D, to the Office of AC/AS, Personnel, and was made a division.(3)  In that same month one of the first inquiries from an AAF unit overseas direct to AAF Headquarters came in regarding the possibility of securing WAC personnel: The ATC group in Hawaii asked about the possibility of securing a WAC AWS unit to replace the "WARDS" (Women's Air Raid Defense Service), a volunteer civilian group which had been operating the Aircraft Warning System in the Hawaiian area.(1)  At the same time (4 November) the War Department approved an AAF recommendation that ATC be allowed to sent its WAC personnel to its stations anywhere in the world, just as it did


1. AAF Letter 50-8, dated 20 November 1943, subject: Army Air Forces Training Policy for Wacs.

2. Cf. p. 34.

3. The Air WAC Division was divided into three branches: research, staff inspection, and exempted activities.

1. The request was refused because of the War Department policy against using Wacs to replace civilians, or in jobs which civilians could do.

-81-