WAAC's First Muster

ARMY

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps had openings for 450 officers. On the first day, bemused Army recruiting officers gave out 13,208 long, pink application blanks, explained 13,208 times that an applicant must be between her 21st and 50th birthdays* (no, she must not fib about her age), must be between five and six feet tall, must weigh between 105 and 200 Lb., must have a high-school education.

Ladies, Please! Rich or poor, black or white, married or single, women were so eager to sign up that many went without breakfast. Bosses waited in vain for secretaries, nurses arrived late and breathless at hospitals, dishes went unwashed and floors unswept. Some housewives had plans complete for Junior to stay with Grandma for the duration. One mother and daughter would not give their names for fear, Papa would find out. A Washington girl had just accompanied her boy friend to the Marines' recruiting office. A Philadelphia girl would not let photographers take her picture lest her sister find out she had borrowed her new red hat.

The staccato questions and treble chatter in the 440 recruiting stations got on officers' nerves. Cried a lieutenant in Manhattan: "Ladies, please, for gosh sake, shut up a minute!" Said another officer: "They're just as tough to handle in this recruiting office as they are in civilian life --see what I mean?" Recruiting for WAAC officers will continue until June 4. Then each of the nine corps areas will pick 60 names. The 450 women finally chosen from these will go to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for training, beginning July 15.

No Glamor Girls. Despite some wishful thinking by the press, the applicants were not glamor girls. Most were working girls, usually not very well paid, or temporarily out of jobs. Most said they wanted to serve their country; some said they wanted to fight Japs. Many came because the women's Army offers security (officer candidates get $50 a month and all necessities--pay is expected to be the same as Army pay), or because all their menfolks are in the service and nothing holds them at home.

The group from which most officer candidates will probably be chosen is slightly older, usually better off, college-educated, with a sprinkling of bluebloods (e.g., Boston's Emily Saltonstall, daughter of Massachusetts' Governor) who do not need jobs or money. The WAACs need women with supervisory experience.

As recruiting got under way, the press --and the Roman Catholic Church-- started a small hue-&-cry about woman's place being in the home. And the WAAC ruling that pregnancy means automatic discharge from the corps fetched a remark from Mrs. Margaret Sanger that the Army should give contraceptive information to WAACs.

Army men wanted the WAACs to hurry up; they could put them to work at once relieving men in such jobs as stenography, baking and cooking. But the WAACs will not be hurried. Even the Auxiliary Aircraft Warning Service--which is to be first served--can expect no Corps auxiliaries until after Sept. 1.

*Age limits set by Congress are 21 to 45, but through a loophole in the law, women up to 50 will be accepted for officer training.

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