Women At Selman Field
and in the Military
On 15 May 1942 President Roosevelt signed a bill creating the Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps(from the summer of 1943, re-designated the Women's Army Corps).
To enlist as an Air WAC, a woman had to be aged between 20 and 49 and be a
citizen of the USA. She could be married or single, but must be without children
under fourteen years old. As regards education, two years at high school and a
satisfactory aptitude rating were sufficient.
By January 1945, 29,323 women were serving in the AAC, and female officers carried
out more than sixty types of duty. They included: medical and hospital techicians;
personnel; photography; drafting; radio operators; radio and electrial repair;
telephone operators; gasoline motor and light machinery operators; instrument repair;
general clerical; typing clerical; statistical and financial; stenography; tabulating
machine operators; teletype writer operators; drivers; and supply and stock clerks.
Air WACs served in more than 200 job categories, ranging from aerial photographer
to weather observer. They served in the aircraft warning service on the east and
west coasts of the USA, releasing 6,000 unpaid women volunteers for other duties.
Air WACs accounted for almost half of the Army's entire WAC personnel. Only twenty
Air WACs qualified as aircrew for non-combat flights. Women mechanics totalled 1,200.
In January 1945, 32,008 WACs were serving in the AAF in the USA, 8,904 of them in
Training Command, and 7,315 overseas, including 2,755 in ATC, 2,835 in the ETO, 457
in the MTO, and 694 in the FEAFs.
Downtown Monroe, LA...1943
The 318th AAF Flying Training Detachment was formed in November 1942 at Howard
Huges Field in Houston, Texas, and was the brainchild of the famous American aviatrix,
Jacqueline Cochran. She helped persuade the Army to create a training unit to prepare
women pilots to ferry military aircraft from manufacturers to embarkation points, just
as women pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary were doing in the UK. (Originally, from
1943, when they were allowed into Training Command, women ferried only "training"
airplanes.)
WAC Radio Mechanic-1943
So successful was the school that in June 1943 Gen.Arnold ordered the WFTD and
WAFS to amalgamate under Col. Cochran into the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, better
known as the WASP. Comprised of female pilots who were Civil Service employees rather
than military members of the AAF, the WASPs performed outstandlingly. In all, 25,000
women applied to join the WASP; 1, 830 were admitted, and 1,074 completed their indoc-
trination. (The elimination rate for WASP applicants in 1943 was 26 per cent; 47 per
cent in 1944.) A total of 37 WASPs were killed in accidents, and 36 were injured.
WASPs also towed targets at gunnery school and served as flight instructors at flight
schools.
The WASP was disbanded on 20 December 1944, when the AAFs were facing a surplus of male
aviators. Women pilots had flown 77 types of aircraft, including single-and twin-engined
fighters, C-54 and C-46 transports and B-24 Liberators. In 27 months up tp December 1944,
ferry pilots completed 12,650 movements over 9,224,000 miles. At the end, 916 women pilots
were on duty with the AAF, including 620 in Training Command, and 141 in the ATC.
WWII WASP...for more information and links to the WWII WASP
WASP-1944
WAVE-1944
Sgt. Goldie Thomawick 1943
By 1944 more than 6,500 nurses were assigned to the Army Nurse Corps: 6,000
served at AAF station hospitals, the other 500 were flight nurses assigned to air
evacuation of the wounded.
WASP-1944
All photos courtesy of Walter Kaffka
Information supplied from the "USAAF Handbook 1939-1945", by Martin W. Bowman
Weddings at Selman Field
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