Marshall, the Women's Army Corps, and Three WACS from Virginia | The Paper Trail

In March 1941, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall wrote “We must plan for every possible contingency, and certainly must provide some outlet for the patriotic desires of our women.”
When the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was formed in May 1942 and Director Oveta Culp Hobby was sworn in to the lead the new group, the women were not a part of the U.S. military, which is why Hobby was titled Director, without military rank. Instead of the expected officer ranks, officers in the WAAC were called “first officer,” equivalent to a captain, or “second officer,” equivalent to a 1st Lieutenant.
The WAAC were not intended to serve overseas, but to fill military jobs in the United States that would free up men to fight. Women were eager to serve. According to “Creation of the Women’s Army Corps,” more than 35,000 women applied for an anticipated 1,000 positions. The first class of 125 enlisted and 440 officer candidates (40 of whom were African-American) reported to the WAAC Training Center at Fort Des Moines on July 20, 1942.
WAACs were not expected to serve overseas, as they were not given the same securities as soldiers. They weren’t protected by the Geneva Convention, didn’t have military life insurance, or veterans’ health benefits. A few days into the North Africa campaign in the fall of 1942, Gen. Eisenhower asked for five WAAC officers, some who spoke French, to work as executive secretaries. They were followed shortly by a post headquarters company and a signal company, and it became obvious that WAAC personnel were needed overseas, and changes needed to be made.
In July 1943, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps became the Women’s Army Corps, with the same protections as male soldiers. Director Oveta Culp Hobby became Col. Hobby.
Gen. Marshall supported the WAC; he wrote in a Feb. 15, 1944 letter that “I am probably the strongest Army advocate of the WAC organization and I am fully convinced that a great deal of the work of the Army can be done better by women than by men.”
First Lt. Lelia Cocke, from Roanoke, graduated from Hollins University in 1937 and from the University of Virginia in 1940 with a master degree in history. She trained at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, then served as the Personnel Officer at the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section at Indoorpilly, Brisbane, Australia. Cocke arrived in Australia in May 1944 in a group of 640 WAC personnel.
According to Queensland WWII Historic Places, the women assigned to Yeronga Park found the “barracks were somewhat more primitive than those in the United States, with bucket latrines, outside showers, and limited laundry facilities” but that theirs were better than the men’s barracks at the camp.
Cocke also served in Manila, Philippines, where this photo was taken in late 1945. Cocke was in charge of supplying interpreters to question Japanese officers who captured or surrendered, including After the war, she returned to Roanoke, married William Bagbey, had a family, and volunteered in the community.
Sgt. Viola Burleson was a high-school graduate from Buchanan who worked in an office as a typist. When she enlisted in the WAC, she was trained as an Army photographer and served at March Field, CA, with the Army Air Corps.
Sgt. Viola Burleson at work in the photo lab at March Field. The ultra large format camera produces 8x10-inch negatives, and might be used to reproduce maps or aerial reconnaissance photos.
Capt. Rebecca Brockenbrough, from Richmond, graduated from the University of Richmond and got her master degree from Columbia University. Before the war, she taught at St. Margaret’s, an Episcopal girls school in Tappahannock, VA.
She trained in the first officers class at Fort Des Moines, IA, and after commissioning at Conway, AR, before serving as a WAAC recruiter. She was sent to Salisbury, Wiltshire, in Southern England, in April 1944 to serve as a mail censor.
During WWII, more than 150,000 women served in the WAAC and WAC in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Southwest Pacific, China, India, Burma, and the Middle East. Jobs included expected secretarial work but also car and airplane mechanics, photographers, aircraft plotters, laboratory and medical technicians, communications jobs such a switchboard operator or teletype machine, mail and package sorters, weather observers, cryptographers, radio repair, parachute riggers, link trainer (flight) instructors, air traffic control, bombsight maintenance, draftsmen, electricians, radio operators on hospital ships, supply procurement and oversight, map and aerial photograph analysts, and translators.
The Women’s Army Corp expanded both in number and in jobs over the 36 years of its existence. In 1978, the U.S. Army abolished the WAC, and women were fully integrated into the Army.