20 July 1942

80 years ago today, the First Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Training Center officially opened for the first WAAC Officer Candidates and Auxiliaries.

The Post itself had been busy in the two months since the passage of the WAAC bill in May. Colonel Don Faith had been selected as commandant of the training center, having served twenty-five years in the Army, including service as an instructor for the National Guard and as a member of the War Department’s G1 and G4 divisions. Faith’s task of setting up the training center was no small feat, as he faced staffing, procurement, and capital expansions on the post.

Faith met the challenge and by the morning of Monday, July 20, the post was filled with people—more than 800 future Waacs, the training cadre, and swarms of press members were onsite.

Of the 830 recruits, 440 were assigned to the first officer candidate class. These women had been selected out of tens of thousands of applicants and were destined by mid- September to be part of the WAAC Training Cadre, serve at WAAC HQ, or lead units of women assigned to the Aircraft Warning Service.

The remaining 390 auxiliaries (reported as all recruited from the West Coast) were the first of what would soon be new training classes beginning weekly in an attempt to resolve the Army’s manpower shortage which by this time was in excess of 150,000 persons. By the close of 1942, these 390 women would have completed their specialist training, have been assigned to duty stations across the nation, and some would be preparing for “the big trip”—service overseas.

The reporters (possibly the most enthusiastic group in attendance that day) joined Director Hobby for a press conference on the benches outside of Training Company 2’s barracks. They were able not only to interview Hobby and Faith, but also see first eight Waacs in uniform and photograph the first of three days of processing. The actual training courses were not slated to begin until Thursday of that week, at which point the reporters were long gone, having been given access to the first classes only on the 20th. A complete press blackout would follow for the next two weeks to allow cadre and trainees to get settled into a wholly new routine.

The next few posts will highlight members of the first training classes, successes and issues faced by the trainees and cadre, and additional press highlights—stay tuned!