[1] AWVS volunteers provided support services to help the nation during the war, assisting with message delivery, ambulance driving, selling war bonds, emergency kitchens, cycle corps drivers, dog-sled teamsters, aircraft spotters, navigation, aerial photography, fighting fires, truck driving, and canteen workers.

[2] Alice Throckmorton McLean founded AWVS in January 1940,[3] 23 months before the United States entered the war, basing it upon the British Women's Voluntary Services,[4] in order to help prepare the nation for the war.

Most of the founders were wealthy internationalist women, and its headquarters was in New York City, making America's isolationists suspicious of AWVS.

[4] Doris Ryer Nixon founded the California chapter in August 1941 and became AWVS's national vice president.

[5][6][7] The group sponsored units in parts of the U.S. with heavy African, Chinese, and Hispanic American populations,[3][4] which was met with media criticism.