[3] Without the support of the War Department, Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill on 28 May 1941, providing for a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

"[8] It cited women's commitment to the war effort in England, Russia, Germany and Japan, and emphasized that the WAC recruits must be physically able to take on any job.

The fitness manual was state-of-the-art for its day, with sections on warming up and progressive body-weight strength-building exercises for the arms, legs, stomach, neck and back.

It included a section on designing a personal fitness routine after basic training and concluded with "The Army Way to Health and Added Attractiveness" with advice on skincare, make-up, and hairstyles.

[11] In 1943 the recruiting momentum stopped and went into reverse as a massive slander campaign on the home front challenged the WACs as sexually immoral.

[14] Criticism of WACs also came from other women: Servicemen and officer's wives' idle gossip, local women who disliked the newcomers taking over "their town", female civilian employees resenting the competition (for both jobs and men), charity and volunteer organizations who resented the extra attention the WAACs received, and complaints and slander spread by disgruntled or discharged WAACs.

[15] One WAC recruiting officer said that at her post, many believed that Army women had deserted husbands and children to consort with male soldiers.

[16] All investigations showed the rumors were false,[17][18] but the belief that the Army wanted WACs as "morale boosters"—organized prostitutes—was widespread among soldiers and civilians.

One woman soldier wrote that since "you can't change human nature", WACs could act as "a healthy source of entertainment for our gallant men, and win the war".

British general Bernard Montgomery in December 1944 suggested assigning WAC and ATS units to the occupation of Germany to avoid Allied soldiers' fraternization with German women.

[19] Although many sources spawned and fed bad jokes and ugly rumors about military women,[20] contemporaneous[21][22] and historical[23][24] accounts have focused on the work of syndicated columnist John O'Donnell.

"[27] This followed O'Donnell's 7 June column discussing efforts of women journalists and congresswomen to dispel "the gaudy stories of the gay and careless way in which the young ladies in uniform … disport themselves….

[32] According to Mattie Treadwell's Army history, as long as three years after O'Donnell's column, "religious publications were still to be found reprinting the story, and actually attributing the columnist's lines to Director Hobby.

[37] Many generals wanted more of them and proposed to draft women but it was realized that this "would provoke considerable public outcry and Congressional opposition", and so the War Department declined to take such a drastic step.

According to historian D'Ann Campbell, American society was not ready for women in military roles: Since early 1943, 422 WACs were assigned to the Corps of Engineers to work on the Manhattan Project, the secret US effort to build an atomic bomb.

"[43] Any women interested in positions on the project were told the following: they would be doing a hard job, would never be allowed to go overseas, attend Officer Candidate School, would never receive publicity, and would live at isolated stations with few recreational facilities.

[45][44] In addition, all members of the WAAC and the WAC who served in World War II received the Women's Army Corps Service Medal.

"[47] By the time the requisitions arrived at the Pentagon in November 1964, the director had selected Major Kathleen I. Wilkes and Sergeant 1st class.

[48] The first WAC advisors advised the WAFC director and her staff on methods of organization, inspection, and management in recruiting, training, administering and assigning enlisted women and officer candidates.

Women in grades E-5 and higher with excellent stenographic skills, maturity and faultless records of deportment filled these positions for the next seven years.

A few WAC officers served with the U.S. Army Central Support Command at Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay.

However Engler won over the critics when he decided to house the WACs inside the U.S. military cantonment area at Tan Son Nhut International Airport rather than in the city, eliminating the need for additional guards.

[51] In July 1967 USARV and its component commands, including the assigned WACs, moved to Long Binh Post northeast of Saigon.

As members of a volunteer auxiliary group, the WAACs got paid less than their equivalent male counterparts in the US Army and did not receive any benefits or privileges.

Their auxiliary insignia was the dark blue letters "WAAC" on an Olive Drab rectangle worn on the upper sleeve (below the stripes for enlisted ranks).

US Army policy decreed that technical and professional WAC personnel should wear their assigned Branch of Service insignia to reduce confusion.

Due to her earlier experience serving with director Mary McLeod Bethune of the Bureau of Negro Affairs, she became Colonel Culp's aide on race relations in the WAC.

[71] Serving in General Eisenhower's North African headquarters in Algiers, this group of about 200 women performed secretarial, driving, postal, and other non-combat duties.

"[73] Louisiana Register of State Lands Ellen Bryan Moore attained the rank of captain in the WACs and once recruited three hundred women at a single appeal to join the force.

[75] After leaving the Army, she went to Howard University law school and became a prominent civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. She was also one of the first women ordained in the A.M.E.