She was WAC

Catherine (Kay) Leary
Born: 10/7/1907, North Lawrence, NY
Died: 2/29/1988, North Lawrence, NY
Relation to Author: Grand Aunt (mother’s side)
Sister to Helen Keenan (nee: Leary)

Over 150,000 American women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army.*

Before starting this project, I knew very little about Catherine Leary beyond fuzzy but happy memories of games of Go-Fish with Aunt Kay-Kay. I may have remembered that she had been a teacher, but I certainly did not know that she had served in the Women’s Army Corps.

As America prepared for World War II, leaders in government debated about how women could best aide the war effort. During World War I, women supported the effort overseas - mostly as nurses. Many complained though that women lacked official status and therefore basic protections afforded to men working overseas; women had to secure their own quarters, were not afforded legal protection or medical care, and upon returning home received no disability benefits or pension.

Unfortunately, when Congress passed a bill creating a role for women in World War II - the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) - it did not afford women legal protection, benefits, or overseas pay. And it created the Corps as a separate entity to work with the army. Even this bill was controversial though, stirring debate about whether women should be encouraged to leave the home. The bill easily passed in the House but received a close vote in the Senate (38-27). The bill was signed into law in May of 1942.

But as the war progressed, the role of women and the WAAC would change and women would receive the protections they sought. Legislation would change the WAAC to the WAC - from a separate unit to work with the Army, to a unit of reserve forces and part of the Army of the United States (AUS) in July of 1943, to a part of the United States Army in 1946. The WAC lasted until 1978 when it was finally disbanded and women entered basic training with men.

Catherine Leary joined the effort on March 20, 1943, just before legislation changing the WAAC to the WAC. All WAAC women were given the option of transitioning to WAC or leaving. While 25 percent returned home, Kay and a very many others stayed on.

Kay joined at the age of 35. By that time, she had a Masters degree and had been a teacher for 13 years. This made her significantly older than the average WAC volunteer who was 25 years old, but more educated since most had high school diplomas (most of the first officers were college educated). As many women, especially the most educated, were teachers at the time, this was one of the groups the WAC sought to recruit from.

Originally, the roles for women were mostly clerical, but would expand to include a list almost too long to name but included, “weather observers and forecasters, cryptographers, radio operators and repairmen, sheet metal workers, parachute riggers, link trainer instructors, bombsight maintenance specialists, aerial photograph analysts, and control tower operators,” to name a few. They also served in most theatres, including “North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Southwest Pacific, China, India, Burma, and the Middle East.”

In later posts, we’ll hope to explore Kay’s actual roles in the WAC (through oral history and personnel records) as well as where she served.

Sources:
*THE WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS: A COMMEMORATION OF WORLD WAR II SERVICE, By Judith A. Bellafaire, CMH Publication 72-15. http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/wac/wac.htm