“The WAC Is A Soldier, Too” (TV 277) is a 1950s episode from The Big Picture, a series produced by the Army Pictorial Center. This episode takes viewers on a tour of the recently opened Women’s Army Corps (WAC) training center at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama and shows the preparation the women receive. The episode opens with a shot of Sgt. Stuart Queen (00:59), who discusses the new WAC training center. An aerial view of the new center (01:29) reveals the nearly two dozen buildings that make up the campus. Service men and women attend the dedication ceremony (02:00), where General Matthew B. Ridgway speaks on the importance of the Women’s Army Corps (02:22). He unveils a plaque as part of the dedication (03:42. New WAC recruits arrive at the Anniston train station. The women, also known as WACs, are issued uniforms (04:47), which they then try on; they are fitted for shoes (05:34) and their uniforms are tailored. WACs receive required vaccines (06:11). The women are then interviewed for specialty areas and courses of study. A woman wakes up in her private room in the barracks (06:52). WACs stand at attention (07:30) for roll call, which is followed by a morning march as the WAC band plays (08:03). WACs participate in drill training (09:00) and attend a class on individual standards and social concepts (09:54). Women train on typewriters in a clerk typist and stenographer course (10:37). When not in class, the women relax in one of the center’s lounges (11:44). WACs study as they participate in the center’s Officer Candidate School (12:06). A woman presents on Staff Organization (12:56). Another woman works in the kitchen as a KP (13:07); WACs go through the food line at the center’s cafeteria. WACs wash laundry and hang clothes to dry. Trainees attend a callisthenic class (14:27). The WAC center features recreational opportunities for the WACs: some women golf (14:57) on the 18-hole golf course, others play cards in game room (15:25), and some look at clothes at the Post Exchange (16:04). The new center features a beauty shop (16:18). The 14th Army Band, the only WAC band (17:13), plays the WAC march by Jane Douglas. WACs stand at attention as the band plays during the call of retreat (19:40). The WAC Service Club hosts a dance (21:58) with music provided by the WAC military band; service men and women dance together. At the barracks kitchen (25:17), WACs chat together before bedtime. A WAC member plays “Taps” (25:48). The episode ends with an overview of the WAC center and features a montage of shots of women in uniform performing various duties, including teaching in classrooms, assisting dentists and doctors, and performing secretarial duties.

The Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was the women’s branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps(WAAC) on 15 May 1942 by Public Law 554, and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States as the WAC on 1 July 1943. Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby, a prominent woman in Texas society. The WAC was disbanded in 1978, and all units were integrated with male units.

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