“With Pride and Dignity” is a circa 1962 Department of the Army color film takes a look at the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), the women’s branch of the United States Army. It begins with a cold opening as a lieutenant colonel reviews WACs in formation as the narrator explains how we are all part of a team working together. The narrator explains, beginning at mark 01:32, how a relationship between a commanding officer and those in their outfit is similar to a teacher and student, with the young, enlisted personnel able to turn to a more experienced role model. In a flashback sequence starting at mark 02:40, the commander recalls when she joined the WACs in 1942 as black-and-white footage is shown and we learn about the organization’s beginnings and goal “not to fight of course but to free a man to fight.” The narrator briefly recounts the WAC history and how in 1943 the WACs officially became “a component of the United States Army, standing on our own two high heels.” Occasionally WACs came under fire with some of the women receiving the same recognition as their male counterparts, and at mark 03:54 we watch Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark pin a commendation on one of the women. WACs are shown marching in France following the end of World War II (mark 04:12) before returning to the film’s present day and a look at the roles WACs play in military offices and communication centers, or in medical or laboratory facilities. Many WACs also hold various communication positions (mark 07:55) and are given the opportunity to enroll in various classes “to advance themselves intellectually” (mark 08:43). The end credits roll over the sounds of the “Colonel Bogey March.”
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 full status as the WAC on 1 July 1943. Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby, a prominent society woman in Texas. The WAC was disbanded in 1978, and all units were integrated with male units.
The WAAC’s organization was designed by numerous Army bureaus coordinated by Lt. Col. Gilman C. Mudgett, the first WAAC Pre-Planner; however, nearly all of his plans were discarded or greatly modified before going into operation because he expected a corps of only 11,000 women.[4] 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. The bill was held up for months by the Bureau of the Budget but was resurrected after the United States entered the war and became law on 15 May 1942. A section authorizing the enlistment of 150,000 volunteers was temporarily limited by executive order to 25,000.
The WAAC was modeled after comparable British units, especially the ATS, which caught the attention of Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. In 1942, the first contingent of 800 members of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps began basic training at Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School, Iowa. The women were fitted for uniforms, interviewed, assigned to companies and barracks and inoculated against disease during the first day.
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