For decades, Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members have gone unrecognized by the general public, despite performing crucial jobs that helped turn the tide in favor of our country. Here are 10 jobs Women’s Army Corps members performed during wartime that required immense skill and diligence.
Keep reading to learn more about the communication, technical, and specialized intelligence roles these women took on.
Communication and Clerical Roles
Though they may seem simple on the surface, communication roles in the military played a critical part in relaying messages between units. It was a task that could mean the difference between coordinated success and costly delay.
If you served as a postal clerk or mail censor, you might have been in one of the most celebrated units in WAC history: the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (Six Triple Eight). This unit consisted of 855 Black women of the WAC deployed in 1945. They were tasked with sorting and routing over two years’ worth of backlogged mail, approximately 18 million pieces. According to the National Archives News, author Lewis states, “Through hard work and dedication to getting the warfighters their mail, the Six Triple Eight cleared the backlog in Britain in only three months.” Millions had grown frustrated waiting on mail. With poor working conditions and a deadline of just six months, you and your fellow WACs worked around the clock to boost morale. Guided by the motto: “No mail, low morale.”
You might also have served as a stenographer, switchboard operator, or typist. As a stenographer, your job was to record spoken words in real time,. You typed them into a specialized keyboard or writing in shorthand, much like court reporters do today.
As a typist, you transcribed text, documents, and data into a computer or typewriter. The WAC’s members performed these jobs dutifully by managing crucial paperwork, which allowed more men to enlist in active combat.
If you were among the brightest WAC members, you may have trained as a switchboard operator. They managed incoming and outgoing calls. In this role, you served primarily to relay messages, maintain radio silence protocols, and manage logistics. It was one of the three original specialties of the WAC. Most of the enlisted WAC’s were assigned to clerical duties.
Technical and Skilled Trade Roles
Beyond administrative duties, many WAC members put their hands to work in technical and skilled trade roles. These jobs demanded precision and mechanical know-how.
You might have worked as a cartographer or mechanic. As a cartographer, you interpreted geographical, demographic, and topographic information to produce maps. It was a highly skilled trade that earned you and your fellow mapmakers the nickname “Military Map Maidens,” responsible for tens of thousands of maps used by the military. As a mechanic, you relied on sharp problem-solving skills, playing a vital role as a radio mechanic responsible for repairs and installations.
WAC members also performed as weather observers and even parachute riggers. They served as trained weather observers, forecasters, and technicians. They filled in vital gaps left by the deployed male meteorologists in the Army Air Forces Weather Wing. Famed Marie McMillin was a parachute rigger at Fort Benning, Georgia. According to the “Women Army Corps” by Bettie J. Morden, “During World War II, women riggers had not been allowed to jump with a chute they had packed, as male riggers did”, despite receiving the same airborne training.
Classified and Specialized Intelligence Roles
Not every job came with recognition. If you worked behind locked doors in classified and specialized intelligence roles, you contributed to efforts that would shape the course of history, without ever being able to talk about it.
If you served in cryptography, your job was to secure information by transforming readable data into unreadable ciphertext and back again. WAC members performed dutifully in these roles to shorten the war and save countless lives. It was a position that demanded high qualifications, given the sensitive nature of code-breaking and code-making for wartime correspondence.
Similarly, WAC members took a role in the top-secret Manhattan Project. They provided much-needed support to keep the massive atomic research and development project running. The 422 women assigned to the project were told they would never receive publicity and live at isolated facilities. According to Kim Guise, a writer for the National World War II Museum, “Each of these individuals underwent a personal interview by the WAC staff director who commanded the Oak Ridge company and was hand-selected for the assignment”. Major General Leslie Groves, who oversaw the project, later admitted few would ever know how much depended on their quiet work.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve learned about the communication, technical, and classified intelligence jobs Women’s Army Corps members performed during wartime, you have a clearer picture of just how essential their contributions truly were. From switchboards to secret laboratories, these women brought discipline and quiet determination to every role they filled. Their work may have gone unrecognized for decades, but its impact on history is undeniable.
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