Evening star., 1943-06-25

OF Washington, tells OF their ac-
tiDitieS in the tollo,0ing article
iUritten for the Associated PresS)
BY CAPT. MATTE PINETTE.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
North Africa, June % Delayed -
Just six months ago today the
WAACS arrived in North Africa.
There were only five of them and
they had a pretty tough time get
ting here from England on Brit
ish convoy. They sailed through
storm asserted to be the worst in
the North Atlantic in % years and
then just as they were enjoying
the calm waters of the Mediterran-
can their ship was torpedoed and
they spent eight hours in a life
boat before being picked up by a
destroyer which took them Safely
to port.
They created quite stir in these
parts as they were the first uni
formed women other than nurses to
enter the theater. The bright eagle
on their caps attracted even the
Arabs, who lost some of their ma
tive indifference and bestirred
themselves to have look at these
strange women who bore the gold
bars Of second lieutenants.
Their director, Col. Oveta Culp
Hobby. had sent them over at the
request of Gen. Dwight D. Eisen-
hover, commander in chief of AL
lied forces, to perform secretarial
duties at Allied force headquarters.
Since then the trim uniformed
figure of the WAACS has become
commonplace in North Africa. A
large company of auxiliaries, led by
Capt. Frances Marquis, New York
City, arrived in January and other
contingentS have since come over.
These American women come from
all parts of the United States and
all walks of life, but each is espe-
Cially trained for specific duty.
They are all volunteers and
equipped and willing to do the job.
Trustworthy Secretaries.
You find them at the telephone
switchboards, driving trucks and
jeeps and staff cars in the postal
section. sorting out soldiers mail
and seeing to it that it is delivered
to the proper APO number, oper-
ating teleprinters and working as
cooks and bakers, feeding their fell
low WAACS. You also find them
in the Offices of high ranking staff
officers performing highly conf
dental administrative and clerical
duties.
Because the WAACS had been
thoroughly trained in security they
make exceptional trustworthy sec
retaries. Besides, they realize that
they must be even more guarded
in their talk and in their handling
of classified documents because of
the policy which still persists in
some masculine minds, like mo
Woman Can Keep a Secret"
The high degree of confidence
placed in these American women by
the chief of staff cannot be better
eXemplified than by the assignment
of the first five WAACS to the mo-
mentouS conference in Morocco
Capts. Louise Anderson, of Denver,
and Ruth Briggs, of Westerly, r. l.,
worked in the chief of staff'S office
and naturally they knew something
of the plans for the conference. Yet
when the other three captains-Ar-
lene Drezmal, of st. Paul, Martha
Rogers, of New Albany, Miss. and
myself-boarded the plane which
was to take us to Casaolanca, they
Al-.
ton nor the purpose of the trip.
They had been called to the chief
OF staff's Office one morning and told
to report at certain time, prepared
to be away from headquarters for
approximately two weeks and to
pack sufficient clothes. This struck
the WAACS as very funny, as they
had no clothes except those they
wore, having lost all their kit at sea-
But in the Army an order is an
order and no questions asked, so
they made no comment about their
lack of clothes.
The work which they did at the
conference has been reported before,
so there is no reason to dwell on it
here. Suffice it to say that they
have letters of commendation from
the President of the United States.
Gen. George S. Patton, jr., who was
commanding that area, and the chief
of staff who sent them.
The WAACS are here and here to