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Fighter Command during one of their first working days in the army.Switchboard: Between calls, whichaverage around 250 an hour, Pfc Reevesdeclared she likes her job because she feels it is important. One of the Anglo-American. difficulties at first, she said, is the difference in telephone terms. Are you through?” means “Are you ready to begin?” in British, while it means Areyou finished?” in American.Behind Pfc Reeves was Cpl. J. D. Gorman, of Baird, Tex., a maintenance and operations switchboard man, checking the telephone traffic to see if more lines will be necessary at Fighter Command. Farther down the board, Pvt. Brady Grigsby, of Cordia, Ky., was doing the same behindPvt. Eleanor ilcNicol, of Denver.Operations Room: Outside this strictly guarded place, Pvt. Juanita Simon, of Detroit, Mich., a plotter, said: You know that saying that girls can’t keep a secret. It’s wonderful to be entrusted with military secrets.”Asked how lt^ng she had been working in the operations room. Pvt. Simon opened her shapely trap, shut it, gulped, and swallowed. Military secret.Pfc Jean Bishop, of Hillsdale, Mich., another plotter, said she used to be a spot welder at Ford’s Willow Run plant, where Liberators are made, but found it “too boring, because you were always doing the same work over the same piece,” Plotting for Eighth Air Force operations seems a lot closer to helping out in the war, she said.Brig. Gen. Frank O’D. Hunter, chief of Eighth Fighter Command, had a few words to say about the WAACs. From their early efforts, he believes they will live up to the standard of efficiency set by the outgoing WAAF unit, he said. His “American-spoken English,” he added, had caused some trouble to his WAAF secretary. “I’m from the deep south. I’ve now found a little sergeant from Mississippi, and she*seenis to understand me very well,” he said, “even if I am from Savannah.”Sheer female stockings, and some sheer female—uh—underpants, floated on the clothes line outside a barracks near theadministration building. Inside the barracks, lined with the usual Gl cots and wooden foot-lockers, the shelves held such unusual GI equipment as powder-boxes, a doll, and a good many male pictures. On one bed reposed Geraldine, a kmen. “We took her over from the boys,’ 1/Sgt. Virginia Reddie. of Snohomish, Wash., said. “I don’t think they were feeding her properly.”Capt. Frances S. Cornick, of Norfolk, Va;, company commandenof the WAAC unit at Bomber Command, on a brief visit at Fighter Command, looked out the barracks window at the sole boundary line between WAAC and GI quarters—a canvas fence surmounted by one strip of barbed wire. “And that’s all that separates them? Oh, ma soul,” said the captain. It was explained to her that the WAACs here will move to another side of the post as soon as new barracks for them axe completed.^ WAACs at both Fighter and Bomber Command headquarters are replacing WAAF units, In some departments—operations room, finance section, PX—they are replacing enlisted men, who are thereby released for combat.At Bomber Command, Pvt. Violet Loncar, of Chicago, replacing an enlisted man in the PX, said she sometimes gets involved in long explanations when a GI, spotting bright, edible-looking packages on the shelves, won’t believe they are strictly WAAC products ip the cosmetic line.In the mail distribution section, Sgt. Joseph Algozzini, of New York, said tliat when he was stationed at Miami Beach WAACs assigned to his post weren't much inclined to work. “I’m surprised how anxious they are to work hard here,” he said, referring specifically to his two assistants, Pfc Muriel Baskoff, of Chicago, and Pvt. Pauline Barney, of Malone, N.Y.NCO in charge of the finance section, T/Sgt. Sam Malone Jr., of Decatur, Ala., claimed he go t a shock when he started explaining military correspondence to WAACs just assigned to his section, and they took the words right out of his mouth. “They’ve really had army training.” he declared, and Pfc Alice Murray, of Philadelphia, agreed.Brig. Gen. Frederick L. Anderson, chief of Eighth Bomber Command, said: “I hope the WAACs can do as well as the WAAFs have done, and I’m sure they can. I’m particularly pleased by their very serious attitude.”
Newspaper Details
London Stars and Stripes
London, Middlesex, GB
Mon, Aug 16, 1943
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Molly S.
USA 27 Aug 2022
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