DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, 1942 was a year when the country was burning through volunteers faster than it could count them. World War II had a way of demanding everything — and so, out of that overwhelming need, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was born.
The WAAC, they called it. And it didn't stay auxiliary for long. By 1943, it had become a full, regular unit of the United States Army — the Women's Army Corps, the WAC.
By 1945, that Corps had reached its peak: about 100,000 women serving, at home and abroad. One hundred thousand. Now here's where East Texas enters the story.
Early 1943. Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, right here in Nacogdoches, had seen its enrollment fall to fewer than 500 students because of the war.
The campus was quiet in a way it had never been before. And the U.S. Army looked at all that space — those dormitories, those buildings — and saw something useful.
They established Army Administration School No. 1 right here on campus. Similar schools were set up at colleges in Alpine and Canyon, but this one, number one, was here. The WACs were housed in the campus dormitories and they attended six-week training courses — taught by army personnel — in the Austin and Rusk buildings.
Six weeks to learn noncombatant duties. Six weeks, then out into the world. But before they left, they gave something back.
Every graduating class put on a variety show for the community, right over at the Nacogdoches High School Auditorium. A show of homefront solidarity, the marker calls it, and I think that phrase does all the work you need it to. These women were about to ship out to postings throughout America and abroad, and they stopped first to say: we were here, and we're grateful.
The school closed in March of 1944. By then, about 3,000 women had trained on this campus. Three thousand women who walked out of Nacogdoches and carried the WAC into the wider war.
Not a bad legacy for a campus that, just a little while before, had fewer than 500 souls on it.
What the marker says
Founded in 1942 in response to the overwhelming need for volunteers for service in World War II, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) became a regular unit of the U.S. Army as the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. By 1945 the Corps reached its peak enrollment of about 100,000, with women serving both at home and abroad. In early 1943, at a time when enrollment at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (now Stephen F. Austin State University) had dropped to fewer than 500 because of the war, the U.S. Army established Army Administration School No. 1 here on the campus to train Women's Army Corps members in noncombatant duties. Similar schools were located at colleges in Alpine and Canyon. The WACs were housed in campus dormitories and attended six-week training courses taught by army personnel in the Austin and Rusk buildings. In a show of homefront solidarity, upon graduation each WAC class presented a variety show for the community at the Nacogdoches High School Auditorium. The WACs then left East Texas for postings throughout America and abroad. By the time the school closed in March 1944 about 3,000 women had trained here.