WAAC Army Administration Schools. First Class.
Alpine, Texas: [WAAC Branch No. 7 Army Administration School]/Press of the Alpine Pub. Co., [1943]. 10¼” x 7 7/8”. Stapled thin card pictorial wrappers. Pp. [24]. Very good: wrappers lightly worn with faint dampstains to rear; light creasing, toning and the occasional spot; copious handwritten inscriptions and inked “donated by” notation inside front wrap.
This is a rare and heavily illustrated publication documenting “Class Number One” of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) training center at Alpine, Texas. Filled with photographic images, original poetry and dozens of WAACs' names and hometowns, the book provides a great snapshot into women's military training during World War II.
Founded in 1942, the WAAC became a regular unit of the United States Army as the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. This book offers a charming and creative “History In Brief” of the first class to graduate from the WAAC training school in Alpine, Texas, housed at Sul Ross State Teachers College (now Sul Ross State University), as well as a “Prophecy” for each of its two companies. There are photographic images and brief bios of the company commanders and class officers, identified group shots of the platoons and a “pictorial history” of the class, from “Opening Exercises” to “Getting Ready for Review.” The book also ran some natural landscape “Scenes in the Big Bend of Texas” and a great montage of smiling, posing and working WAACs. There are five original poems (“We were the first WAACs in Alpine / Gee! We lifted our heads and did we shine / We wanted all the people to see / Just what noble American Women could be”) as well as the text of the “Company B Song,” set to the tune of “All-American Girl.” The book was signed by seemingly everyone at the school, from the Lieutenant Colonel whose portrait graced the leading page (dated July 7, 1943) to the coed staff and faculty and two full pages of “Autographs” of the enrolled women, including their home addresses.
A bright, sweet and rare publication honoring the first graduating class of a Texas WAAC training school. OCLC shows only one holding, at Sul Ross State. Very good. Item #8311
Price: $1,500.00