Women's Army Corps (WAAC)

Women also played a significant role in the military. According to government records, more than 265,000 women enlisted in the armed services of the United States over the course of the war, all as volunteers. There was vocal opposition to female participation in the war effort at the beginning, but it gradually changed as the war raged on and the need for qualified personnel, regardless of gender, increased.
Most women served in traditional jobs such as clerical and secretarial ones, or as nurses. But women also worked as truck drivers, mechanics, technicians, and even pilots. All branches of U.S. service had a female auxiliary. The Women's Army Corps (WAC) began as the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), which was not an official part of the U.S. Army. But that changed in 1943, as did the name. In all, more than 100,000 women served in the WAC in positions ranging from telephone operator to truck mechanic. The women's reserve of the navy — known as WAVES — enlisted 100,000 women, and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, which was formed in February 1943, enlisted 23,000.
By August 1943, the war was pushing the personnel limits of the U.S. Army Air Corps, which was the noncombat division of the Army Air Forces, and the government finally decided that additional help would be necessary if enough planes were to reach those who needed them. Officials turned to Jacqueline Cochran, a world-famous racing pilot and the head of the Women's Flying Training Command, a group of almost 2,000 female pilots trained to fly military aircraft across the country. Cochran was asked to merge her organization with the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron to create the Women Air Force Service Pilots