Courage to Deliver: The Women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
To set the foundation for a women's branch in the Army, female officers needed to be trained. Pictured here, the first Women's Army Auxiliary Corps officer candidate class graduated on August 29, 1942, with Charity Adams receiving her diploma first on account of her last name falling so alphabetically.
Leadership
When the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established in May 1942, the War Department's directive was to mirror Army policy for Black men and limit Black women to ten percent of the total number of personnel. The rigorous application process for all female applicants to the first WAAC Officer Candidate Class (OCC) consisted of a visit to the local recruiting station to file paperwork, an aptitude test, screening by a preliminary local interviewing board, a physical exam, and a personal interview. An evaluating board in Washington, D.C. then conducted the final assessment. To bolster the number of African American applications, the Army sent officers to Black colleges to help recruit qualified candidates. When the first women arrived at the WAAC Training Center at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, to attend the officer candidate school, there were 440 officer candidates, 39 of whom were Black.
