The First of the “Wackies”

On Sept. 5, 1942, the Arkansas Gazette ran a headline reading “Arkansas’ First Private in the ‘Wackies’ to Leave Tomorrow.” Margaret Letzig left Little Rock as the first Arkansas woman accepted to the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC.)

As an agricultural state, Arkansas had few jobs for women pre-war. The WAAC was introduced as a bill to the U. S. Congress in 1941 as a way for women to aid war efforts. After the Pearl Harbor Attack and the U.S.’s entry into war, the bill passed.

Letzig worked alongside 200 trainees in Des Moines, Iowa, until 1943.

– Maeghen Carter, Ghidotti Communications