With the surprise Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the manpower needs of the U.S. military increased dramatically. The United States was going to fight in both Europe and the Pacific. Some military leaders believed women should take over some of the soldiers' duties on the home front to free the men for combat roles. The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in May 1942 so that women could serve as typists, file clerks, telephone switchboard operators, bookkeepers, cooks and bakers, radio operators, and drivers of military vehicles, among many other activities. Enrollment was open to women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-four. Some thirty-five thousand women applied for the 440 positions in the first WAAC class to begin officers' training in July 1942. The corps was not considered a part of the regular army until July 1943, when...