what were women in the air force called?

Question

there is a term used to refer to women that used to be in the air force (in the days that not many women joined). whats the term?

Answer 1

WAAFs. Or mile high clubbers.

Answer 2

For some odd reason men and women in the Air Force are called Airmen...

Answer 3

WAF - Women in the Air Force. I joined in 1968 and only 1% of the military could be women. At that time they did in background check before you even got to Basic.

Answer 4

There were the WASPs (Women Air Service Pilots) that trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. This was in WW II. They would fly all types of aircraft to airfields so the men could fight in combat. The airfield was sold to the city of Sweetwater for $1 and is now the municipal airport. There was a radar site adjacent to the airfield until about 1968.

Answer 5

they were called women:):)
At one time women in the air force were called WAF ( for women in the Air Force).

During and before ww2 they were called Wacs in the Army (or Women's Army Corps) and Waves in the Navy.
now they are called the same thing men are . MIdshipment , or seaman, or soldier ect.Good question

Answer 6

WAAFs. Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

(WACs were women in the Army. WAVES were women in the Navy, SPARS the Coast Guard. Women in the Marines, however, have always been referred to as "Marines.").

Answer 7

WAC during the Air corp days, then WAF's, now everyone is an Airman.

Answer 8

Women Air Corps. or WACs

Answer 9

WAC's arriving at Normandy 1944


While Hitler was skulking around Europe pretending to save Germany the erstwhile military minds in Washington were stonewalling womens organizations, patriotic pressures, and anyone who had the temerity to suggest that women should be in the military. The politicians, in typical gerrymandering fashion, made flimsy promises of considering an auxiliary of sorts while quietly hoping it would all go away and secretly trying to figure out how to stop it. Fortunately Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers and Eleanor Roosevelt thought otherwise.

Congresswoman Rogers introduced a bill on May 28 th, 1941, to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps for service with the Army of the United States. By virtue of its being an auxiliary corps there was no hint of full military status for women.


The bill was dissected, bisected, stalled, lost, amended, sandbagged,
and all but trashed until General George C. Marshall took an interest.




While several government departments cooperated, the Bureau of the Budget continued to stall in spite of pressure from Mrs. Roosevelt, General Marshall and other interested parties and groups. By late November of 1941 there was still no definitive action. At this point General Marshall literally ordered the War Department to create a womens corps. An incident in the Pacific reinforced this order.


Query due to the Pearl Harbor movie:

Were military women at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941?


Photo © Touchstone Pictures


Military nurses were very much involved in the turmoil at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, working under tremendous pressure during the aftermath of the morning's raids. The Japanese attack left 2,235 servicemen and 68 civilians dead. Eighty-two Army nurses were serving at three Army Medical Facilities in Hawaii that infamous December morning. Hundreds of casualties suffering from burns and shock were treated by Army and Navy nurses working side-by-side with civilian nurses and doctors. Nurses at Schofield Hospital and Hickam Field faced similar overwhelming numbers of wounded personnel. The Chief Nurse at Hickam Field, 1st Lt. Annie G. Fox, was the first of many Army nurses to receive a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.




Four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and twenty three years after the idea of women in the military was born, the Bureau of the Budget stopped objecting, planners began to plan and cooperation suddenly became the watchword. The bill was amended, reintroduced, stuck in committees, and stalled. The search was on for a director, a training center and the appropriate equipment. The military men in charge of logistics searched for ideas for no regulations existed. Finally on May 14th 1942 the bill to "Establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps" became law and Oveta Culp Hobby, wife of the former governor of Texas, was named director.






While bills were being bandied around Congress, women were being trained at the first WAAC Training Center in Fort Des Moines, Iowa. With a nudge from Eleanor Roosevelt, the Navy got its act together and began authorizing a Womens Naval Reserve and the Marine Corps Womens reserve. The Coast Guard followed soon after. The first director of the WAVES - Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service - was Lt Commander Mildred McAfee, President of Wellesley College. The SPARS, which came from the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus - always ready, were led by Lt Commander Dorothy C. Stratton. The Marine Corps Womens Reserve was headed by Major Ruth Cheyney Streeter. The WAAC was changed to the WAC establishing it as a part of the Army and not an auxiliary by a second bill in July of 1943, signed in to law by President Roosevelt.

Women in the military were becoming a reality.

Answer 10

WACs-womens air corp

Answer 11

Air Chicks, Air Babes, or sadly Air Dogs depending on how cute they are.