by Susan Couso
Throughout history, as men went off to war, the women who were left behind had to take over roles that they would not normally have had to master. With the men gone, women had to tend to farm work, run the shops, help in manufacturing, etc., and continue to tend to their families. But it was still a shocking thing to imagine that a woman could be in the Army.
In May, 1941, Rep. Edith N. Rogers, of Massachusetts introduced a bill that would establish a women’s Army corps. Not only could women help relieve men of some of the more menial, non-combat roles, but it could give women good meaningful jobs with good pay.
The bill got nowhere until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in December, 1941, brought the U. S. into WWII.
In July, 1942 the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps or WAAC was created, and signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. Immediately, women began to enlist, and before the WAAC disbanded in 1978, over 150,000 women had served their country as a WAC.
In 1943, the name was changed to simply, ‘Women’s Army Corps’ or WAC.
Many were doubtful, citing numerous reasons why women should stay at home, but the WACs, and the Navy’s version, the WAVES, proved them all wrong. The women were a vital asset to the war effort, serving in every capacity from nurse to mechanic to radio operator.
In Susanville, Margaret Conklin had an urge to join up. She was a 42-year-old mother of six children and had six grandchildren.
She was not your average WAC, and she was not your average woman. She was separated from her husband, her kids were grown, and she was ready to fight.
But she also wanted to see her son, Arnet ‘Red’ Conklin, who had joined the Army in 1941. Arnet was the baby of the family, and the only one of her children who was not married. Surely, he needed his mother. So, in November of 1942, Margaret traveled to San Francisco and joined the WAACs.
Margaret was a WAC cook, a job she loved. She said that she had been a nurse, but joined the Army to get away from it! Cooking was her new passion. The job also gave her a chance to keep looking for Arnet.
Finally, in October of 1944, while stationed at the U. S. Army’s 8th Headquarters near London, England, Margaret had some good luck. She learned that Staff Sgt. Arnet Conklin was stationed there too.
It took some quiet maneuvering, but she managed to find him. The first thing that Margaret did when they finally met, after a big hug, was fix her baby boy a ‘home-cooked’ meal, even if it was in the 8th Headquarters Mess Hall.
Margaret, who was described in newspaper accounts as, “among the oldest (WACs), but decidedly one of the youngest grandmothers anywhere”, became a Staff Sergeant in the WACs. She had the adventure of a lifetime and found her boy.
Conklin was honorably discharged in 1945. She had served with the 762nd Army Air Forces Base Unit, and died in 1966 in Fair Oaks, California. She is buried in Santa Barbara.
Oh, what stories she could tell!
