Hobby told the first WAAC officer candidate class, "You are the first women to serve...Never forget it...you have a debt and a date…A debt to democracy, a date with destiny.”

This photograph was taken during a press conference in London, England, November 1942. View more images of Ms. Hobby.

Edith Nourse Rogers (right), served as a legislator from 1925 until she died in 1960. She was most noted for her legislative initiatives on behalf of veterans and women. Her most notable achievements were legislation creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, which provided women with the opportunity to serve in the armed forces in a wide range of activities in addition to nursing, and the G.I. Bill of Rights, which gave returning World War II veterans opportunities to go to college, obtain job training, and receive low-interest loans to buy houses.

The photograph on the right shows Representative Edith Nourse Rogers (center) visiting the WAC Detachment in Fort Devens, Massachusetts. 

Mildred McAfee (left), President of Wellesley College, was named to head the Women’s Reserve of the Navy known as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Emergency Volunteer Service). Utilizing a network of fellow academics, McAfee quickly developed policy and programs to recruit, train and deploy more than 80,000 women officers and enlisted personnel between 1943 and 1945.

“My first assignment was just getting enough women to start doing something, and what they were to do was as vague to me as it was to all the rest of  the Navy at that time."

This Time magazine came out when Captain Mildred H. McAfee, WAVES Director, and Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, US Fleet, were preparing to speak on a nation-wide broadcast celebrating the second anniversary of the WAVES, 31 July 1945.