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[WACs at transient service information desk, 1945]

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[WACs at transient service information desk, 1945]

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Title	[WACs at transient service information desk, 1945]
Date	1945-04
Subject headings	World War, 1939-1945 United States. Army--Women
Era	World War II era (1940-1946)
Service branch	Army--WAC
Item description	Women's Army Corps (WAC) members receive information from the transient service information desk manned by soldiers at Ladd Field, Alaska in April of 1945. A WAC in the foreground holds an issue of Liberty Magazine published on April 21, 1945. Pictured are: Dries, Larson, Wilson, Reese, McSparin, Parkins, Deveny, Jamison.
Veteran's name	Wiker, Betty Etten
Veteran's biography	Betty Wiker (b. 1921) of Chicago served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the Women in the Air Force (WAF) from 1942 to 1952 . Betty Wiker was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 27, 1921. She graduated from Hirsch High School and attended Moser Business College. She went on to work as a typist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago. During this time she volunteered as a hostess at USO [United Service Organizations] shows. Wiker enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in December 1942. She completed basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was assigned to Bolling Field in Washington, D.C, where she worked first in the plotting room, and later in the motor pool. She then attended Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Des Moines, graduating on June 4, 1943. Wiker was then stationed at Wright-Patterson Field in Ohio as a finance officer in the Army Air Forces WAC company. In March 1944 she was reassigned to Hill Field in Ogden, Utah, as the club officer. A year later she was transferred to Ladd Army Airfield in Fairbanks, Alaska, as a squadron commander. Wiker continued to serve as a squadron commander for the next four years. In January 1946 she was assigned to Love Field in Dallas, Texas; in June 1946 she was transferred to Memphis, Tennessee; in October 1946 she was stationed at Fort Totten in New York; and from October 1947 to April 1948 she served at Westover Field in Springfield, Massachusetts. After attending Adjutant General’s School at Camp Lee, Virginia, she returned to Westover Field as part of the newly formed Women in the Air Force (WAF) until May 1949 when she was sent to New York City as a recruiting officer. She married Kenneth Wiker on December 29, 1949. On July 2, 1952 she resigned from the WAF at the rank of major due to pregnancy . Wiker and her husband raised two children in Teaneck, New Jersey, where they lived for fifty years. She currently resides at Carolina Meadows in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Place	Fairbanks (Alaska)
Type	image
Original format	photographs
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	WV0428 Betty Etten Wiker Papers
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional rights information	IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse. Base Photo Section 1455th AAF BU; Alaskan Division, ATC, AAB, Great Falls, Montana.
Object ID	WV0428.6.013
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
OCLC number	900815054

[WACs at transient service information desk, 1945]

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