An Officer and a Lady: The World War II Letters of Lt. Col. Betty Bandel, Women’s Army Corps edited by Sylvia J. Bugbee. University Press of New England (http://www.upne.com), 1 Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766, 2004, 304 pages, $19.95 (softcover).
World War II accelerated and even implemented numerous forms of social and institutional change. Just one among these many transformations was the broader utilization of women’s talents and intellects within the armed forces. An Officer and a Lady highlights the experience of a leading personnel officer within the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) who served as the aide to its director, Col Oveta Hobby, and eventually supervised the demobilization of thousands of female officers and enlisted troops within the Army Air Forces. Although the book is a collection of letters, it tells a personal story. One can see Colonel Bandel mature from a wide-eyed recruit (“You would cringe at this place—all 440 women have given up nail polish—it takes too long to put on” [p. 12]) to a woman at the center of personnel policy making (“They seem to view me as the final authority on WAAC, and when I say something they all accept it in a way that scares me to death” [p. 107]).
Bandel’s civilian career as a newspaper reporter is both an advantage and a drawback to the content of the letters. She wrote competently, and—true to her ethos—she reported what she saw. Her letters therefore function as a window into her wartime world. She seldom, however, follows up her observations with much reflection or analysis. In her defense, she was busy. Not confined to an office, she logged tens of thousands of miles traveling across the United States, Britain, and North Africa. A greater editorial effort within the text to connect the contents of the letters to what was happening in the war at the time, along with footnotes instead of endnotes, would have helped provide the nonspecialist with context necessary to glean the full import of the letters. For instance, a letter of June 1943 noted that the Army was using women trained as radio operators “as file clerks, librarians, shoe fitters and the like” (p. 108). Was this a consequence of sexism, or were these legitimate needs that the Army had to fill? An Officer and a Lady will be of greatest interest to readers who are familiar with the story of women within the WAAC and who seek anecdotal sketches of life in that important organization.
Dr. Michael E. Weaver
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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