Martha Settle Putney - Women's Army Corps

Women's Army Corps

Martha Settle was one of 40 African-American women selected for the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. She soon earned the rank of Lieutenant and was assigned to a basic training company at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. There, she was relegated to menial duties such as leading drills and teaching calisthenics. She asked for, and was granted, permission to attend Adjutant General's School in San Antonio to train for an executive or administrative position. This led to an assignment as commanding officer of a WAC Hospital Company at the Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago, a position she held for the rest of the war.

Many years later, when asked in a television interview by CNN correspondent Paula Zahn what "the whole world understand about women's efforts" in World War II, Dr. Putney replied: "They should understand . . . that we were a mighty support force for the male armed forces. I've got to say male because many of us did all of the tasks, all of the . . . military occupational specialties, as a man, except carry a gun." Interviewed on another occasion, she said: "It is my thesis that military integration made the basis for the emergence and the expansion of the black middle class."