Wearing the Uniform
In 1942, the government established selective service boards in Champaign County. Champaign-Urbana Draft Board I set up shop at 11 ½ East University Avenue, Champaign. County Draft Board II was located at 110 South Race Street, Urbana, and County Draft Board III was located in Tolono. In Champaign County alone, 16,963 men were registered and 4,232 inducted to service. Over 900,000 men and women from Illinois would serve.
The Champaign City Building was used as a conscription registration location. Each potential enlistee had to undergo a physical examination to determine if he were fit to serve. Draft rolls were printed in the News-Gazette and Courier newspapers and hung in downtown windows.
“Bring with you sufficient clothing for three days.” Those were the orders to all inductees in 1941. The first stop was a stateside military installation and then, for most, shipping off to Europe, Africa, or the Pacific. From this point on, you belonged to the United States military. You wore only government-issued clothing for the rest of your time in service.
The Class A Uniform, seen in this photograph of Quentin McCarrey, was the standard-issue dress uniform for the U.S. Army. On it, soldiers wore their U.S. insignia, unit of service pins, rank insignia, service stripes, and any medals and ribbons won in battle.
Women Answer the Call
On May 15, 1942, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) became the first auxiliary unit of the United States Army. by July 1, 1943, WAAC would become the Women’s Army Corps, a full branch of the U.S. Army. Until this time the only women allowed to serve in the U.S. Army were nurses. The university found itself at the forefront of this movement with the creation of the Women’s Auxiliary Training Corp (WATC), a training program that would train women into WAC in the same way ROTC trained men for the Army. The University’s WATC program was the nation's first to be based on the Army WAC program. The photographs aiding Women Answer the Call illustrate the various training activities which these women were assigned to be a part of.
WATC training included various programs of technician training for the Army Signal Corps.
Seen here: Patricia Schwarts, Helen Marie Kelleher, Florence McDonald, and Vera Britton study the repair of radio equipment.
99th Pursuit Squadron
On March 22, 1941, the nation’s first all-Black fighter was activated at Chanute Field. The 99th Pursuit Squadron was the first unit of what was later known as the Tuskegee Airmen. It was formed without pilots for the purpose of training the officer corps and ground-personal support.
Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground-support, including airplane mechanics, supply clerks, armorers, and weather forecasters. This small number of enlisted men became the core of other all-Black squadrons formed at Tuskegee Field and Maxwell Field in Alabama — the famed Tuskegee Airmen.