On behalf of the board and membership of American Veterans for Equal Rights I am happy to join many friends in wishing Annabelle "Tommie" Kulpinski, AVER's most senior women member, a very happy 91st birthday today, May 23rd.
Kulpinski joined the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps ( WAAC ) in 1942. The WAAC had been established in May of that year, and Kulpinski became one of the first women to join. She was assigned to the first class of the WAAC Training Center in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The WAAC was the result of hard work by Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, who remembered the women volunteers of World War I who had served without benefit of official status, who had to obtain their own food and quarters, and who received no legal protection or medical care. Upon their return home they were not entitled to the disability benefits or pensions available to U.S. military veterans. Rogers was determined that if women were to serve again with the Army in a wartime theater they would receive the same legal protection and benefits as their male counterparts. WAAC was a compromise. Rogers' purpose in introducing the WAAC bill had been to obtain pay, benefits, and protection for women working with the military. It failed to provide women with the overseas pay, government life insurance, veterans medical coverage, and death benefits granted Regular Army soldiers. If WAACs were captured, they had no protection under existing international agreements covering prisoners of war.
As World War II continued through 1942 the need for women service members greatly increased. Congress opened hearings inMarch 1943, on the conversion of the WAAC into the Regular Army. Army leaders asked for the authority to convert the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps into the Women's Army Corps ( WAC ) , which would be part of the Army itself rather than merely serving with it. The WAAC had been an unqualified success, and the Army received more requests for WAACs than it could provide. Although WAACs were desperately needed overseas, the Army could not offer them the protection if captured or benefits if injured which Regular Army soldiers received. The plans for an eventual Allied front in Europe required a substantially larger Army, with many more jobs that women could fill. Establishment of a Women's Army Corps with pay, privileges, and protection equal to that accorded to men was seen as a partial solution to the Army's problem.
On 3 July 1943, the WAC bill was signed into law. A quarter of the WAACs chose not to enlist. Annabelle Kulpinski was not among them. She enlisted as one of the first official women soldiers in the United States military.
Kulpinski's first duty station was Vancouver Barracks, Washington, where she worked with the Motor Transport Corps. Kulpinski taught other women to drive Army transport vehicles. We "took the boys to the ships", she said.
In 1943 Kulpinski was transferred to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, where she served with the Chemical Warfare Service testing and perfecting incendiary bombs. It was at Edgewood Arsenal that Kulpinski met another member of the WAC, Elaine Maxie. The two women met playing softball in November, 1944. "I was left fielder", recalls Kulpinski, "and Elaine was the pitcher". The two young soldiers fell in love, and when Kulpinski left the Army in 1946 she moved to California and rented an apartment where Maxie would join her soon afterward.
In 1946, the Army asked Congress for the authority to establish the Women's Army Corps as a permanent part of the Regular Army. This was the greatest single indication of the success of the wartime WAC. The Army acknowledged a need for the skills and duties society found to be acceptable for women to perform at the time. Although the bill was delayed in Congress for two years by political conservatives, it finally became law on 12 June 1948, the same year that President Harry Truman integrated racial groups in the military. With the passage of the bill, the Women's Army Corps became a separate corps of the Regular Army. It remained part of the U.S. Army organization until 1978, when its existence as a separate corps was abolished and women were fully assimilated into all but the combat branches of the Army.
Elaine Maxie and Annabelle Kulpinski lived together for the next 65 years. Their dedication and commitment to one another remain a tremendous inspiration to all of us who have come along since. Sadly, Elaine passed away in October of last year, leaving Kulpinski alone with the couple's dog in their home in Desert Hot Springs, California. "Tommie" Kulpinski lives in the same park with other veterans including AVER members Chuck Schoen and his partner Jack Harris, in whose home a number of old warriors meet every morning for coffee.
For their dedication to our country and their inspiration to our community, Elaine Maxie and Annabelle Kulpinski have been awarded Life Membership in American Veterans for Equal Rights. AVER is extremely proud to count among our members these two remarkable women, some of the first female soldiers in the United States Army. They are a part of US military history, as well as prominent members of the LGBT community. We are grateful for their service and their enduring commitment to each other. AVER wishes Tommie Kulpinski a wonderful 91st birthday and we look forward to her Centennial Celebration in 2020. Keep those "boys" in line Tommie!
Tommie Kulpinski is part of the Palm Springs chapter of AVER, Mel Tips, President.
Danny Ingram, National President
American Veterans for Equal Rights
aver.us
