In 1964, when I was in the WAC Officers Basic Course at Fort McClellan, AL, women only had uniforms with skirts – there were no uniform slacks at that time, nor were we authorized to wear any type of combat uniform. Part of our training took us to Ft. Benning, GA for indoctrination into the “mens” army where the Infantry School gave us a class on artillery after which we were allowed to inspect this equipment. So there we were in skirts with our dress hats, gloves and high heels climbing on this tank (personnel carrier?). One fellow WAC officer also volunteered to fire this artillery piece -- at least she had a helmet on!
Another funny experience happened during our training at Fort McClellan while we were marching – naturally in skirts only. One day after we had returned to our quarters from a march, the WAC School Commandant came to talk to us. She told us she had been driving by while we were marching and she noticed that some of us obviously did not have our girdles on as we were wiggling. From then on we all made sure we had our girdles on. In those days we military women were ladies to the nth degree. Women in the military today have come a long way since those days!