Clear Preliminary Hurdles in Race to Join Women's Army Left to right: Ruth Stuart, Marjorie Knowlton, Mrs Sylvia Myers, Aileen Lohrke, Mary Herdin |
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Miss Lohrke, a graduate from Carleton college, Northfield, Minn., has a boy friend who already is in the army. She made up her mind to apply as soon as she heard about the WAAC opportunity, she said, and was at the recruiting offices the first morning they opened.
Source: The Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. - June 5, 1942 (photo included)
6 IOWA WACS TO GRADUATE
Six Iowa women will be graduated in the thirty-seventh WAC officer candidate class Monday at Fort Des Moines training center.
The graduation will mark the first anniversary of the arrival of the WAC at Fort Des Moines.
Capt. Mary S. Bell, WAC director in the seventh service command at Omaha, Neb., and former dean of women at Coe college in Cedar Rapids, Ia., will be the speaker. She was a member of the first officer candidate graduating class.
Iowans to be graduated are: Aileen Lohrke, Nashua; Vivian V. Long, Davenport; Margaret L. Moore, Centerville; Golda I. Van Tasell, Cedar Rapids; and Dorothy A. deJong, 5004 Woodland ave., Des Moines.
Source: The Des Moines Register, July 17, 1943
IOWA WAC WEDS U.S. LIEUTENANT
Ceremony Performed Near London April 3
Charles City -- O.A. Lohrke, of Detroit Mich. and Nashua, formerly with the Oliver Farm Equipment company of Charles City, received an account of the marriage of his daughter, Lt. Aileen Lohrke to Lt. John P. McGirr of New York City, now of the 65th armored field artillery. The marriage took place near London April 3.
The bride, a gradate of Cornell college, who spent her summers with her father here, received her commission as lieutenant in the WACs at Fort Des Moines, a year ago in July. She has been in England since November and is with the 8th air force signal corps near London. Her husband is stationed about 70 miles from her.
Source: Globe-Gazette, Mason City IA - June 1, 1944
Aileen Lohrke McGirr - Her Obituary
West Melbourne -- Aileen L. McGirr, 87, a former school teacher, died Sunday, March 2, at Homes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.
Mrs. McGirr was born in Courtenay, N.D. She came to Brevard County in 1975 from Norwalk, Conn.
In addition to her work as a teacher, Mrs. McGirr was an Army officer during World War II. She was a cryptographic duty officer and first lieutenant, serving for the U.S. Strategic Tactical Air Force in Europe.
Source: Florida Today, Cocoa FL - March 5, 1997
