DOROTHY STEEN JOINS WAAC’S
AWAITING CALL
AAA Officer Worker First Auxiliary Reported From City.
“By being a member of the WAAC’s, I hope to prove that I am worthy of the title, ‘American’.” Miss Dorothy E. Steen, First street, Webster City, said Friday, explaining her reason for recently enlisting in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Miss Steen is the first WAAC reported as enlisted from Webster City or Hamilton county, and she is at present awaiting her call to service which she expects in from one to two months.
“Along with thousands of other young people, I am an American citizen and inheritor of this land of opportunity. Any service I can render is my duty,” she concluded.
From South Dakota
Miss Steen, 21, who is employed as office clerk in the county AAA office, came to Webster City in March, 1941, from her home in Ipswich, S.D. Raised in Edmunds county, S.D., on a farm, she has had much the same background as the majority of Iowa girls, many of whom are enlisting in various branches of the service open to women.
She was graduated from the high school in her home town with the Class of 1939 and worked for the AAA office in that county for about a year and a half before coming to Webster City.
Meeting all requirements for entrance into the Women’s Corps, Miss Steen has signified her preference of being associated with either the motor corps or the signal corps after her preliminary training at Fort Des Moines.
Folks Thrilled
She plans to visit her home for a time before being called into active service. “My folks are as thrilled about the whole things as I am,” she said.
In addition to many general duties during the first training period WAACs are employed in the type of work in which they have had the most experience. Miss Steen, will in all probability, do clerical work, since she has much experience in office work.
The term of service for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps is for the duration of the war and for not more than six months thereafter. Units of the Corps may be assigned duties wherever units of the army may be stationed, at home or abroad, and WAACs are enrolled for noncombatant duties.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, September 18, 1942 (photo included)
FACTS:
Dorothy Ellen Steen was born Mar. 17, 1921, La Porte City, IA and died May 31, 2008, Hartford, CT and is buried at Mount Saint Benedict Cemetery, Bloomfield, CT. She married Dominick J. D’Amato.
