<P> Another factor was that the WAAC uniform was widely copied . Women factory workers often wore military - looking utilitarian beige, khaki, olive drab, or pearl - gray slacks or skirts with matching jackets and white, beige, khaki, or olive drab blouses that looked like a uniform . Similar uniforms were worn by female civilian workers and members of civilian women's volunteer and auxiliary organizations . Department stores sold exact copies of the uniform to patriotic young girls ("Junior WAACs") and women who were working for women's volunteer and auxiliary organizations like Military Canteens, Civil Defense, the American Red Cross, and the USO . The dressmaking firms who manufactured them ironically got priority over the WAACs for allotments of Olive Drab and Khaki cloth because they also made men's uniforms for the military . If women wearing these faux uniforms got in fights or brawls, were publicly intoxicated, or were caught "behaving inappropriately" (everything from walking after dark with a man to having sex with him) while in uniform, they were initially assumed to be WAACs . Add to them the number of "Victory Girls" (thrill - seeking local teen girls who slept with servicemen), local "townie" women, and prostitutes - they often dressed in uniform as either a kink, a means to commit fraud by pretending to be servicewomen, or get access to military installations to meet servicemen . Legitimate WACs who had duties off base often had to wear a "field sign" (an expedient symbol to tell friend from foe) to distinguish them from the throngs of imitators trying to sneak on base . </P> <P> African American women eager to serve experienced bias on multiple levels: they were organized in segregated units, often assigned to janitorial or orderly roles well below their training and education, sent as dates to sites where African American men were stationed (so those men would not seek out the company of local white women), denied access to many Red Cross and officers' clubs, and, like their male counterparts, subject to having their donated blood segregated from that of white donors . </P> <P> General Douglas MacArthur called the WACs "my best soldiers", adding that they worked harder, complained less, and were better disciplined than men . Many generals wanted more of them and proposed to draft women but it was realized that this "would provoke considerable public outcry and Congressional opposition", and so the War Department declined to take such a drastic step . Those 150,000 women who did serve released the equivalent of 7 divisions of men for combat . Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said that "their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit, and determination are immeasurable". Nevertheless, the slander campaign hurt the reputation of the WAC and WAVES; women did not want it known they were veterans . </P> <P> During the same time period, other branches of the U.S. military had similar women's units, including the Navy WAVES, the SPARS of the Coast Guard, United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve, and the (civil) Women Airforce Service Pilots . The British Armed Forces also had similar units, including the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens"), the Auxiliary Territorial Service . and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force . </P>

Who served in the wac and in the waves