The 1st WAC Separate Battalion arrived in England in July 1943 led by Lt. Col. Mary A. Hallaren. In the fall and early winter of 1943, WAC units were sent into other theaters around the world: New Delhi India, Cairo Egypt, and from North Africa into Italy, following the Allied invasion of that country. January 1944 marked the arrival of the first WAC in the Pacific Theater of Operations, into New Caledonia. In May 1944, the first contingent assigned to the Southwest Pacific arrived in Sydney, Australia. Landing crafts (LSTs) put WACs ashore on the Normandy beachhead in July 1944. At the same time, others began assuming duties in the China-Burma-India Theater.



Mary Agnes Hallaren (May 4, 1907 – February 13, 2005) was an American soldier, the director of the Women's Army Corps at the time that it became a part of the United States Army. As the director of the WAC, she was the first woman to officially join the U.S. Army. (Some women had fraudulently joined the U.S. Army during other wars by pretending to be men.)