July 3, 1945

1945, July 3. In a plan suggested by Women’s Army Corps Lt. Col. Mera Galloway ’36, the first 100 of approximately 700 WACs from the New York Army Post Office spent a seven-day “vacation” at Vassar.

The first 100 of approximately 700 WACs from the New York Army Post Office spent a seven-day “vacation” at Vassar. The women had worked seven-day weeks for over two years without leaves or furloughs, facilitating mail deliveries overseas. The vacations at Vassar were suggested by Mera Galloway ’36, a lieutenant colonel in the Women’s Army Corps and staff director of the WACs in the Southwest Pacific theater.

On September 6, The Miscellany News reported on the WACs’ summer “rest cures” in Raymond House, “starring ‘delicious’ food delivered daily from Camp Shanks [Rockland County] and the use of all Vassar facilities, with the minor exception of daily classes.”