WWII Army Air Force WAAC Officer Photograph Collection and General Ira Eaker Fellow Award

The photograph collection is comprised of 12 pages from a large format photograph album, each page approximately 10-3/4 inches by 13-1/2 inches. The pages contain a total of approximately 40 photographs, many with typed captions. A number of the photographs depict Lt. Colonel Marjorie O. Hunt, U.S. Air Force (Retired) while she was serving in the Second World War as a Captain in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps within the Army Air Force. Images in the collection show Captain Hunt wearing the shoulder insignia of both the Army Air force and the European Theater Advanced Headquarters, with collar insignia reflecting service in both the Army Air Force and the Adjutant General Corps. The captions of the photographs indicate that the images were taken in both England and France during the war. Accompanying the photographic collection is a trophy reflecting that Ms. Jennie Law Ostrander was named as a “Ira Eaker Fellow” by Lt. Col. Marjorie O. Hunt, USAF (Ret.) (Lieutenant Colonel Hunt’s middle name was apparently “Ostrander”). The trophy is approximately 7-1/2 inches long by 5-1/2 inches wide by 7 inches tall. 

Marjorie Hunt was born in 1911. She was sworn into the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps on July 13, 1942. She attended the first Officer Candidate Class for women in Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated on August 29, 1942. Her first assignment was as Commander of the 11th WAAC Filler Company, a part of the Aircraft Warning System of the U.S. Army. Colonel Hunt served in a similar WAC Company in Boston from September 1943 to April 1944. She was then shipped overseas as commander of WAC companies in England and France. By 1945 she had gotten as far as Germany. She returned to the States in September of 1945 where she commanded WAC companies in North Carolina and New York. At Mitchell Field in New York from March of 1946 to January 1951, she was the WAC Staff Director for the First Air Force. After the Air Force became a separate service in 1947, Marjorie accepted a regular commission in the Air Force. In April 1952 she was on her way to Tokyo, Japan, to serve as Director of Mail and Records at HQ Far East Air Forces. While in Japan she made official supervisory visits to units in Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and Japan. Marjorie Hunt returned to the States in 1954 and served as the Adjutant General at Tenth Air Force at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan. She retired as a Lt. Colonel on July 31, 1962, and made her home in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Colonel Hunt passed away on February 5, 1992.