WAC Panties

During the lull in fighting before the invasion of Sicily, Ernie Pyle wrote a series of articles about the WACs (Women’s Army Corps) in Algiers. In The Story of Ernie Pyle, his buddy Lee G. Miller writes about Ernie’s visit to a WAC barracks:

The WAC officer who showed him through their downtown barracks, “after careful yoohooing and peeking ahead,” pointed out clotheslines filled with stockings and underwear.

“You’re the first man who has ever seen this many pairs of WAC panties at one time,” she told him.

“Madam,” Ernie replied, “due to the rigors of old age and the encroachment of war work upon my spare time, I have never seen even one pair of WAC panties before.”