WWII GIRL POWER - CAPTAIN NANCY LUCE (VAN EPPS), WAC 14th Combat Bomb Wing, 44th Bomb Group - The Flying Eightballs Nancy Luce was a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps. She served on General Leon W. Johnsons staff as the Cryptographic Officer to the 8th Air Force, 14th Combat Bomb Wing, 44th Bomb Group - The Flying Eightballs. In late June 1943 approximately 60 Womens Army Corps personnel or WACs arrived at 2nd Air Division headquarters and within twelve months their numbers increased to 150. Most worked as plotters, typists, and teletype operators. Then in January 1944, five lieutenants of the Womens Army Corps were assigned as cryptographic security officers to the 2nd AD. One was sent to each of the Divisions four combat bomb wings and the fifth went to Division Headquarters. Captain Luce recalled that she enjoyed visiting Lt. Doris Fullerton at the 2nd CBW at Hethel, where the actor Jimmy Stewart was serving as Chief of Staff. At one division dance she was able to have about a minutes worth of dance with him as the nurses, Red Cross women, and other WACs queued up to cut in. She remembered that ...he didnt seem to be that great a dancer. Left foot, left foot, left foot! She was quartered at 14th Combat Bomb Wing, but worked in the Code Room down the hall from the Signal Room in the 44th Bomb Group Headquarters, down by the line, I did have to make trips to the code rooms at Wendling (392nd), and N. Pickenham (491st and 292nd). Trips were also made with an armed guard to take certain classified papers (including every scrap of paper used in the ciphering) to a British Paper Mill. She had to stand up on a platform to visually check each gunny sack of papers that were dropped into a huge acid rendering vat and observe and sign that each bag had been destroyed. Nancy recalled the night when a tap on her window woke her up and she was informed that a TOP SECRET message had come in and a vehicle with an armed guard would take her down to the Code Room to handle the message and deliver such to Gen. Johnson. They were alerted that some of the code machines and systems had possible been compromised by the Germans during the Normandy Beach invasions. This meant scrubbing those systems and immediately going over to a different procedure. As it turned out the position had not been over-run, but we couldnt take any chances.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:49:08 +0000
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