WAC and Army Nurse Uniforms
Clicking on any of the links or photos will take you to various vendors to help you purchase your uniform and supplies.
Summer Work Uniforms (HBT's and Khakis)
Supply lines and misinformed Army Brass found many nurses badly dressed when they arrived in the South Pacific and CBI during 1942 and 1943. The first official women's issued khakis have a pattern date of 1945, and most of them never reached the areas where they were needed most. However, both the nurses and WACs made due with what they had, often borrowing, trading, or helping themselves to men's uniform parts.
Original Khaki shirts and trousers can be found on ebay, however, the correct sizes are hard to come by. There are several alternatives, including finding period men's trousers. However, I've found that Dickies makes a Women's Flat Front Work Pant that's dead on - just remove the Dickie's tags. In fact, after a few launderings, the Dickie's are hard to tell from the originals. Shown below is a men's dickies shirt, an option as well in shopping for Khakis, and beside it is a more expensive repro, along with an original.
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Winter Work Uniforms
Dress Uniforms
Footware
Nurses were issued standard women's Army brown shoes and either rough out or smooth out boots. After 1943, double buckle boots made an appearance as well. Many women, however, never seemed to manage to be issued their boots, and some chose to buy private purchase boots instead. Still others would find men's GI boots and wear those, or would be issued those as they would become available.
The following shoes and boots are all suitable for an Army nurse impressions (the items shown are reproductions, not originals). For a more specific impression, the likelyhood of a person wearing a type of boot is often dependant upon where stationed - for example, flight nurses might be more likely to wear jump boots, being stationed near paratroopers - or working at a hospital where paratroopers were brought, while nurses in the pacific would be more likely to have retained white keds, and nurses in Europe would have found them cold and not suitable to the muddy condition. Note that black service shoes would only be substituted for brown ones if the Nurse were wearing an early war dress blue uniform.
Brown Corcoran Jump Boots
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White Tennis Shoes
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Rough out boots |
Women's Issue Shoes
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Double Buckle Boots |
Insignia and patches
As with all uniforms and equipment, always consult with your unit if they have specific regulations or requirements when purchasing reproduction gear or clothing.