Top Photo: Vashti Routledge was one of the first members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) to be promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer. Courtesy of Fort Des Moines Museum Education Center.

In 1944, Nana Rae, petite and with a “soft Scottish burr,” was the only woman with the distinction of knowing “the plans for the blow to liberate Europe.”1  In her position as secretary to Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Rae traveled with General Dwight D. Eisenhower to North Africa and later joined him in London where she maintained the top-secret documents and materials crucial for planning what would become the D-Day invasion of Normandy. 

But Rae was more than Eisenhower’s secretary. She was one of 42 warrant officers who served in the Women’s Army Corps (or WAC, formerly the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps) during World War II. Women warrant officers—highly specialized experts with unique skills ranging from administrative organization to musical abilities used to lead Army bands—made up a small portion of the WAC but were trailblazers who created opportunities for women in the US Armed Forces for decades to come.

Warrant Officers in the U.S. Military

Warrant officers today are found in all branches of the Armed Forces and can trace their lineage back to the American Revolutionary War when John Berriman received a warrant to oversee expenses and finances aboard the USS Andrew Doria. Established to fulfill immediate and specific needs during times of conflict, the US Army and Marine Corps turned to warrant officers in 1916 to serve as field clerks in the Quartermaster Corps as well as marine gunners who specialized in infantry weapons. The National Defense Act of 1920 expanded the use of warrant officers to tackle administrative, band leading, and clerical duties in various branches and units.2 

In the summer of 1941 and as war swept across Europe and the Pacific, Congress authorized the creation of warrant officer and chief warrant officer ranks. Men from the enlisted ranks who received these appointments specialized in engineering and served in the Coastal Artillery Corps. After the United States formally entered the war, Congress passed the Flight Officer Act in July 1942 and created the rank of flight officer. Men with this appointment served with the US Army Air Forces as experts in aviation technology.3  

While warrant officers were critical to lending their expertise to the specific needs of the military during the war, it was not until January 1944 that the WAC appointed women as warrant officers. Before World War II, only a handful of women were classified as warrants to serve as field clerks in the peacetime Army—including Jen Doble (IX Corps Headquarters in San Francisco) and Olive Hoskins (VII Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska), both appointed in 1926. In their careers as warrants, women used their skills in traditionally “feminine” occupations (such as clerks and secretaries) to aid the Armed Forces. Doble and Hoskins were the last two women appointed as warrants before the outbreak of World War II and the creation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).4 

In July 1943, the WAAC dropped its auxiliary status and became the WAC. Despite being able to commission as officers in the WAC, no women received appointments as warrant officers until the Army approved these positions in January 1944. The first six WAC warrant officers who served as administrative specialists and band leaders were approved in March 1944; among them was Nana Rae. 

Warrant Officer Nana Rae

One of the “feminine” occupations a warrant officer could hold was that of confidential secretary to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Warrant Officer Nana Rae was the first female secretary to Eisenhower and became, at one point in May 1944, his “right hand man.”5  Standing at five feet, five inches tall with brown hair, blue eyes, and a soft but “precise” Scottish accent, Rae was one of the first enlisted WACs. She was also among the first WACs to land in North Africa, where she served as Eisenhower’s secretary before following him to London in 1944.

Rae moved from Lochmaben, Scotland, to the United States at age 20 when the company she worked for as a stenographer, Vacuum Oil Company, transferred her to their New York office. When America joined World War II in 1941, she felt that her “auld country” was in danger. Like many other women who joined the Army out of patriotism, Rae joined the WAAC.6  Due to her stenography skills, she was appointed as secretary to Eisenhower, who was so impressed by her capabilities that he made her a permanent part of his team. In her role as warrant officer, Rae took dictation from Eisenhower, wrote poetry, and was the only woman during World War II to know the plans for the liberation of Europe.7  She told the London Daily Mirror in 1944 that “I love my work. The first day General Eisenhower dictated a letter to me I felt my ears jump to attention.”8 

Legacy of Women Warrant Officers

The women like Nana Rae who became warrant officers in World War II proved their value in critical roles, opening doors for future generations of women. Today, women warrant officers serve in specialized fields across the Army, Navy, and National Guard. In 1972, the Army began to expand the specialization opportunities for women, including aviation, and by 1975, there was a significant increase in women appointed as warrant officers because of this expansion. As American defense missions become more complex and specialists in areas including cyber and nuclear technology become more critical, warrant officers are critical, and women—like those who served during World War II—are rising to accept these challenges.9

• 1

  Duke Shoop, “She Knows Allied Secrets!” The Kansas City Star, May 29, 1944, 2.

• 2

  “Warrant Officer History,” accessed February 20, 2025, > https://armyuniversity.edu/wocc/about?p=History; Vincent Hodge, “Warrant Officers in the Air Force Have Long History,” Joint Base San Antonio News, May 16, 2024, https://www.jbsa.mil/News/News/Article/3778360/warrant-officers-in-the-air-force-have-long-history/.

• 3

  Hodge, “Warrant Officers in the Air Force.” 

• 4

  “History of Women Warrant Officers in the U.S. Army” https://warrantofficerhistory.org/Hist_Women_WO.htm#:~:text=At%20the%20conclusion%20of%20World,of%20Chief%20Warrant%20Officer%204; “Uncle Sam’s Only Lady Soldier Veteran of Twenty-Five Years,” Columbia Daily Tribune Jan 26, 1933, 12.

• 5

  Ian Fyfe, “33, She’s Invasion General’s ‘Right Hand Man,’” The Daily Mirror (London), May 8, 1944, 4. 

• 6

  Fyfe, 4.

• 7

  Shoop, 2. 

• 8

  Fyfe, 4.

• 9

  “History of Women Warrant Officers in the U.S. Army.”