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BOZAC, Carmen
U.S. Army
 
When the military first began accepting women into its ranks in the early 20th century, only small numbers of Hispanic women joined the services. Traditional Hispanic cultural values discouraged women from traveling any distance from or working outside the home. These prohibitions began to change during World War II, when the nation needed the contributions of all of its citizens.
 
Carmen (Contreras) Bozak joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1942. The Army was looking for bilingual Hispanic women to fill assignments in fields such as cryptology, communications and interpretation. Bozak volunteered to be part of the 149th WAAC Post Headquarters Company the first to go overseas, setting sail from New York Harbor for Europe January 1943. She remembers passing the Statue of Liberty from her ship, realizing that they were sailing of to battle. Mrs. Bozak said the women of the WAAC 149th were a special chosen group for there ability to speak more than one language and she felt proud and special to be among them.
 
The 149th went to North Africa in January 1943. Serving overseas was dangerous for these women. If captured, WAACs, as "auxiliaries" serving with the Army rather than in it, did not have the same protections under international law as male soldiers. Tech 4 Bozak worked as a teletypes an interpreter at Army Headquarters in Algiers, Algeria in Northern Africa for the majority of her time overseas her responsible were to transmitting encoded message to the battlefield and dealt with nightly German air raids.
 
Mrs. Bozak earned several medals, including the European-African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 2 Battle Stars, World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, WAAC Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal.
 
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