Women's Royal Army Corps

The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as /ˈræk/, a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army except medical, dental and veterinary officers and chaplains (who belonged to the same corps as the men), the Ulster Defence Regiment which recruited women from 1973, and nurses (who belonged to Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps) belonged from 1949 to 1992.

History

The WRAC was formed on 1 February 1949 by Army Order 6 as the successor to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) that had been founded in 1938. For much of its existence, its members performed administrative and other support tasks. In March 1952 the ranks of the WRAC, which had previously been Subaltern, Junior Commander, Senior Commander and Controller were harmonised with the rest of the British Army.

In 1974, two soldiers of the corps were killed by the Provisional IRA in the Guildford pub bombings.

In October 1990 WRAC officers employed with other corps were transferred to those corps and in April 1992 the WRAC was disbanded and its remaining members transferred to the Corps they served with. Those that served with the Royal Army Pay Corps, the Corps of Royal Military Police, the Military Provost Staff Corps, the Royal Army Educational Corps, the Army Legal Corps and the Staff Clerks from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps were transferred to the newly formed Adjutant General's Corps. The post of Director WRAC, which carried the rank of Brigadier, was also abolished and it was seven years before a woman, Brigadier Patricia Purves, again reached that rank.

WRAC (FM)

Coordinates: 38°51′28.00″N 83°36′42.00″W / 38.8577778°N 83.6116667°W / 38.8577778; -83.6116667

WRAC (103.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Country music format. Licensed to Georgetown, Ohio, USA, the station is owned by Dreamcatcher Communications.

History

The station was assigned the call letters WIAO on June 15, 1981. On October 16, 1981 the station changed its call sign to the current WRAC.

WRAC was originally founded and placed on the air by Virginia Purdy as part of the Ohio River Broadcasting Association (ORBA). The studios started out with its creme and blue colors scheme, in a converted barn/garage on Virginia's personal property in West Union. The transmitter was placed on Spencer Mountain, roughly 10 miles west of West Union and one mile north of the pan handle. Gene Bowen (formerly of WURD provided much of the logistical help in getting the station on the air. The studios and transmitter site were furnished with state-of-the-art equipment. The station was one of the first in the area to originate high fidelity remote broadcasts using link backs by transmitter rather than conventional phone lines.