Wilma S. Vogel; Pioneering Army Officer
Wilma Stanton Vogel, the first woman to serve as a first sergeant in the Women’s Auxiliary ArmyCorps and also the first WAAC to be made an officer, has died at her Agoura Hills home. She was 77.
Mrs. Vogel died Sept. 27 of cancer, said her son, Michael Vogel of Eureka, Calif.
Born Wilma Jo Stanton in Mooresville, Ind., she grew up in her home state and later moved to California where she ran a clothing store and modeling agency. Seven months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she sold her Santa Monica business and enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in June, 1942. Her image was used in recruiting photographs in newspapers and on posters.
“My business wasn’t helping the war effort,” Mrs. Vogel said in a November, 1942, issue of Click magazine. “It kept me so tied down that I couldn’t do a civil defense job either. To enlist in the American Women’s Army was the best possible solution.”
After graduating from Noncommissioned Officers School at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa, she was the first woman to receive the rank of acting staff sergeant in the auxiliary corps and later became a first sergeant, her family said. As a drill instructor, she trained women and graduated from Officer Candidate School, becoming a commissioned officer. In June, 1943, she married Leo Vogel and six months later was discharged from the corps, then renamed the Women’s Army Corps, with the rank of first lieutenant.
Mrs. Vogel was active for many years in the Women’s Army Corps Veterans Assn., serving as president of the Los Angeles-area chapter and twice as national chairman. In 1960, she was president of the Hollywood High School PTA and also was active in the Carpenter Avenue School PTA in Studio City.
In addition to her son Michael, Mrs. Vogel is survived by another son, Jon Vogel of Pacific Palisades; a daughter, Debra Greenwood of Oxnard; and six grandchildren.
A graveside service was held Sept. 29 at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.
Mt. Sinai Mortuary in Los Angeles handled the arrangements. Donations can be made in Mrs. Vogel’s name to the Ronald McDonald House.