Cass County

Pvt. Doris Johnston

 

 

HUSBAND KILLED IN ACTION, IOWA GIRL JOINS WAC

Doris Johnston of Atlantic, Ia., whose husband, Sergt. Stanford Johnston, was killed in action in Africa, has joined the women's army corps (WAC) and is in basic training at Fort Des Moines. Enlisted as an "Air-WAC", private Johnston will be assigned to the army air forces upon completion of basic training.

Private Johnston last spring received the Purple Heart awarded posthumously to her husband, who was killed Nov. 8, 1942, in the initial landing operation of the African campaign. A member of the national guard in Atlantic for several years before the war, he was sent overseas early in 1942 and was stationed in Ireland and Scotland before the African campaign.

A graduate of the Bridgewater, Ia., High school and member of the Church of Christ here, Private Johnston worked as an inspector at the Des Moines ordnance plant and as a bookkeeper for an Atlantic produce company before her enlistment.

Source: The Des Moines Register, Feb. 2, 1944 (photo included)