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Werner, Corinne E.
Corinne E. Werner Women's Army Corps WWII
Corinne E. Werner Women's Army Corps WWII
  
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Date of Birth: 2/7/1921
Died On: 1/9/1995 Last Residence: 33714, Saint Petersburg, Pinellas, Florida, USA
Street Address: 8 Ellsworth Street
Service Number: A-204574
Branch of Service: Women's Army Corps-WWII


Veteran Code: WACS-10


BIOGRAPHY Extended Information
 
Corinne Elaine Werner - McKenna

Corinne Elaine Werner - McKenna was born on February 7, 1921, in Brooklyn, New York, to Mabel Vivana Benson-Leonard, age 29, and William Ernest Werner, age 28. She had a sister Helen and two brothers Robert and William.

In Rye her family lived at 45 Harbor Terrace Drive and were members of the Church of the Resurrection. She attended Rye schools and was a Rye High School Graduated, class of 1939 and Lasalle Junior College. Before the war she was working as a sales clerk for Harris Upham & Co.

Corinne enlisted in the Army on August 9, 1943, in New York City, New York and served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II.

The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. The WAC were first trained in three major specialties. The brightest and nimblest were trained as switchboard operators. Next came the mechanics, who had to have a high degree of mechanical aptitude and problem solving ability.

This was later expanded to dozens of specialties like Postal Clerk, Driver, Stenographer, and Clerk-Typist. WAC armorers maintained and repaired small arms and heavy weapons that they were not allowed to use.

Tragically six months after her enlistment, her brother William Werner was killed in action on November 18, 1943 in the Battle of Sattelberg in New Guinea. Several months later Corinne was serving with Air Service Command in England.

The VIII Air Force Service Command (formerly VIII Air Service Command) was a crucial United States Army Air Forces logistics and maintenance formation based in England during World War II, supporting the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing campaign. Established in 1942, it managed supply, repair, and engineering for American heavy bombers.

Pfc. Corinne Werner with WAC In England with Air Service
AIR SERVICE COMMAND STATION (Somewhere in England) Pfc. Corinne Werner, WAC, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Werner of Harbor Terrace Drive, Rye, is now overseas and has participated in a course designed to bridge the gap between training in the states and soldiering in an active theatre of war. At one of the Air Service Command stations as Control Depots Pfc Werner was carefully processed by classification experts who make certain that she was well fitted for the job assigned to her. Her next station will be one from which America's fighting planes take off to smash the Nazi war machine. Before entering the Army she was employed as an order clerk by Harris Upham & Co.
RYE NEW YORK FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1944


Corinne E Werner WAC daughter of Mr and Mrs William Werner 45 Harbor Terrace Drive. Rye is serving in England helping to ready more combat planes aid equipment for immediate action wherever they might be needed. She Joined the WAC in March 1943 and has been overseas for over a year.
Daily Item - June 22, 1945

Corinne was a member of a WAC detachment commended by her Commanding General, Brig. Gen. Morris Berman, for her outstanding contribution to the efficiency of the Air Service Command depot in England.

A letter received from the general told of "the extensive and varied spheres of work" in which the WACS are engaged, and praised them for "the zeal with which they have discharged their duties." "I recognize that service overseas. is an added sacrifice," the General declared, "and the wholehearted and unselfish spirit, with which the WACs have become adapted to foreign service is to be commended." Pfc. Werner's Women's Army Corps group served in virtually every section of this vast air depot where warplanes are readied for combat and tons of supplies are rushed to battle stations on the continent.

Corinne was honorably discharged from service on November 14, 1945, she was 24 years old.

She married Harold McKenna on May 25,1946 at her parents home in Rye. After their wedding trip the couple resided in Falmouth, MA. In 1950 they were living in Chicopee, MA and had a daughter. He was working at Westover Field Air Force base and she was a stay at home mom.

Corinne Elaine Werner - McKenna died January 9, 1995 in St. Petersburg FL at age 73. She was buried alongside her husband in Bay Pines National Cemetery, Bay Pines, FL..

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