This week on Legends of the Old West, in honor of Women's History Month, we'll look at some of the women in the military who enlisted during World War II.

Sell them in the limelight, but working on the front lines day and night, these women confronted challenging circumstances far beyond what you might expect from a battlefield.

This is Episode 2 of the miniseries front line women, and I'm the host documentary filmmaker Katrina Parks.

In this episode, I'll be interviewing acclaimed authors and historians, Heidi Ocelier and Jim Cristevek, playwright,

Ilema de Sousa, family members of women who served, and in some cases will hear from the women themselves.

From the deserts of Arizona to the jungles of New Guinea and the battlefields in France, these women face discrimination, war injuries, POW camps, and post-traumatic stress.

And while they don't fit the usual image of a soldier, they are war heroes too.

On every front the men of America are carrying on our fight for freedom. That back of them is another army, a woman's army, the woman's army corps, the wax, women from every walk of life, on every race, greed, and color.

Women who have recognized their stake in the future of America, they carry no arms and their work is far behind the fighting line. But for every wax volunteer, another soldier is released for combat duty.

Another weapon turned against the axis.

To understand more about how women's roles changed during World War II, I called my colleague Dr. Heidi Ocelier, author of winning their place Arizona women in politics,

and one of the founders of the Arizona Women's Heritage Trail.

Heidi explained how representative Edith Norse Rogers, Massachusetts first congresswoman, sponsored a bill in the spring of 1942 to form the Women's Army auxiliary corps.

What she wanted to do was free men up for combat in the military. So men that were doing clerical work that were radio operators, mechanics, things like that, they could be freed up to be sent to the front lines, and women could take their place.

These were military jobs, and they were going to be an auxiliary of the military, not quite the being called rank or status, but despite that, there were a lot of congressmen who believed this would destroy the family.

You can't send women outside the home to work, but as war rolled on, it was a two-front war, and it required that everyone, children, grandmas, all the men had to be involved.

And because of that, you have to change social beliefs in how women are viewed.

So it was very, very important that the government get behind this effort, and this is the first time in US history the federal government actually encourages women to seek work outside the home.

There are a lot of newsreels at this time that glamorized female service because there was such a difficult time convincing women to sign up.

At uniform and accessories worn by the wax, all are styled by high-fashion designer, Hattie Carnegie.

The value placed by the Women's Army Corps on meticulous grooming and feminine grace is one of the first lessons learned by the recruit.

The ancient jokes about growing into a uniform or reducing the fidget do not hold up in the wax.

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