Mary Agnes Hallaren

Mary Agnes Hallaren (born May 4, 1907, Lowell, Mass., U.S.—died Feb. 13, 2005, McLean, Va.) was a U.S. military officer who held commands in the early Women’s Army Corps and who worked for the integration of women into the regular army.

Hallaren was educated at the state teachers college in her native Lowell. In 1942 she entered the Officer Candidate School of the newly organized Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women’s Army Corps, or WAC). The following year, with the rank of captain, she was named commander of the first battalion to go overseas. She served as director of WAC personnel attached to the 8th and 9th Air Forces. By 1945 she had advanced to lieutenant colonel and in that year was appointed director of all WAC personnel in the European theatre.

In 1946 Hallaren became deputy director of the WAC, and the following year she was named director, taking the rank of colonel. With the enactment on June 12, 1948, of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, Colonel Hallaren became the first woman to receive a commission in the regular army (except for those in the Medical Corps, who had been incorporated into the regular army in 1947). She continued as director until January 1953 and retired from the army in 1960.

In 1965 Hallaren became director of the Women in Community Service division of the U.S. Labor Department. She left that position in 1978 but continued as a consultant to the division and to other organizations. In retirement she remained active in civic affairs, serving for many years on the board of directors of the WAC Foundation and lecturing on the history of women in the army. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996.