WAC Intelligence Analyst promoted to second lieutenant

Courtesy Photo | Doris Van Wickel, wearing the shoulder sleeve insignia of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington (courtesy photo).  

FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES

02.14.2023

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

On February 17, 1945, 30-year-old Women’s Army Corps (WAC) enlistee Doris Van Wickel was promoted to second lieutenant. She would remain on active duty for the next year, working within the Pentagon as an intelligence analyst.

Born in 1915 to a foreign service officer, Van Wickel spent much of her life living abroad, learning about new cultures, and speaking several different languages. In the early 1930s, she attended Malvern Girls’ College in Great Malvern, England; George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; and Columbia University in New York City. Proficient in seven languages, Van Wickel worked in various companies across the globe before being employed at the Military Intelligence Division (MID) of the War Department in 1941.

By 1942, she had worked her way up to assistant economic analyst with the Board of Economic Warfare (BEW), a military entity established by Presidential Proclamation 2413 in July 1940. The duties of analysts included studies of enemy economic statuses, screening export licenses, and procurement of necessities abroad. By mid-1943, Van Wickel was serving as the assistant chief for the Southwest Pacific Unit of the BEW, researching conditions in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya.

In October, she joined the WAC. General Brehon B. Somervell, commanding general of the Army Service Forces, initially barred WACs from assignment in D.C., despite many women having already served in the government prior to enlisting with the corps. A few departments, including the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) of the MID, continued employing women in their message centers, and their persistence paid off in September 1943 with authorization for WACs to work in Washington. By August 1944, some 2,045 enlisted women were working in the Military District of Washington, including MIS, and this number increased quickly. During this time, Van Wickel achieved the rank of technical sergeant, and, on February 17, 1945, the Army promoted her to second lieutenant. She served in the Pentagon as an intelligence research analyst until 1946, when she was honorably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant.

Thousands of women who served in the intelligence community during World War II were recruited by the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the war’s end, primarily as communications and intelligence analysts throughout the Cold War. Doris Van Wickel—now married and using the name Berger—remained out of the service for several years but joined the CIA in 1953 after the death of her husband. During the Cold War, she was one of many women who played a role in intelligence gathering and analysis for the CIA, especially within the growing and shifting landscape of the technology age. She frequently traveled on temporary duty assignments for the agency, including to Iran, Hong Kong, and Thailand.

In 1962, Berger moved to Saigon with her three sons and coordinated flights for the CIA’s “secret” airline, Air America, during the early years of the Vietnam War. The CIA used Air America for passenger travel for U.S. government and military personnel, support for Special Forces activities, and reconnaissance missions over Viet Cong encampments. In 1967, Berger relocated to Udorn, Thailand, where she worked on radio intercepts alongside the Army Security Agency’s 7th Radio Research Field Station.

Berger retired from the CIA in 1970 after returning to work at Langley, Virginia, and moved to Florida, where she passed away in 1989. She is buried beside her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

• Date Taken: 02.14.2023
• Date Posted: 02.14.2023 13:08
• Story ID: 438449
• Location: FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US