TEC5 US Army, Ernestina Lopez Brusuelas 

Ernestina Lopez (Brusuelas) joined the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) on January 5, 1943, and was one of the first Hispanic women to serve during World War II. ^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} Lopez completed basic training at the WAAC Training Center in Daytona Beach, Florida in March of 1943. ⁷ She was stationed at Fort Devins Massachusetts in 1943 and graduated as first cook from the Cooks and Bakers School in May of 1943. ^{3, 8} She was home on furlough in 1944 from Fort Jay in New York. ⁹ In the same year, she became a WAC Recruiter in New Brunswick, New Jersey. ^{10, 11, 12} In October of the same year, she was transferred to the New York Signal Center in downtown Manhattan, the second-largest Army communications center in the country. ¹² She lived in the Army quarters on Governor’s Island and ferried to her work as an Army teletypist. ¹² Speed and accuracy were essential for teletypists, who had to accurately type 35 words a minute. ¹²

Lopez was one of the first WACS to be sent to the European Theater of Operations. ¹³ She spent approximately six months in Europe during the war and visited Le Havre and Paris. ³ At Le Havre, her unit stayed in tents, and in Paris, they were quartered at a German Boys’ School. ¹³ For her service, Lopez was decorated with the American Theater Campaign Medal, the Eastern-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the Victory Medal, one Overseas Service Bar, and the WAAC Service Medal. ³ She was honorably discharged from the Army on December 9, 1945. ³

Lopez was born in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, to Salvador and Josefa Lopez. ¹ In 1930, she and her family were living in Ordway, Colorado, and in 1940, the family lived in La Jara, Colorado, where her father was working on road construction. ^{14, 15} She attended Albuquerque High School. ¹ After the war, Lopez worked for Sandia Base in Albuquerque, where she received the Outstanding Performance Rating, Sustained Superior Performance Rating, and the Sustained Superior Performance Award. ¹⁶ In 1965 she retired from civil service after 35 years. ¹ Lopez was an active member of the secular Franciscan Order of the Catholic Church and she volunteered for St. Vincent de Paul at Sacred Heart Church in the Barelas neighborhood. ¹