Statue honoring WAACs is on the way to Washington

A statue from a Des Moines hotel is joining other memorabilia at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. this afternoon. The owners of the Hotel Savery in Des Moines created a statue depicting a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, or WAACs, for a reunion of the group last summer. The Savory served as the home of the women while they trained for World War Two. Savery General Manager Randy Haynes says a replica of the statue is being donated to the Smithsonian today.He says most people in Des Moines don’t even know that 72-thousand WAACs stayed in and were trained in Des Moines between 1942 and ’45. Haynes hopes the replica statue will bring more recognition to the role of the WAACs in the war. The original WAAC statue remains on display at the Savery. Today’s presentation is at 3 p.m.