Photograph of CASC—Comité Américain de Secours Civil volunteers arm-in-arm and wearing gas masks.
Local Note
Elizabeth Fisher Adams, a 1929 graduate of Skidmore, began training in 1940 for a position as an ambulance driver for Anne Morgan's war aid organization, CASC—Comité Américain de Secours Civil, in France. Adams worked on the Belgian front from 1940 - 1941, and was awarded the Croix de Geurre for her services. She returned to the United States as a speaker for the Committee to Defend America and gave a speaking tour through New England. Adams joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. (W.A.A.C.) in 1942, and was appointed third officer, working in the public relations office in Ft. Des Moines, Ohio. In 1943, Adams received an Honorable Discharge from W.A.A.C. because of a back injury. Adams returned to France in 1945 to work with American Aid to France (A.A.T.F.) and was stationed in St. Die and Corcieux in the Vosges mountains, where she was occupied with organizing the relief effort for six towns in the area. In 1948, Adams was awarded the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française for her work with the Friendship train food distribution program.
