# Carmen Contreras-Bozak - Coded Messages Source Packet

Public Short: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cpugBz8r86I

## Receipt Spine

- VA News identifies Carmen Contreras-Bozak as an Army Veteran and says she was the first Puerto Rican woman to join the Women's Army Corps.
- VA News says she served in the Signal Corps and sent and received coded messages between General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Algiers and the battlefield in Tunisia.
- USO frames Contreras-Bozak as the first Hispanic American to serve in the Women's Army Corps and repeats the Signal Corps coded-message receipt.
- VOCES Oral History Center identifies her as born in Puerto Rico and preserves the teletype/signal-corps service context.

## Source Trail

- VA News: #VeteranOfTheDay Carmen Contreras Bozak: https://news.va.gov/35061/veteran-day-carmen-contreras-bozak/
- USO: Courage and Valor: 5 Stories of Hispanic American Military Heroes: https://www.uso.org/stories/2469-hispanic-american-military-heroes
- VOCES Oral History Center / University of Texas at Austin: Carmen Conteras Bozak: https://voces.moody.utexas.edu/collections/stories/carmen-conteras-bozak
- Local source lock: `carmen-contreras-bozak-coded-messages-source-lock-v1-2026-10-12.md`
- Local script draft: `carmen-contreras-bozak-coded-messages-script-draft-v2-2026-10-13.md`
- Local platform schedule receipt: `posting/carmen-contreras-bozak-platform-schedule-receipt-2026-10-13.md`

## Guardrails

- Do not call her a front-line combat soldier.
- Do not imply she commanded operations or shaped Eisenhower's strategy.
- Keep first claims attributed carefully: VA says first Puerto Rican woman to join the Women's Army Corps; USO says first Hispanic American to serve in the Women's Army Corps.
- Use safe birthplace wording unless resolving the Ponce/Cayey source discrepancy.
- Avoid Wikipedia as the production source spine.