Search Constraints
« Previous |
1 - 10 of 12
|
Next »
Search Results
- Description:
- In the second of two oral history interviews, Virginia Emrich describes her service in the American Red Cross during World War Two. Emrich says that she was sent to Australia in 1944 and then to Manila in June 1945 where she was quartered in a bombed-out building with indoor toilets and showers, but with little privacy. Emrich remembers regularly hearing gunfire and bombs as U.S. troops tried to dislodge the Japanese, setting up a recreation hall for the 11th Airborne Division and regularly suffering earthquakes and tropical rains. She says that she was never hungry during her time in the Red Cross, but was often homesick, cold and tired and always sustained by the conviction that she was doing something worthwhile. Emerich says that she was sent to Japan in September 1945 to open recreation clubs for U.S. occupation forces and that although she enjoyed her time in Japan, she finally asked to be shipped home to care for her aging mother.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-06-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In a written memoir read by Marjorie Brown, Ruby Busch recalls her service in the American Red Cross during World War Two. Busch talks about where she served, her uniforms, her medical care, her housing, her duties in Europe, and her memories of D-Day, V-E Day, and counting American bombers as they returned to England from their missions. Busch says she has enjoyed her experiences in the WOSL and associating with women who had similar experiences.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-04-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In a 1983 oral history interview, Dorothy M. Harrison talks about her childhood in Royal Oak, MI, attending the University of Michigan and her service in the American Red Cross during World War Two. Harrison says she volunteered for the ARC in late 1942 and after receiving their training, her unit was shipped to Europe as part of a forty-ship convoy which was attacked by a German submarine during the crossing. Harrison also talks about opening a service club with the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group in Hardwick, England, moving to the 337th General Service Engineers and later to the 363rd Photo Reconnaissance Group as part of the push across Germany as the war ended. She describes her quarters, her duties, celebrating Christmas with the troops during the Battle of the Bulge, struggling to get the equipment and supplies she needed to keep the clubs running, and the sexual harassment she experienced. Harrison says that she returned to the U.S. in September 1945, resumed her career as a librarian and married and moved with her husband to Louisville, KY to raise a family.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In the first of two oral history interviews, Virginia Emrich talks about running Red Cross recreation clubs for U.S. troops during World War Two. Emrich discusses her Red Cross training and says that she was slated to go to Europe, but protested the assignment because she wanted to go to the Pacific and was finally sent to Brisbane, Australia in 1943. Emrich says that her first assignment in Australia was to staff a club which had a beach, golf course, and tennis courts and recalls troops from New Guinea and other front line units rotating through Brisbane for rest before the Philippine invasion in October 1944. Emrich says she was later moved to Darwin on the north coast of Australia to run a recreation club and describes her duties there, the tropical heat and humidity, the rains, mud, and insects and says that the troops were not allowed to swim in the ocean because the stingrays were so fierce. Emrich is interviewed by Virginia Cornett.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-05-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Dorothy M. Harrison describes the efforts of the Louisville Unit of the Women's Overseas Service League to collect and persevere the histories of its members and then talks about the life of Mildred Stutzenberger who served in the American Red Cross during World War II. Reading from local documents and an interview with Stutzenberger, Harrison talks about Stutzenberger first working in hospitals in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations and then transferring to club work at the Bengal Air Depot in India. According to Harrison, Stutzenberger also served in Guam and Saipan and with the occupation forces in Japan. Harrison also recounts Stutzenberger's retirement and later death from lung cancer.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Mildred Blandford talks about her service as a secretary in the American Red Cross during World War Two. Blandford, who served from August 1944 to November 1945, says that she joined the Red Cross for overseas adventure and spent most of her time stationed at the 194th General Hospital in Paris. She says that she was quartered in a Parisian hotel with maid service, but that service in the hospital was no picnic and meant leaving her secretarial duties often to help care for the onslaught of wounded soldiers. After VE Day, Blandford says that she volunteered for duty in the Pacific and was sent to Okinawa where she found herself living in a tent rather than luxury hotel. She talks about her daily tasks and again helping out with wounded G.I.s. and describes two typhoons that hit the island and how staff tried to protect the patients in the tent hospital from the storm. At war's end, Blandford says that she returned to Louisville to work, but later went back to Paris for school and to work for NATO. Blandford is interviewed by Dorothy M. Harrison.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-10-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Patricia Young Berri talks about returning to the United States in March 1945 near the end of her service in the American Red Cross during World War Two. She talks about working in Houston as a civilian, being approached to rejoin the Red Cross and what the Women's Overseas Service League has meant to her. Berri is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-05-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Betty Leiby discusses her experiences during and after World War II while serving in the Red Cross and working as a civilian recruiter for the U.S. Army. Leiby talks about working as a secretary in Detroit before joining the American Red Cross when she was 23 and being sent to Hanley, England to serve in a Red Cross Club. She says that she was transferred to Furth, Germany at the end of the War and eventually left the Red Cross to recruit civilians to work for the U.S. Army's 53rd Quartermaster Company which was stationed there. She talks about her travels around Europe, including many trips to Ireland and Wales and discusses at length the general conduct of American soldiers while serving abroad. Leiby is interviewed by Elsie Hornbacher.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-11-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Patricia Young Berri talks about her service in the American Red Cross during World War Two from February 1944 to March 1945. Berri says she was working as a secretary for Shell Oil in Houston and doing USO work when she volunteered and was first assigned to the 117th Station Hospital in Leyte in the Philippines to coordinate patient recreation. She was next sent to a Naval base on Palawan and later Samar to await transport back to the United States. Berri talks about the ARC uniforms, the train ride to San Francisco and landing in Leyte and says that she didn't mind the cold showers or the tent life there, but had a difficult time adjusting to the Filipino unisex latrines. Berri is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-04-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Edna Scott talks about her service with the American Red Cross in France in 1918 and 1919. Scott says that she joined the Red Cross in 1918 as a nurse's aide, but soon became a canteen worker and also spent time visiting the injured and sick in hospital. Scott says she has been a member of the Red Cross for over sixty years and helped found the WOSL unit in Kansas City in 1921. She talks about her uniform, puts on her service cap for the interviewers and says that she would do it all over again if she had the chance. Scott is interviewed by Evelyn McHiggins with Jane Piatt and Geneva K. Wiskemann.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-07-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project