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- Description:
- Elizabeth "Betty" Brown says she that she wanted to join the Women's Army Corps but failed to pass the physical, applied for the American Red Cross and served in Army and Navy hospitals for four years and then two years as a service club director. She talks about organizing recreational activities for patients in the 65th General Hospital in Europe during World War II and says that after V-J Day she was sent to Guam to work for several general hospitals. Brown describes the variety of uniforms she wore and coming up with creative ways to entertain patients. She says that just being away from home was the biggest wartime adjustment she had to make. Brown also talks about her postwar employment with the YWCA, earning a masters degree and serving in the Peace Corp. Brown is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-03-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In an in-depth oral history interview, retired Lieutenant Colonel Therese M. Slone-Baker talks about growing up in New York City, attending business school, taking a civil service job in Washington D.C., joining the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944 and working as a secretary, special events coordinator and a recruiter until she leaving active military service in 1946 to join the reserves. Slone-Baker says she was recalled to active service in 1952 and became an officer and discusses the various assignments she had throughout her career, including being the commander of a WASP squadron. She says that she finally retired in 1972 with 25 years of military service and feels that even though she did not have a "dramatic" career she did contribute and did her best to uphold the high standards of the service. Slone-Baker is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart assisted by Carol A Habgood.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-01-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Lucile Pauline Matignon Crane talks about her service as a surgical nurse in the U.S. Navy during World War One, between April 1917 and February 1919. Crane says that she graduated from nursing school in 1914 and first worked at Stanford Hospital in San Francisco and that she enlisted in the Navy for good pay, and a chance for more education and equal opportunity. She talks about shipping out to Scotland, working in a surgical unit in a hospital which was a former resort hotel, the types of injuries she treated and socializing with enlisted men because the doctors were off limits. She also says that she was one of the first nurses to be sent home as the war wound down, spent her leave in Paris and was shipped home from Brest with ten women and thousands of men. Crane talks about her career after leaving the Navy, marrying and settling in Modesto, CA and notes that she received no special recognition for her service until the state of California paid a veterans bonus. The interviewer is unidentified.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-12-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Sophie Steffer discusses her twenty year career in the United States Army Nurse Corps, focusing primarily on her service in World War Two. Steffer says that her civilian job was considered "essential" to the war effort and that she was denied enlistment for two years because of it. She says that she was first sent overseas to India near the end of the war and then later to the Philippines, Germany and Japan with the occupation forces. Steffer talks about living in thatched huts in India, Quonset huts in the Philippines, and apartments in Germany and Japan and describes processing soldiers and civilians who had been Japanese prisoners, while she was in Calcutta. She says that her biggest adjustment to military life was learning to salute and accepting the separation of enlisted personnel and officers. Steffer is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-03-07T00:00:00Z
- 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:
- Johanna Butt talks about her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War Two and the Korean War. Butt says that she graduated from nursing school in 1943 and joined the Army that same year. She talks about treating wounded from Patton's Third Army in Europe, living in miserable conditions, being cold and not having enough to eat, V-E Day and finally being "separated" from the Army in February in 1946. She says that she was called up from the Army Reserves in 1951 for the Korean War and talks about being stationed in Japan with the 382nd General Hospital, the flood of casualties that came in from the fighting in Korea, returning to the States in 1954, teaching nursing, working as an Army recruiter in the Pacific Northwest and being turned down for service in the Vietnam war. Butt says she retired from the Army in 1970 and moved to Tucson, AZ to care for her mother and husband. Butt is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-01-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Eleanor Carey talks about her service as a career U.S. Air Force nurse beginning in 1955. Carey says that after her basic training she was sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and later was stationed in Greece. She lists other stateside assignments, says that she earned a bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, become a recruiter in New Haven, CT, performed Air Force public relations work and finally did a tour of duty in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. She describes her base, her quarters, and her duties in Vietnam and remembers President Johnson making a surprise visit to personally hand out medals to the patients in her hospital. After Vietnam, Carey says that she was stationed at various places, including Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio and Norton Air Force Base in California. Carey says her experience in Vietnam changed her attitude about war and that she even joined a veterans anti-war organization. Carey is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-10-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project