Search Constraints
Search Results
- Description:
- Former U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) radio technician Eleanor Jean Bechtel discusses her enlistment, the social environment in wartime America, her basic training in West Palm Beach, FL, and receiving electronics and radio instruction at the Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia. She also talks about the base in Florida where she trained, seeing John Wayne and Robert Montgomery there filming a movie, and moving to post-war Japan to work as a civilian secretary.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-07-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Rachel Babcock recalls her service as a radio operator with the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War Two. Babcock talks about the transition to basic training from teaching in a country school in Ingham County, Michigan, serving on a blimp base in Georgia, the culture shock of color-segregated facilities in the south, hitchhiking to the beach on weekends, and how civilians would frequently pay for meals for service members. She also talks about her post-military life, enrolling at Michigan State University, teaching in Lansing, MI, and the role of women in the American military.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Betty Bowman talks about her twenty-two year career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Bowman says she received her training as a nurse and dietitian and joined the Army in 1951 because she felt patriotic and wanted Army travel opportunities, pay, benefits, and security. Bowman says she hated basic training and had a difficult time adjusting to the long, overnight shifts and quick rotations Army nurses faced and says that such policies were dangerous to both the nurses and the patients. She discusses her duties as a medical surgical nurse, her duty stations overseas and in the U.S., housing, and her uniforms. Bowman also recalls Eleanor Roosevelt's trip to Japan and her own visit to an orphanage in Japan and seeing the plight of the Amer-Asian children who were ostracized by the Japanese. Bowman is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-03-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Rachel Babcock recalls her service as a radio operator with the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War Two. Babcock talks about the transition to basic training from teaching in a country school in Ingham County, Michigan, serving on a blimp base in Georgia, the culture shock of color-segregated facilities in the south, hitchhiking to the beach on weekends, and how civilians would frequently pay for meals for service members. She also talks about her post-military life, enrolling at Michigan State University, teaching in Lansing, MI, and the role of women in the American military.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Kathleen Rheinlander O'Neal says that she decided to become an Army nurse while in high school, graduated from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing in 1970 and went straight into basic training as a staff nurse at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. She talks about her various duty stations and assignments and says that she resigned from active duty in 1975, joined the Army Reserves and worked at the 94th General Hospital unit in San Antonio, Texas. O'Neal describes her activities as a reserve officer and says that in January 1991 she was recalled to active duty for service in Operation Desert Storm, sent to a hospital in Germany and finally returned to the U.S. in April of that year and retired from the service shortly after. She says the military gave her a solid career, an extensive network of friends, and a good education. O'Neal is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-02-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Marion Steinhilber talks about her 27 year career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, including her service overseas in World War II. Steinhiber says that she went on active duty in April 1944 and was sent to Atlantic City for basic training and that her first duty station was at Halloran General Hospital on Staten Island. Steinhilber says that she first thought that she would be stationed in Europe, but soon found herself bound for India, by way of Newfoundland, Casablanca, Cairo, and Abadan Island. After landing in Calcutta, she says that she joined the 142nd General Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan and then later the 20th General Hospital in Ledo, India. She talks about life in Ledo, including surviving monsoons, her quarters, the food, the pests, the quality of life for nurses and treating American and Chinese troops. Steinhilber says she returned to the States soon after V-J Day and was "separated" from the Army in May 1946, but was never "discharged". Steinhilber also says that she later found out that she was considered to be on "inactive reserve" and was called up for active duty in 1951 as the Korean War heated up. Steinhilber is interviewed by Ruth Stewart assisted by Carol Habgood.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-10-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Former U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) radio technician Eleanor Jean Bechtel discusses her enlistment, the social environment in wartime America, her basic training in West Palm Beach, FL, and receiving electronics and radio instruction at the Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia. She also talks about the base in Florida where she trained, seeing John Wayne and Robert Montgomery there filming a movie, and moving to post-war Japan to work as a civilian secretary.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-07-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection