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Transcriber: Virginia Dodge
Transcription Date: 9/12/2010
BLOOM: Hello. My name is Bret Bloom, and this is the
interview for Library of Congress interview on the World
War II history vets. And our cameraman today is Joseph R.
Cocode(?), and our interview -- our first interview will be
Gladys Donovan.
Take it away, Gladys.
DONOVAN: Hi. I'm Gladys Donovan, I was a staff sergeant in the World
War II, and boy, it was a World War II.
Q. If you just look at me when we're talking, but you can
just look at the camera once in a while.
Okay. Now, we're just going to do a little history
behind it. Were you drafted or did you enlist?
A. I enlisted.
Q. Why?
A. Because my father asked me if I would go and I felt I
wanted to go.
Q. Why did you want to go?
A. So I could help the boys come home.
Q. Oh, the boys. Okay.
And where were you living?
A. I was living in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Q. How -- how was the warfare time around East Hartford?
A. Well, we had the Pratt & Whitney aircraft down there
with us, and we -- they took a lot of our citizens from East
Hartford, and they worked there.
But I stayed home and took care -- helped my mother
take care of the kids. So I didn't -- then when my brother
went in the service, that was another thing. I didn't like
that very well. But -- I missed him too much.
Q. Why did you pick the Army?
A. I picked the Army because I didn't want to go in the
Navy because I couldn't swim that well.
Q. Why? Why couldn't you swim?
A. (laughter) I never did like to swim. And then the
Marine Corps, Marine Corps was kind of rough. So I just
liked the easiest one.
Q. Oh, so the Army was the easy one.
A. Yes. For me, it was.
Q. Tell everybody why the Army was the easiest one. Your
opinion.
A. The Army was -- in my opinion?
Q. In your opinion.
A. Well, I couldn't say for the fellows because it was
all girls when I went, but when I went, there was only the
WAC detachment at Des Moines, Iowa. And then when I went in
the service, I went to Fort Oglethorpe, Flor -- Georgia.
And I had my basic training there of one month.
From there, I was lucky enough to go to -- I've got to
think of it.
Q. Boot camp?
A. Stephen F. Austin College in Texas, and I had an
administration course, which consisted of 56 subjects.
That's where I learned how to type and learned how to do
bookkeeping and -- well, that's all I had, was do office
Q. Office work.
A. So then when I graduated from there, I went back to
Camp Blanding, Florida, and I became a PFC. And from there,
I made corporal. Then I made sergeant. And then I made
staff sergeant. So I really had a lot of --
Q. You shot your way up the ranks.
A. I sure did.
Q. Okay. A couple things. What was boot camp like and
any stories about your instructors, especially the "hands in
the pocket" story you told me the other day?
A. You want me to do that? (laughter)
Q. Yeah. Tell it to the American people.
A. Well, anyway, we -- I only had a month of basic
training. And that was how I had to learn how to drill the
soldiers. Well, not soldiers; the ladies. And I had to
learn a lot of office work there, too. But that was just
easy.
I got my shots there. And then we had to do drilling,
and we had to parade. That was one of the best things was
parading. I loved to parade.
Q. Why?
A. I loved it.
Q. What was so special about it?
A. Well, didn't you think that, hey, it was nice seeing
women in the Army Corps and going around with these fellows
and having a good time?
And then where do I go from there?
Then when I went to ad. school, which we called
administration school, that was a rough one.
Q. And why was it rough?
A. Well, you take 56 subjects in six weeks and see what
you do with it.
Q. (laughter) What kind of subjects did they make you
take?
A. I took typing, bookkeeping, how to greet different
officers and parade there and --
Q. Was it like an officer training kind of thing?
A. No. No. It was just for women in the -- in the
corps. That's all.
And then when they sent me home -- well, it wasn't
home; it was Camp Blanding. I got along very well at Camp
Blanding (laughter) because when I got there, there was only
125 girls there.
We had -- it was -- it was a good detachment, but when
I had to go to my interview up at camp headquarters for --
to see what kind of job I was going to be doing, well, I
went up there, and I met Captain Bill Haynes, and he was
from Ansonia, Connecticut. And when he found out that I was
a girl from Connecticut, I had it made. (laughter)
Q. That's not bad. Okay.
Now, just state for everybody what war you were in.
Just for the record, state which war you were in.
A. Just World War II. That's all.
Q. Okay. And where did you go? Where did you go in the
war?
A. I just told you up there.
Q. No. When you entered the wars -- that was your boot
camp. That was after you --
A. My boot camp and that was --
Q. Then where were you stationed during the war?
Basically where were you stationed during the war?
A. Camp Blanding, Florida.
Q. Okay, okay.
And what was it like when you arrived?
A. When I was -- well, when we got there, it was a little
bit like a swamp place (laughter) because there was Kingsley
Lake there. And headquarters was listed on Kingsley Lake,
but our detachment was down about -- oh, I'd say a half mile
from camp headquarters.
But I loved it because I was at headquarters.
(laughter) I [inaudible] headquarters, I was meeting all
different officers and everything else.
Q. Why did you like -- the headquarters just made you
feel more comfortable? Or --
A. Well, that's what I was -- turned out -- I was trained
Q. So that was your job assignment?
A. My job -- my first job assignment when I got to camp
headquarters was working the discharge section. Then after
I got through with the discharge section, I went to the
payroll section. And this is a story I got to tell for
Brettie.
Q. It's okay.
A. When I was doing the payrolls, this sergeant from the
supply detachment, he kept asking me to have a date. And I
kept saying no, because I didn't want to have dates with
fellows then.
And he said, "Well," he said, "gosh," he says, there's
good movies going."
I said, "Yeah, but I don't want to go."
So he hung up. And the next thing I know, he's
calling me again. And he says, "Gladys," he says, "there's
a good movie tonight."
And I said, "Didn't I tell you no?"
And he says, "Well, you know," he says, "movies are
hard to get." And he said, "How about taking a -- some
gum?"
I says, "Gum?"
He says, "Yeah." He says, "You know, gum is hard to
get now."
And I said, well, so was I. And I hung up the phone.
(laughter) And I didn't hear any more. (laughter)
Q. What are some of your most memorable experiences from
anywhere throughout the war? Started in, towards the end?
A. My first big experience was going to Fort Devens in a
troop train and coming -- and going from Fort Devens to
Georgia, all over the United States, I used to say. But we
had to go on the troop train, and it took us six days just
to go about 10 miles.
And we were on a troop train. And when you're on a
troop train, you go where the troops go. So I was --
Q. So did you go -- did you go out west or any --
A. I went --
Q. -- everywhere --
A. -- as far as the Mississippi River and came back down
the other way.
Q. Interesting. So I take it much of your action was in
America, right? So you didn't see any combat at all?
A. I didn't. I saw a lot of combat after I did work in
the --
Q. Did you know anybody that experienced combat, anything
you can tell us about what you saw?
A. Yeah. I can tell you.
Q. Go ahead.
A. Well, when I got to the discharge section, there was
two -- well, we called them 4F fellows, but we shouldn't
have done that because they were --
Q. Could you state that for the record, what the 4Fs --
A. The 4Fs?
Q. Just for record.
A. Well, they weren't able to go overseas because they
were disabled in somehow or other.
So anyway, I had -- a warrant officer, a tech sergeant
and a staff sergeant and myself; we took care of the --
sending the boys home after they came back from overseas.
And it was bad times when I saw those boys coming home
from overseas, but one of my favorite stories is this
morning, we had to have the fellows down at the railroad
station in Jacksonville, Florida to get them on the 11:00
train so that they could go home.
And when I had to go and interview the fellows before
they went, which was the day before, and this day, I got the
fellows all ready, all -- they were all ready to go to the
train. And I had about 10 or 15 more to go.
And this -- at the back of your discharge section, you
have a little place where you have to use your right thumb
for identification. Well, I got ahold of this fellow. He
was only 18 years old. And I says to him, I says, "I've got
to have your right hand."
And he said, "Well, sergeant, I can't give you my
right hand."
I said, "What do you mean you can't give me your right
hand?"
I felt very sad after I saw what I did, but anyway, he
says, "I can't." And his hand was off like this.
And you think I didn't feel bad at that? And he was
only 18 years old.
Then I had another fellow that had part of his leg
off. These things were -- you know, they thought, well, I'm
in the States. I don't see what's going on. But when you
see those boys coming home, it's hard.
So that, I did for -- oh, gosh, about six months.
Then they put me in the payrolls. And the payrolls was a
hard job because you had to make sure that all the things
that fellows owed, like they had their laundry done, and
they bought things at the PX or something, and they put them
on their bill.
So here I am. I'm going through these things. And
I -- it was a tough thing for me to figure these things out,
but I got it after. And that's where I met the nicest
fellow that I -- Benito was his name. Louie Benito. And he
was in charge of me and the payroll section.
And that's where I learned a lot about payrolls. So I
really had a good education.
Q. Really? Did you get any medals or anything of that
sort?
A. Yeah. I got --
Q. Medals, awards?
A. Did I get any awards?
Q. Medals or awards or citations?
A. Well, I got all the ones that we got, all my ribbons
that I got from being in the service. Like the ribbon I had
on the other day.
Q. What did you get it for? Was it just for being in the
service or a commendation?
A. It was the one -- that was the one that showed the
WAAC ribbon.
Q. Oh. State for the record what WAC is.
A. WC?
Q. WAC.
A. W was Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, but now we went
from 1943 to 1944, and we became regular Army. So I had
two -- two different --
Q. Oh, you had the best of both worlds. I'll bet you
were liking that.
A. Oh, I loved it.
Q. During the war, how did you keep in touch with your
family, like your sisters, your brothers?
A. Called my father, called my sisters. Led us to my
brother who was over in the South Pacific.
Q. Tell us about that.
A. Well, Bill was -- during his civilian life, he was a
truck driver for Save All Bleach Company. So when you get
your specifications, sometimes you get -- well, you drive a
truck. That's what you did in your lifetime. So they tried
to give you that. And all different things. Like say you
were a radio guy, they put you in the radio.
But anyway, Bill -- they gave him the driv -- when he
got in the South Pacific, they gave him the job of being the
driver for the captain. Yeah.
Q. The ambulance?
A. No, no. They gave him a driving -- driving the
chaplain around.
Q. Oh.
A. So he --
Q. Did he like that?
A. He liked it, but he wanted to get home. And when I
wrote him a letter and told him that I was going to go
overseas, he just said, "Don't. Don't you dare try to come
over here because I will be very mad at you."
Q. Brothers. Okay.
A lot of people want to know, what was the food like?
A. Well, I've got to tell you. The food that I hate --
had was -- I never ate at the WAC detachment because I ate
at the camp headquarters. Their -- I had my food down with
the fellows from the headquarters. (laughter) I ate with
the boys.
Q. How did you get special treatment like that?
A. I told you, I knew the captain. (laughter)
Q. Oh. That's good.
Did [inaudible] supplies(?) or stress -- any stress at
all? [inaudible] didn't come back(?).
A. Well, it bothered me, but then after all, you'd have
to figure, "Well, this is my job. I've got to" -- it was
rough. It was --
But I loved it. I loved it. But it was tough seeing
18-year-old boys coming home without any legs or arms or
something.
Q. Was there anything that brought you good luck or
anything? Like some keepsake that you would keep on you or
hold on to, picture of your family or anything that helped
you get through the war okay?
A. Well, my best luck was having the Lord with me.
Q. Was that felt around the whole wartime, all the people
you knew or was it [inaudible]?
A. It was all during my lifetime.
Q. I'm talking about -- I meant the war-wise. Was
that -- was -- everybody had their own keepsakes? Or was
everybody mostly [inaudible] God? Like some of you had
like -- keep their cross on them or just --
A. Oh, I had a cross my dad sent me. And I don't know.
I hadn't -- I wasn't that much into being -- all I wanted to
do was do my job. That's it.
Q. That's good. So that's what you wanted, to keep us
safe.
How did everybody, like, keep themselves busy, you
know, when they weren't -- when you weren't in service or at
the [inaudible]? Like --
A. We had -- we had service clubs. We had jobs that --
one of my jobs I had was being a cashier at the -- one of
the theaters at Camp Blanding. And that was extra money, so
that helped me a lot.
Q. Extra money for what? Anything? Like --
A. Just anything I wanted to spend it on. (laughter)
That was only $11 a week, but it was worth --
Q. What could you get with $11 back during the war? I
know the country was a bit more --
A. Well, I got my toiletries and I got my stockings and
whatever I needed.
Q. Was there, like, entertainers like Bob Hope or, like,
entertainers, anybody, like comedians, anybody come --
A. Yeah.
Q. -- out to the --
A. Sammy Kaye and his orchestra came down one time. And
Dennis Morgan came down one time, and Johnny Long came down.
So we had entertainment.
Q. That's great.
What did you do when you had your leave? Did you take
a leave at all or, like, when you --
A. Yeah. I used to come home about every four months.
And I'd come down, and I'd go to the aircraft and see my dad
because he worked there. And he'd take me around and show
me off. He liked to show his daughter off in her uniform.
Q. His proud daughter.
A. Yeah.
Q. So he was in favor of you going to the war. What
about your mother?
A. My mother said no.
Q. Why?
A. She didn't want me to go.
Because at the time that I was thinking about going
was that it was a different environment for the women. They
had to -- she always thought that it was girls that didn't
have a home or were just plain, like, prostitutes. Yes.
Q. Was that the whole --
A. That was a lot to do with it. When we first went --
you know, that's why she didn't want me to go. She said,
"No. I don't want my daughter in with that kind of people."
Q. So she thought women weren't right to be in war?
A. No.
Q. But how did she feel like Rosie the Riveter, like the
women -- trying to get women to do -- work in the steel
mills to build the --
A. Oh, that was helping -- that was --
Q. Was she in favor of that?
A. Oh, yeah.
Q. -- instead of going into the service?
A. I didn't do that.
Q. Because you wanted to save everybody.
Anything -- any funny events or practical jokes you
would play on your fellow soldiers?
A. You got one there.
Q. Anything else?
A. Well, I got another one.
Q. Please tell us.
A. When we were at -- when we first got down to Camp
Blanding, the captain came in. She sent orders out that we
were going to have an inspection on Saturday morning and
that there would be no messing around and there wouldn't be
any talking while the general of the camp was going to come
and see us.
So anyway, he came around 7:00 that morning. And he's
going through the troops. And he comes to me, and he
looked -- you know, he kept looking me over, testing me.
And he said to me, he said, "What's that you've got in
your shirt, in your shirt pockets?"
And I said, "Oh, that's me, sir."
Well, he turned around, and he started laughing like
mad, but he left. (laughter) And the captain laughed at
me, too, so --
But it was a good -- it was -- it made the mood light
and funny.
Q. And just some little more general questions about --
we'll begin, how did you feel about Hitler and the Germans?
A. I didn't like Hitler. I didn't like the way he
handled our boys. I didn't like the way he killed the Jews
off. I didn't like any of that because it wasn't right for
him to be doing that.
Q. Now, how accurate were the reports back then? I know
sometimes the government would hide some stuff, but would
they give you pretty much accurate reports about what was
going on?
Because I know after the war -- [inaudible] the
Holocaust, after the war. Did you -- were you keeping track
of anything like that? I mean, not [inaudible], but
anything that was going on overseas, you would find out and
find out if it was true?
A. Well, I found out a lot from what I thought was the
truth was when I talked to the boys, when they came back
from service.
But I've got to tell you this one. I had -- the
captain and I, we got along fine. And when anything went
wrong at headquarters at the WAC detachment, he would call
me and ask me what was going on.
So this day, I got back, and he says to me, he says,
"Did you hear about what was happening?"
And I says, "No. What?"
And he says, "Well," he said, "you got some German
soldiers that are down at -- at the camp hospital, and
they're using them as trainees."
And I said, "What do you mean, trainees?"
Well, they're being like interns.
So anyway, he said to me, he said, "Did you know what
was going on?"
And I said, "No. What?"
He says, "Well," he says, "one of your girls was found
in bed with a German lieutenant."
And you think I wasn't mad? I went up to him, and I
says, "Hey, Mick." That's what I called him, that's Mick,
because he was Irish. I says, "We've got to get rid of
her."
And he says to me, he says, "What do you mean?"
I said, "I don't want her in the camp with me."
(laughter) So the next day, well, that afternoon, she
was on special orders to go to camp in Mississippi. I
didn't want none of those things around me.
But that -- and her brother. She had gotten a
telegram that morning from her mother that her brother had
been killed by a German. And boy, I was so mad. "Get rid
of her."
Q. Okay. Next question. Pearl Harbor and the Japanese?
A. Pearl Harbor.
Q. I know 'cause that was what got a lot of -- everybody
to join the service. Did you have any anguish(?) toward
Japan before the war or anything like that? You knew what
they were doing and then Pearl Harbor came and just --
A. I never knew that they were as rotten as they were,
but anyway, we had a friend that was over at Pearl Harbor
and -- well, we had two friends that I knew of.
And one was Ed Moran. You met Ed Moran. He was -- he
lived down there in Old Saybrook. And he was on his way to
church Pearl Harbor Sunday. He didn't go to church. He had
to go and dig graves for the fellows that had already gotten
shot.
And that was a -- I felt so bad for them. That was
terrible.
But as far as Japanese people go, hey, they're just
like you and I, but I mean, they didn't know any more than
we knew about the war. They just got taken care of.
Q. Did you believe all the Japanese spies all across the
country and that there were all around Hawaii and then
they're all across the country looking for more places to
attack, [inaudible] concentration camps for the Japanese?
A. I've got to tell you about this one. This kid went to
the Naval academy, and he was a very good friend of my
And he -- he was in Pearl Harbor that morning on the
ARIZONA. And you know what happened to the ARIZONA. And he
never -- he never got home, and they never saw him again.
Then Whitehead-Conlon -- thing on Conlon Highway.
That was named after him. Whitehead Highway. He had a very
good friend that went to the Naval academy when my sister
was going, but --
I mean, what got me a lot was when I found out that we
had a Japanese camp down in Wethersfield Avenue.
Q. Okay. Where?
A. Wethersfield Avenue. In Hartford.
Q. Hartford? Wow. That close to home?
A. Yeah. They -- what do they call them?
Q. The concentration camps?
A. Yeah. They put them in those. They couldn't go to
school or anything.
Q. Did you think that was right?
A. Well, look what they did to our boys. That's how I
feel about it. They hurt our boys something terrible, what
they did to them and that march they had and couldn't eat or
anything. They -- they destroyed the boys.
But that's -- now you've got this stuff going on,
Iran. And I don't believe in Iran.
Q. [inaudible] topic. That's fine.
Let's see here. Did you keep like a diary or
anything?
A. Oh, I've got a big album.
Q. You've got a big album?
A. With pictures.
Q. Do we have -- do we have the album?
A. Yeah. It's right in back of Joe.
Q. Just look through there and show us any pictures you
want, any stories behind there or any things, officers you
have in there that you went to tell us, show us --
A. You want to see your grandmother?
Q. Let's see.
A. Your grandmother is way down here. No. 6.
Q. No. 6. So we're going one, two, three, four, five,
six. Right here.
A. That was in Jacksonville, Florida.
Q. Was this after you finished your -- after you finished
boot camp, or was this --
A. No. I was at boot camp.
Q. This is during boot camp.
A. Yep.
Q. This is the parades you loved?
A. Yeah. I loved these parades. Every Saturday morning,
I went to parade.
Q. Any other pictures you want to show us?
A.
Well, here are some pictures -- here it is. See this?
Q. What's that?
Hard to get. Zoom in on that.
A. Can you get it, Joe?
Q. We'll go ahead and read it. Here. It says, "Camp
Blanding. A GI here offered a WAC five packages of gum in
exchange for a date, explaining that the commodity was hard
to get. Responded the WAC, 'So am I.'"
See that? It is proven. The lie, she says. It is
proven.
A. These are training pictures that we had.
See this?
Q. These are old soldiers you knew?
Oh, this was pictures of your boot camp?
A. Yep.
Q. That's very nice.
Have any of your famous captain friend? Any pictures
of your captain friend?
Let the world know what he looks like. The man who
gave her special privileges.
A. See me playing baseball, after I had a shot?
Q. A shot? Alcohol shot?
A. No.
Q. Oh, just a shot.
A. See this? Swampy camp.
Q. Swampy camp. And they made you guys build your own
tents, your own --
A. Oh, no. No. We had --
Q. No. They were just --
A. Our barracks were already made for us.
See. Here's the thing from -- see this? That was in
an East Hartford paper.
Q. This was when you were at Texas, this is your camp in
Texas. It just tells she graduated from Texas and then
pictures of her in her uniform. You look very nice in your
uniform.
Did you like your uniform?
A. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I liked it so much, I had one made.
Here, here. Here's my buddies.
Q. Here's your buddies?
A. There's my buddies.
Q. Turn it towards the camera.
A. Here's where I fell out of a truck and cut my head
open.
Q. How did you do that?
A. I was coming home from the theater and --
Q. Was this on leave or were you just --
A. No, no. I was coming home. I was through work. And
on the way home, to the camp, this fellow swerved the thing,
and I was sitting in the front seat with him. And the door
of the car, the door of the truck, came open, and I went
flying right down on my head. And I got stitches.
Now, there's the one of the fellows that worked with
me. There's my other one. This was my officer. There's my
first captain.
Q. It's your first captain?
A. Yeah. She was -- her name was Lieutenant Ranch, and
she lived in -- down in Granby(?), Connecticut. So I made
more Connecticut --
So here's a dance that [inaudible] and I went to.
Q. Did they have a lot of mingling with men -- was there
any, like -- were you guys segregated or -- was there males
in your boot camp or is it female and male boot camps?
A. Like the major told me one day, he says, "Red,"
because I had the red hair. He says to me, he says,
"There's 250 men on this post, and I bet you know 225."
That's 'cause I worked at the theater.
Q. Who's this right here?
A. That's one of the girls I hung around with. She's
from Texas. And here's -- here's my boys from the
headquarters here. Here.
Q. These are all your boys?
A. They all took me to dinner. We got -- went to the NCO
clubs together all the time, had dances and everything.
I wish I could find it.
Here. That's not me.
Q. That's not you.
A. This girl's from Pennsylvania, I think.
Q. You knew a lot of people. Who's this gentleman right
here? He stands out.
A. That was a kid from Wethersfield. I used to go with
him before I went in the service.
Q. Oh, and he -- did he join the Army, too, or no?
A.
Q. Did you hear anything about him during the war?
A. He worked with my father in the aircraft before he
went in the service.
And this -- this is a fellow I used to go out with a
lot. He came from Detroit.
Q. Oh.
A. But this fellow, I found out he was married, so I said
goodbye.
Here's my brother Bill's wedding. My brother Bob's
wedding.
This girl, she married a fellow. Her name was Eileen
Shebone(?). She married a fellow, became a radio announcer.
These are -- these are -- a lot of things, boy.
Q. Lots of memories behind these photos.
A. Yes.
Q. It looks like -- they seem like yesterday to you?
A. Yeah. I think about them every so often.
Q. You just look at them, and you just have memories
about it?
A. These are my happy memories.
Q. Boy. That's okay. We don't need to see that one.
Just keep going.
A. See this girl here?
Q. That's a gentleman, Gram.
A. Is it? Are you sure it's a girl? No, it isn't.
Q. Any more pictures of you in your uniform?
A. Yeah. I've got some.
Q. Show the world what Gladys Donovan looked like in her
uniform.
Is that you right there?
A. Yep.
Q. Zoom in.
Who's -- can you name any of these people in the
picture with you?
A. No. I can't remember their names now. Where the heck
are the rest of them?
Q. That's not World War II --
A. These are your family. (laughter)
Q. No more of that stuff. We're just focusing on the
World War II photos. Enough of our photos there.
And just a few more.
A. Oh, here they are.
Q. Here we go. This is the -- this is the pictures we
were looking at. This is you? Is that you right there?
A. No. That's Lorraine Day's secretary. Lorraine Day
used to come over. She came to Camp Blanding one day. We
had lunch with her.
Q. Yeah?
A. Yep. See her? This is her secretary here.
Q. Very nice. [inaudible] for our next photos.
A. See, this is how I get -- got to go to all the big
things. I got along good with my guys.
And this is my -- that girl that you saw, that's her.
She married this tech sergeant.
And I'll show you. This is the one everybody used to
say, "Look at her." (laughter)
That was at camp. That's -- that's --
Q. That's all the pictures.
So now we're getting towards the end of your service.
Toward -- do you remember -- what are your fond memories
about V Day -- V Day -- V Day and VE Day? So we'll go with
victory over in Germany and -- victory.
A. Well, V Day -- which was first?
Q. V Day.
A. V Day?
Q. The Normandy beaches.
A. V Day, I was on my way to come home. I was on
approval. And I got stuck in the train in Washington, DC
because they were holding the tracks. They couldn't get
anybody out, and they were -- everybody wanted to get on the
trains and come home.
But VE Day, where was I?
Q. Victory in Europe.
A. I was in camp.
Q. Back in camp?
A. Yeah. And I went to work in the theater. Yeah. Then
after that, we went to the NCO club, and we had a party.
I had a lot of parties.
Q. Okay. How about victory over Japan and then the
Q. These were 1946.
A. I was home.
Q. Truman's -- you were out of the service when -- after
he dropped the bombs?
A. No. No. I came home in February of '46. So you can
take it from there.
Q. So your service ended in February of '46?
A. Yeah.
Q. You went straight home or did you go somewhere else
or --
A. I came right home.
Then I used to go with my father. I met him every
Friday. We used to go to Honiss Oyster House in East -- in
Hartford, and we'd have dinner.
So this day, he says to me, he says, "Hey, Laddie."
He said, "Let's go and have dinner. Then I want to get a
new suit."
So I said, "Okay."
So we go. We get through with our dinner. We're
walking down Pearl Street, and Bond Clothes used to be down
And he said -- well, wait a minute. He said, "Come
on." He said, "We've got to go down here for a few
minutes."
So I said, "Okay."
So he said -- we walked by the VA. It was at 95 Pearl
Street. And he says to me, he says, "You want -- come on
here -- in here for a minute." And he says, "I've got to
see a man."
So I said, "Okay."
"Well, Colonel Sharowski(?) -- Colonel Zwolski, I've
got to see."
So I walked in with him. And he says, "Now you sit
here for a minute. I'm going in to see him."
So he come out in about 10 minutes. "Laddie," he
says, "come on in here with me. This man wants to see you."
So I said, "All right."
So I went in, and he asked me all about, you know,
what I did in the service and everything. And I told him.
And so he says, "How would you like to work here?"
And I says, "Ooh, I'd love to work here."
He says, "Well," he said, "I've got a couple papers
here I want you to fill out and then send to me in, you
know, two weeks."
In two weeks, I had a job at the VA.
Q. That was fast. So you didn't go to -- you didn't take
up the GI Bill and go to college --
A. No.
Q. You went straight to work?
A. No. I left --
Q. Did you want to or --
A. I left the GI Bill for somebody else. I met your
grandfather. (laughter)
Q. Did you -- you had close friend -- any close friend --
you still keep in contact with any friends you were close
friends during the service?
A. No. No. No. Nobody. All of them are dying.
Q. Did you join a veterans organization?
A. I sure did.
Q. Tell us about it.
A. Well, after I met your grandfather -- well, he
belonged to the police department, of course, and anyway, he
was very active with the VFW, so he asked me if I'd want to
join.
And at that time, I wouldn't join because we had three
daughters that I wanted to take care of, and I didn't want
to leave them. So I said, "Well, I will when I'm ready."
So anyway, I joined the VFW auxiliary, and I was a
captain. I was the president about 13 times. And then we
moved to Old Saybrook, and I got in with the Legion, the
American Legion. And I became president, the first and
only -- one lady, first lady in the --
Q. In your post?
A. In my post.
Q. That's a very good accomplishment. Okay.
After being in the service, did it change your outlook
A. Sure did. I told you. I said I don't like the idea
of the -- our boys going over to Europe and fighting that
darn old Iran, and I mean it with all my heart.
Q. And American Legion activities, what did you do in
your post and stuff like that?
A. Well, I went from secretary to commander in --
Q. What does that entail? Like what kind of activities
do you do? Do you, like, set up, like, functions or --
A. Well, I did all kinds of things. (laughter) We had
meetings. And I was the secretary for the meetings. And
then they needed a commander, so they asked me if I would.
And I said sure I'd do it. So I became their first lady
Q. I bet you were lovin' that.
A. Oh, yeah. I had -- I had a great installation. They
brought a drum corps and everything else for my
installation. That was a great thing.
Q. Okay. I see a good question here.
Do you still -- you still attend the reunions,
correct? For, like, all the services, you know --
A. No. I can't get -- there's no more WACs that were
Q. No more?
Q. You're the last one?
A. I'm one of the last ones. Yeah. 85 years old. I
guess I -- yeah.
Q. Okay. Big question. How did being in the service
change and experience your life? [inaudible] positive?
A. It was very positive for me. Very positive. Because
when I went in the service -- and I mean it sincerely. I'll
tell everybody. I didn't know where babies came from. And
it was very hard when I used to have to go to those meetings
we had every Friday afternoon and learn about sex and
everything else. (laughter) But I found out fast.
(laughter)
Q. I'll bet you did.
So you met your husband after the war?
A. Yes.
Q. After war?
A. Yeah. In a base -- basketball suit. (laughter)
Q. So the war was good for him? Do you know? Did he
tell you about his experience?
A. Well, he did a lot of traveling in the service. He
really did. He was in the Coast Guard. And he went up to
Maine, and he went in the ice place, and he went to Long
Island, and then -- he went all over the world. And he
brought fellows hope on the -- the troops and that. Troop
***(?). Troop -- (laughter)
Q. We're pretty much coming to the end. Anything you
want to add that we didn't go over that you want -- future
generations of America can watch this. Anything you want to
let them know about your experiences in the war or to
persuade them or persuade them to join the armed service?
A. Well, I would tell you, it is a very wild education.
It really is. It's everything you make it. That's all I
can say because if you're going to go in the service with
the mind that "Oh, I have to do it. I don't want to do it,
and I'll get killed," it was a tough thing to think about.
And I'll tell you, when I saw those boys coming over --
But my worst, worst story that I can say is I was in
Jacksonville, Florida, getting the train, waiting to come
home on furlough. And I met the sergeant that was taking
care of the boys.
And I said, "Sergeant Stanley," I said, "what are
those nuns doing -- those nurses doing over there?" And I
says, "Are they our nurses?"
And he says, "Yeah."
And I says, "Gee."
He said, "But these -- these four girls were" -- they
were guarded by about eight soldiers, you know.
So I says, "What's going on?"
And he said, "Well, those girls just came back from
South Pacific." And one had two of her legs gone. The
other one had her arm gone. Another one had her eyes gone.
Another one had her ear gone.
And I said, "Did that happen to her?"
And she says -- he says, "Yeah." He says, "That's why
they're going to take them to an Army hospital."
I says, "Oh." I said, "Thank God. My brother was
right." (laughter)
Q. That seems like a good story to end on.
A. Yeah.
Q. I just want to thank you very much, Gladys, for giving
us the time and let us know about your experience in the war
and hope to hear from you again.
A. Oh, yeah. I'd love to. That was a nice luncheon we
had. (laughter) That captain -- what's his name? Your
Professor Tully?