00:00:00WOMEN VETERANS HISTORICAL PROJECT
ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE:Dorothy Collins Sullivan
INTERVIEWER:Hermann J. Trojanowski
DATE:February 9, 2004
[Begin Interview]
HT:Today is Monday, February 9, 2004, and my name is Hermann Trojanowski. I’m at
Walter Clinton Jackson Library on the campus of the of at , conducting a
telephone interview with Mrs. Dorothy Collins Sullivan, who lives in—Mrs.
Sullivan, would you tell me the name of the town that you live in?
DS:It’s Nanuet [], N-a-n-u-e-t.
HT:Okay, thanks. The interview is for the Women Veterans Historical Project at
the university.
First of all, Mrs. Sullivan, again, thank you for agreeing to talk with me this
afternoon. We appreciate it. If you could, tell me a few biographical facts
about yourself. Where were you born?
DS:I was born in , .
HT:And when were you born, please? What was the date of your birth?
DS:November 16, 1916.
HT:Where did you live growing up?
DS:In the Bronx [].
HT:Can you tell me a little bit about your family, such as your maiden name and
a little about your mother and father and any siblings you might have had.
DS:My mother and father was Peter J. Collins and Rose Hogan was my mother’s name.
HT:How do you spell that?
DS:Hogan? H-o-g-a-n.
HT:Okay, good, thanks. What about your brothers and sisters?
DS:I had two brothers and two sisters.
HT:What did your parents do when you were growing up?
DS:What did they do? My mother was a homemaker, and my father was a steelworker.
He worked on buildings.
HT:Where did you go to high school?
DS:I’m trying to think of things. It’s so long ago. It was in the , and I can’t
think of the name of it.
HT:That’s fine. What was it like growing up during the Great Depression?
DS:I didn’t realize it, myself, because I was young during the Depression. It
didn’t really affect me. It affected, you know, the people, people that had
families and all.
HT:After you graduated from high school, did you go to work?
DS:Yes.
HT:Where was that?
DS:That was in the five-and-ten.
HT:Did you live at home at that time?
DS:Yes, I did.
HT:I know you joined the WAAC [Women's Army Auxiliary Corps] in the early days
of the war. What made you decide to join this particular branch of the service?
DS:They had up posters that they needed women, and I joined.
HT:Do you recall exactly why you joined? Did you have any brothers or other
sisters who might have joined the service?
DS:My brothers were in, my two brothers.
HT:Was your father in the military?
DS:No, my father died when I was young, when I was eighteen.
HT:So he wasn’t in World War I or anything like that.
DS:No.
HT:Now, did you have to have your mother’s signature in order to join the service?
DS:No.
HT:Do you recall where you enlisted?
DS:It was in . I can’t think of the name of the street, the street there. I
can’t think of it now. It’s too long ago.
HT:Did you have to take some sort of test?
DS:No.
HT:Written or physical or anything like that?
DS:No, we had the physical, but nothing—you know, to be sure that we were all
right to go into the service. They had physicals.
HT:When we talked earlier, I think in 2000, you mentioned that you joined on
March 27, 1943. Is that the best you remember?
DS:Yes.
HT:At that time, there were quite a few posters, recruiting posters that
mentioned that women who joined could free a man for combat.
DS:Right.
HT:So you do remember seeing those posters.
DS:Oh yes.
HT:What were your feelings about perhaps freeing a man for combat?
DS:Well, I think it was something the men wanted. They didn’t want to be sitting
behind a desk when they could be out there fighting the war. I think the men
wanted to be in it. They didn’t want to be sitting behind a desk.
HT:Do you recall what your family and friends and neighbors, co-workers, felt
about your joining the WAACs?
DS:They were all for it.
HT:What about people in general? Do you recall what people in general thought
about women who joined the military?
DS:I really don’t know. I never asked anybody.
HT:But I guess that sort of made you feel good that your family was in favor
that you joined.
DS:Right, right. Well, I wasn’t going into combat, I was just going to be at a
desk, you know. I wouldn’t be hurt, and I wouldn’t be in the war. So I’d just be
part of it, but not in it, so to speak.
HT:When you first joined up, did you, by any chance, join with friends, or did
you go by yourself?
DS:Oh, I joined with a friend.
HT:Do you recall what her name was?
DS:Yes, Josephine Walz, W-a-l-z.
HT:Josephine Walz. Did you go into basic training together and that sort of thing?
DS:No, she was in before I was.
HT:Speaking of basic training, after you were sworn in, do you recall where you
went for basic training?
DS:.
HT:Was this the first time that you’d ever been south of the Mason-Dixon Line?
DS:Yes.
HT:What did you think of ?
DS:I liked it. It was very friendly, nice.
HT:Of course, being March or April, I guess it was much warmer in than it was in
at that time.
DS:Yes, right.
HT:Can you tell me a little bit about your first days of basic training. Do you
have any memories of what that was like?
DS:No, it was just exercise and marching and things like that. Just a little bit
at a time they gave us—made us exercise. Then we went to classes to learn all
about the military and what it was all about.
HT:How long did basic training last?
DS:About three weeks.
HT:What were your thoughts about the lack of privacy and food and the uniform?
DS:I didn’t even think about it. It was just—we were all in it together, you
know. It was just like having sisters.
HT:After you left basic training at , where did you go next?
DS:I went to .
HT:What town is that near, do you recall?
DS:? I don’t know really. . .
HT:What kind of work did you do at ?
DS:I was in the mail room. I was a mail clerk.
HT:Did you receive special training to be a mail clerk?
DS:No. No.
HT:So you didn’t have any kind of special training, either in basic or at . They
just placed you in the mail room and, I guess, gave you sort of on-the-job type training.
DS:Right. Right, everything for the mail, we did everything, outgoing and
incoming mail.
HT:Did you have your choice, or could you choose kind of what you wanted to go into?
DS:No.
HT:You were just assigned that.
DS:Yes. Some people, I guess, they had abilities to do other things, like flying
or whatever, and motor pools and all things like that.
HT:Tell me about the work that you did in the mail room. What was a typical day
like for you, do you recall?
DS:Oh, it was just sorting out the mails into the different areas with the
people, all the different—what would you call it? I can’t think of the name of
it. But to each unit, we would sort the mail out and send that to them, and they
would send a mailman, a mail orderly to come and pick up their mail for each
unit out in the field.
HT:Did you work night shift, day shift?
DS:It was around the clock.
HT:Around the clock. But you didn’t put in more than eight hours a day, did you?
DS:No. No.
HT:Do you recall how long you were at ?
DS:About a year.
HT:You were in the post office the entire time?
DS:Yes.
HT:After a year, where did you go?
DS:I went overseas to .
HT:Did you receive any kind of special training?
DS:Yes, they have a training camp for overseas in . We went back to , and then
went for the training there.
HT:Did that last several weeks?
DS:Not too long, no.
HT:What was the special training like?
DS:Well, it’s hard to remember back that far. It was how to get along with
people from other countries, you know. How to—about the money and their
different ways and everything and how to approach them. That was about it.
HT:Then you said you went to . Do you, by any chance, recall when that was?
DS:When? No, I can’t really.
HT:I think you mentioned before that in you were stationed at Sutton Coldfield,
is that correct?
DS:Sutton Coldfield, yes.
HT:How long were you there?
DS:I was there for about a year, and then I went to .
HT:What did you think of ?
DS:Oh, I liked . Very nice. The people were very friendly. It was very damp and
all that, because they have a lot of rainy seasons over there, but it was good.
I didn’t mind.
HT:What type of work did you do in ?
DS:I was a mail clerk.
HT:I assume you did similar type duties that you had done in the States, except
it was overseas.
DS:Yes. Incoming and outgoing mail, and for people who were missing in action or
killed in action, we could separate them from those who are out in the field.
HT:When you were in , what was a typical day like? You say you worked, I’m
assuming, all day in the mail room. Then after that, what—
DS:We went back to camp and did whatever we had to do, you know; laundry or just
write letters, things like that.
HT:Did you have any kind of social life when you were overseas?
DS:Well, we could go into town, and there were USOs [United Service
Organization] over there. We’d go there, and you could write letters, and they
had something to eat. You meet other friends, and they had dancing. It was very nice.
HT:Well, it sounds like you really enjoyed the work and being overseas.
DS:Oh yes, yes. I have only good memories.
HT:How were you and the other women treated by the men who did similar type work
in the army?
DS:The men were very nice. At first they didn’t like the idea, but then they got
used to us, and saw that we were there to work and not play, but we were there
to do the job. They worked with us, and they were very nice.
HT:So you never encountered any kind of discrimination because you were a woman?
DS:No. No.
HT:I know there were some black WAAC units who worked in the mail area.
DS:I never saw them. I think they were separated from the white WAACs and the
others. They had their own area where they were all together.
HT:I think you mentioned in our previous conversation that you had a friend who
was a Navajo Indian.
DS:Yes.
HT:Now, was she with you overseas or was she—
DS:Well, yes. She went overseas when I did. We were in together.
HT:And she was with you in as well?
DS:Right. I think I gave you a picture.
HT:Yes.
DS:And you can return it to me, I hope.
HT:Right. I’m getting a copy made as we speak.
DS:Good. Okay.
HT:That should be ready, hopefully, sometime next week.
DS:Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
HT:I think you said that she had died.
DS:Yes, she did. She was in a car accident. She went through all the war, and
she goes home, and she was coming home from work, and her car went out of
control. They didn’t find her till a couple of days later, and it was freezing
weather, so she just died in the cold.
HT:So black women were separated from the general WAAC population, but Native
Americans were not.
DS:I didn’t hear.
HT:Navajo Indians were not separated like the black women.
DS:No, no. No.
HT:Do you recall, were there any Chinese American or Japanese American women in
any of the—
DS:No, I don’t recall any of them.
HT:Well, they were so few and far between.
DS:Yes, I don’t even know if they were ever in there, to tell you the truth. I
never did see one, now that you mention it. But then, we were in one spot, more
or less. We weren’t going around, no. I went to the camp for training, and then
I went to for the mail room. Other than that, I didn’t see anything.
HT:Now, when you were overseas did you write letters home to your family?
DS:Oh yes. Well, they had e-mail then—E-mail; not E-mail, V-Mail. E-mail. [Laughs]
HT:V-Mail, right.
DS:We could write them. Every day I used to write to my mother.
HT:What was it like to be separated from your family for such a long period of time?
DS:It was hard. It was hard. But when you can write, and they write to you, and
they send you packages, it’s just like you’re together, you know. They accepted
it, and we just got along with it fine.
HT:After you left , you said you went to for a little while.
DS:Right, yes.
HT:Do you recall how long you were in ?
DS:About six months, because I had to go home on an emergency furlough. My
mother was sick, and they sent me home, so I went home before the war was over.
HT:What type of work did you do in ?
DS:The same thing; the mail.
HT:I think you said you were in [unclear].
DS:What?
HT:What was the name of the place in where you were?
DS:Where I was stationed? It was called . Capital V-i-t-r-y, capital S-u-r,
capital S-e-i-n-e. .
HT:Is that near ?
DS:Yes. It’s about six, seven miles from —from .
HT:Did you ever get the opportunity to go into ?
DS:Yes, they had a bus that took us in every day.
HT:Did you see the sights and—
DS:Oh yes, visited the and the Arc de Triomphe and all that.
HT:I guess you went in with girlfriends to different things—
DS:Yes.
HT:—to parties and that sort of thing.
DS:No parties. [Laughs]
HT:No parties?
DS:No. I went dancing. You know, they had the USO, and then Paris, and that’s
where we went, dancing. But parties, I don’t remember parties, to tell you the
truth. I was just glad after getting out of the post office to go dancing, and
that’s what we did.
HT:You mentioned that you went to USO shows and that sort of thing. Do you
recall any important people like, say, Bob Hope or somebody like that who might
have come by for entertainment?
DS:Bob Hope was there, but there was another woman there, and I can’t remember
her name, but she was flying over to go to the USO and to the troops and that.
She was in a plane crash, and she got well, and then she came by to the USO on
crutches to sing for us. I can’t think of her name. It just went out of my head.
HT:Right. Oh, I think you mentioned in our previous conversation, it was Jane Froman.
DS:That’s who it was. Jane Froman. Gosh. [Laughs] Right.
HT:I’d never heard of her, so she was just a—
DS:I know. That’s going back. [Laughs]
HT:I’m assuming she was not a movie star; she was just a USO singer.
DS:No, she was a singer, but she went with the USO to entertain the troops. But
she was a singer, Jane Froman. If you go back, you’ll find her. I think she was
even in the movies.
HT:You said you had to go home on sort of emergency leave, because your mother
was sick. How did you get back to the ?
DS:They flew me back.
HT:Did you leave the service at that time?
DS:No, it was just before I was ready to go back that there was VE Day and VJ
Day. Both wars were over at the same time, around the same time, so I didn’t
have to go back. I could leave the service then and [unclear].
HT:I see. If we can backtrack for just a minute, how did you get to ? Did you
fly over, or did you—
DS:No, we went by—in fact, we went on the [HMS] Queen Elizabeth.
HT:That’s the ocean liner.
DS:Right.
HT:Was it the Queen Elizabeth or the [HMS] Queen Mary?
DS:Queen Elizabeth.
HT:What was it like being on an ocean liner?
DS:Well, once in a while we got up to the deck for—what do you call it—breathing
space or whatever, just relaxation, and then we’d go back down. We were down in
the keel of the boat. It went all the way down, and that’s where we had a cabin.
You know, most of us had cabins, and there were three or four of us in one cabin.
HT:Were they spacious cabins or rather cramped?
DS:No, they weren’t cramped, no.
HT:What did you think of being on the ocean? Did you get seasick or—
DS:Well, I wasn’t, but I stayed in my cabin. Then I bought candy, and I just
stayed there, because I was afraid of getting seasick, you know. That’s how I
went over there then, just in the cabin. I didn’t leave the cabin. I just bought
candy and stayed there, and people brought me food.
HT:So you say you hardly ever left the cabin at all then.
DS:Right.
HT:Were there any personalities aboard ship, or was it just a troop ship?
DS:I’m trying—what’s his name, the fighter, boxer. What’s his name?
HT:I think you meant Joe Louis.
DS:Joe Louis, yes, he was on.
HT:So were there other civilians aboard or—
DS:Not that I know of. I really don’t know.
HT:Then once you got to , I guess you took the train to—
DS:No, they took us by transport. They took trucks and brought us to—well, now I
forget the name of the place. It’s such a long time ago. But they brought us
into town and put us in the post office.
HT:Now, how did you get from to ? There again, I guess it was by some sort of a
ship or boat, is that correct?
DS:We went by plane.
HT:What was the hardest thing you ever had to do, physically, while you were in
the military?
DS:Nothing, really. Nothing that I can think of that would stand out in my mind,
you know.
HT:There was nothing difficult about basic training.
DS:Nothing, no. I enjoyed it. [Laughter]
HT:What about what was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do emotionally while
you were in the military?
DS:Nothing that I can think of offhand, really. Everything went smoothly.
HT:Do you ever recall being afraid?
DS:No.
HT:Were you ever in any kind of physical danger?
DS:None. We were very far from , and was getting blitzed by the bombs from that
were coming over there. I forget what they called them, B-bombs or V-bombs or
something. Those landed in .
HT:But you were far enough out in the country that you didn’t—
DS:I was too far. I was sent too far, a central part, and the bombs were in .
That was, you know, down by the [English] Channel.
HT:Do you ever recall any embarrassing moments.
DS:No, no. Thank God, no.
HT:What about humorous stories? Did anything funny happen to you or your friends that—
DS:[unclear] that, no, really. We just worked most of the time. That’s what we
did, worked and went home and slept or wrote letters or went into town and went
to the USO. That was about it. There wasn’t much you could do. It was wartime,
you know.
HT:What did you think of your uniform that you had?
DS:Oh, that was good, fine. We had a dress that they gave us so we could wear it
to go out and take the uniforms off and socialize. Go out in the dresses and go
to USO or wherever, in town, go shopping. Other than that, we did have to wear
our uniforms on when we worked or for parades and anything like that.
HT:So the only time you had to wear a uniform was when you were at work or on
parade. So otherwise you could wear civilian clothes.
DS:No, only what they gave us.
HT:Oh, and you said that was—
DS:They gave us a dress that we could wear. It was an army color and all, you
know. But that was it. I don’t know when they started the—when you could go
without uniforms in regular clothes. That I don’t remember.
HT:Do you recall what types of off-duty recreation—you mentioned earlier that
you went to USO shows and that sort of thing. What other types of recreation did
the military—
DS:There really wasn’t anything, except a movie. That’s about it. They had the
recreation room on base where you could go and write letters or talk to friends
and socialize. Other than that, there wasn’t much you could do. It was wartime,
and we had to—we mostly stayed around the base.
HT:What was the food like?
DS:What? Oh, the food was very good. We had good food, especially overseas, when
we had the best.
HT:I guess in you got even better food than you did in .
DS:No. No, both were very good, what we had over in and , because it was sent
from the States, you know.
HT:Oh, so you didn’t eat the local food.
DS:No, no. No, this was all army stuff.
HT:So the army cooked it and that sort of thing then.
DS:Yes. And we had the steak. We had the best. [Laughter] We had better than
what they had at home.
HT:That’s amazing.
DS:Well, the people sacrificed back home so we could have it.
HT:Yes, that is so true. Well, I remember you showed me photographs of huge
rooms just full of mailbags and that sort of thing.
DS:Oh yes. Oh yes. [Laughs]
HT:That must have been almost overwhelming at times.
DS:Oh, it was great. We enjoyed it. We were getting the mail out to our GIs that
were out in the field that were not hearing from their families, and all of a
sudden they were getting all this mail that they hadn’t been receiving because
they didn’t have enough mail clerks in the post office. This way they put the
women in there, and we went to work on it and got the mail out.
HT:Now, did you work on mail coming from the going to the GIs?
DS:Yes, right.
HT:But did they have other women who worked on mail coming from the GIs going to
the , or did—
DS:Well, that came in to us, too.
HT:Oh, so it went both ways.
DS:Yes.
HT:The mail went both ways. I see. You mentioned earlier in the conversation
about V-Mail. Could you describe what that was exactly?
DS:The V-Mail? It was an envelope, an open envelope. You wrote what you wanted
inside, and you sealed it and mailed it out, and it was free. It just went right through.
HT:So it was on regular paper.
DS:Yes. You know what an envelope looks like? Well, you just open an envelope.
That’s what the V-Mail looked like. And you wrote in it, and then you sealed it
up, and it was free to mail, so you just mailed it out.
HT:You had mentioned earlier that you were home with your mother during VE Day
and VJ Day. Do you recall what that was like? What was the mood of the country when—
DS:Oh. Oh, it was—oh. We went down to , . It was wild. It was just great.
HT:Which was the better, VJ or VE Day?
DS:Well, they were both close together. Right after VE Day, then was VJ Day.
They were close together, so we celebrated them both, and it was great. I think
they have pictures of that day in the news files back then of what it looked like.
HT:You said that since the war had ended, you decided not to go back—
DS:No. Well, they didn’t want us to go back. It was over over there. There was
certainly no point in us going back. If anybody wanted to stay there, they
could, to finish up whatever needed to be done over there, but we didn’t need to
go back at all. So I went to [] and was discharged from .
HT:How long were you at ?
DS:Oh, not very long. About ten days.
HT:So it was just enough time to process through the various paperworks and that
sort of thing.
DS:Right, exactly. Yes.
HT:What was your rank when you were discharged?
DS:Oh, it felt odd.
HT:I beg your pardon?
DS:It felt odd to be a civilian again. You’re free, and you can go anywhere and
do anything you want. No rules.
HT:What was your rank when you—
DS:Pfc.
HT:Private first class. That was the highest rank that you obtained.
DS:Yes.
HT:What impact did the military have on your life immediately after you got out
of the service?
DS:Well, I can’t really recall that—I went back to work. The job that I had, I
was able to go back to that work, and just filled it; you know, fitted in again
with everybody.
HT:Where did you go back to work?
DS:It was called the American Bank Note [Company]. They made money over there
for foreign countries. I was what they called a counter. I counted the sheets
and then the money that was processed and printed.
HT:Did they hold your job while you were gone?
DS:Yes.
HT:I assume that somebody else did the work while you were gone.
DS:Oh yes.
HT:Then when you came back—
DS:Yes, my job was there.
HT:It was still there. That was nice. That was really nice. So there really was
very little impact, it sounds like, on your life from having been in the
military. What about the long term? Did your life change because you had been in
the service?
DS:No, not really. I got right back into civilian life. It was easy.
HT:I know I’ve talked to some women who said that it took them about six months
to adjust.
DS:No. Well, I was home before that, you know, so I had time while I was in uniform—
HT:Yes, right. That’s right.
DS:—to get adjusted. It’s true, I didn’t have to go through that, and other
people did. You’re right.
HT:Plus, I’m assuming you were probably real concerned about your mother, so
that took your mind off having been in the military and adjusting and that sort
of thing.
DS:Yes, right. [Laughs]
HT:Well, did you ever think about making the military your career, a career?
DS:No. No.
HT:Do you recall, were you encouraged to return to the traditional female role?
DS:Oh yes. Going back to my dancing. [Laughter]
HT:If you had to do it over again, would you join the military?
DS:Oh yes.
HT:It sounds like you had a very nice time.
DS:I really enjoyed being there, being able to do something, you know, not just
home and read about it. I just was able to be there and do something to help.
That’s why I felt I was a help to get the war over with.
HT:Can you describe your adjustment to civilian life after you got out of the military?
DS:Well, it takes a while, you know, but I did it. You know, it just happened. I
didn’t think about it or anything. I just—as if I never left, you know what I mean?
HT:Yes. Do you recall what the mood of the country was like during World War II?
DS:During the war? Well, everybody wanted to do something. They wanted to do
something to help end the war, and everybody did their own thing, as they could.
Some people couldn’t join the service, or they did something that could help the
service. They sent—what do they call them, packages—they sent packages to the
USO to give to people who didn’t have anybody, writing to them, or like that.
There were some that just were drafted and nobody wrote to them, or things like that.
HT:Whom did you admire and respect a great deal, other than your family members?
Who were your heroes and heroines at that time?
DS:Well, I think—what’s her name, that woman that came to sing. Oh, what’s the
name again? You said it.
HT:Jane, Jane Froman?
DS:Jane Froman and Bob Hope, God bless him. He did a lot for the GIs out there
in the field. He went right out there with them, him and Jack Benny and others.
They went there out to the—to give them some kind of entertainment and let me
them know that people at home weren’t forgetting them, you know.
HT:Yes. And what about the president [Franklin D. Roosevelt] and Mrs. [Eleanor]
? What were your thoughts about them?
DS:Well, they were fine. They did everything they could for the GIs, and
Eleanor, I thought, did exceptionally well, doing for the people and the
president, too. He was a sick man at the time, and he did the best he could,
encouraged our people.
HT:Do you recall where you were when President Roosevelt died?
DS:No, I don’t.
HT:What about President Harry [S.] Truman?
DS:I don’t really know much about Mr. Truman.
HT:While you were in the military, did you ever, by any chance, meet any of the
top brass from the WAACs, like Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby?
DS:No, I never did meet her. She was at a parade I was in one time when she was
there. And President Roosevelt came to , where we were training. My unit and
another unit was there to escort his car onto the parade ground, and then we all
went back to where we were supposed to, and he came around in his car and
inspected the troops, the women. Then he left. That was one thing I can be sure
of, President Roosevelt, he came to us to view the WAACs. At that time, it was
the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.
HT:Because you joined the WAAC, and then it became the WAC [Women’s Army Corps]
while you were in the service, is that correct?
DS:Right, exactly. You had to be sworn in again. If you didn’t want to go into
the WAC, you could leave and get an honorable discharge. But I stayed, and I was
sworn in again, and I stayed until the war was over—until I came home.
HT:Do you consider yourself to be an independent person?
DS:Me? Yes, I am. [Laughs]
HT:Did the military make you that way?
DS:No.
HT:So you were always that way.
DS:Right. [Laughter]
HT:I think most of the ladies I’ve spoken with—
DS:Well, we lost my father at a very young age. I was eighteen, and I had to
help my mother, because she had three young children, and I had another brother.
I would sort of help out. I worked and helped out. So when you’re young and it’s
Depression time, everything helps.
HT:Yes, I’m sure of that. Now, you said you had a younger brother [who] was in
the military?
DS:My older brother was in the military.
HT:Your older brother, I see.
DS:He was in the air force, and my younger brother was in the submarines.
HT:Do you recall how long they were in the service?
DS:Well, my elder brother, I guess two and a half years. My younger brother was
less than that; about a year and a half.
HT:You said you were quite independent even before you went into the service.
Would you consider, since you were one of the first women to join the military
during war, do you consider yourself to be a pioneer or a trailblazer?
DS:No, no. [Laughs]
HT:Because many women did not join at that time.
DS:Well, some of the parents wouldn’t let them or whatever, you know. There were
reasons why some of them couldn’t go in. Not that they didn’t want to, but, you know.
HT:Do you consider yourself to be a feminist?
DS:Yes.
HT:Have any of your children been in the military?
DS:No. My two sons were. My oldest son was in the army, and my second eldest son
was in the navy.
HT:Do you think you having been in the military had any bearing on them joining?
DS:No, no.
HT:What about your husband? Was he in—
DS:In the army, yes.
HT:In the army, as well, then. What did he do while in the army?
DS:I can’t think of it now, but he was up in . What they did up there, he did—he
went to from . I can’t remember the kind of work he did, but it was in the motor pool.
HT:So you got out in, I think you said, September of 1945.
DS:Yes.
HT:When did he leave the service?
DS:When did he? We come out at the same time.
HT:I see. Then you got married sometime in the next year or so?
DS:Yes, a few months later.
HT:Was he someone you knew from—
DS:I knew him before the war, yes. Well, we corresponded all during the war.
HT:I see. That, I’m sure, made it easier on both of you. That probably made it
easier on both of you to receive letters and that sort of thing.
DS:Right, right.
HT:After you got out, you went back to live at home or did you—
DS:Yes, I went back home, and I went back to the job I left, and worked until I
got married.
HT:Then where did you live?
DS:Well, we moved up to the , where I lived; .
HT:?
DS:Yes.
HT:That’s spelled R-a-n-d—
DS:—a-l-l.
HT:, okay. The last time I interviewed you, of course, you lived in . When did
you move to ?
DS:Oh, gosh, I’m trying to think now. I can’t remember. It was around late
seventies, ’77, ’78, something like that.
HT:I assume you and your husband retired there.
DS:Yes.
HT:When you were overseas in and in , did you take any trips, sightseeing and
that sort of thing?
DS:I went to .
HT:What was that like?
DS:Oh, it was lovely. People were very nice up there. We took pictures. It was
wonderful. People were very friendly, and it was something different. I went to
the , one of the big halls, the kind of castle, and we visited that. We had
luncheon there, and it was very nice. We got to see different things.
HT:Did you do any day trips into or—
DS:We went to once. After the bombing stopped, we were able—we were given passes
to go to see . was like , . It was really something to see. But there was a lot
of bombings there, so there was a lot of buildings that were down from the
bombs. But at least we got to see it.
HT:What about when you were in ? You mentioned earlier that you did go into .
DS:Yes.
HT:But did you get a chance to go anywhere else other than while you were there?
DS:No. Well, I had to come home on the furlough, on emergency.
HT:Right. Now, you mentioned your friend. I think her name was Catherine Dickson [?].
DS:Who? Oh yes, Catherine.
HT:How long did you know her?
DS:Oh, we were in basic training.
HT:Then she went overseas with you.
DS:Yes. That was voluntary. They asked for volunteers.
HT:Well, Mrs. Sullivan, I don’t have any more formal questions to ask. Do you
have anything else you want to add to the interview?
DS:Nothing I can think of, honestly. It was so long ago.
HT:It has been a long time, hasn’t it.
DS:Yes.
HT:Well, I really appreciate your talking with today, and as I mentioned
earlier, I’ll get the photographs up to you as soon as I get them from the photographer.
DS:Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
HT:Well, again, thank you so much.
DS:You’re welcome.
HT:Good talking to you again.
DS:You, too.
HT:Okay, bye-bye.
DS:Bye-bye.
[End of Interview]
00:05:00
