Funding for this program was made possibl by WQED members, the Allegheny Regional Asset Distric and the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Thank you.

We were mad and we wanted to do something to join the Navy at 20.

I had to have my parents permission.

My mother didn't want me to go.

Wanted to see the world.

Did you jump out of plane?

Oh, a lot of times.

They serve their country.

During World War two, it was a time women were needed.

But not always wanted.

Girls don't go to war.

I heard remarks as I walk by.

Girls don't fly.

But they did rise above.

And these are their stories of challenge.

They hadn't been around.

Black people.

Intrigue.

My job was to break the code that the Germans were sending to the U-boat.

And bravery.

I took the oath to defend the and serve the Dutch to see the United States.

Stories of Pittsburgh women in World War two.

You're in the Army now.

When I wa 20, I decided to join the Navy because all of the exciting important things were happening somewhere else.

I was assigned to work in the black hospital there.

I had two hospitals in Fort Huachuca.

One was so quiet, and one was that.

I was in the Navy and I was a mailman.

That was an emergency rating during the war.

My main thing, I think it was nice.

Good experience and life.

Everybody will have an experience.

The Army is a good experience.

Early Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Immediately the United States declared war on Japan.

Then a few days later declared war on Japan's allies, Germany and Italy.

With the war effort on men between the ages of 18 and 38 were called to fight.

But soon, because of the demands of fighting on two fronts Europe and the Pacific, there was a shortage of GIS in the field.

Women began asking, what about us?

Why?

In May 1942, Congress passed a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, or WAAC.

Then later, with a little urging from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the other service branches developed their women's divisions too.

The idea was woman was trained for a desk job to replace a man for combat.

60,000 wome signed up within the year, but these women did not have full military status.

It took another congressional bill to give service women full military status.

That's when the Women Army Auxiliary Corps dropped the word auxiliary.

Changing the acronym from WAAC to WAC.

It's for the Navy, Its WAVE which means women accepte for voluntary emergency service.

Sally Stevenson grew up in a small town along the Monongahela River called Bunola.

In 1942, Sally was ready to sign up to join the Navy at 20.

I had to have my parents permission.

I lived with my grandparents.

My mother didn't want me to go.

And my grandfather didn't want me to go.

But my grandmother was very supportive.

So my mother finally signed, but she seemed to feel that I might be being sold into a house of ill repute or something.

At that time, there was a negative image of women who joined the service.

Some thought female soldiers were there to keep the men happy.

Some people in the public felt we were, oh, you know, women of ill repute or something.

It became a serious thing.

And Mrs.

Roosevelt had, the FBI investigated because they though it might be German propaganda.

But it turned out it was the, American GIS starting the stories.

They were kind of scandalous stories.

And I saw some of that.

Occasionall I heard remarks as I walked by.

But you had to learn to ignore it.

You couldn't do anything about it.

Specialist second class Stevenson was a link train operator teaching instruments flying to Navy pilots.

I was fortunate in being accepted as a link trainer operator.

It was one of the glamour jobs in the Navy because it taught an instrument flying to islands.

And so many people wanted to do that.

What we did, we sat at a des and there was a small airplane.

We put the pilot into that plane, close the hood.

So he was flying blind.

Then w sat at a desk with earphones on and set up a problem for him to fly and gave him audi signal for him to find his way back to the base.

There were many reasons why women enlisted.

Some had brothers, sons or husbands in the service and wanted to do their part too.

Others saw the service as an opportunity that led to a better life.

I couldn't stay in that position for the rest of my life.

See, I lived on Pride Street and in 42.

It was difficult for everything.

The only good part.

But I didn't know I was for where were you.

You're on the end.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Even Turne was living in the Hill district when she entered the Women's Army Corps in 1942.

She says basic training was tough.

I didn't like the gas chamber when I was in training.

I would exchange jumping at the plane if they would take my turn to take my trip to the gas chambers, because I didn't like the gas chambers.

I'd always hold my breath.

And then when I come out, I go, oh, then I would.

I would take the air.

Did you jump out of plane?

Oh, lots of time.

She stayed in the corps for three years.

She was a staff sergeant and taught the women troops how to launch.

I've done.

I'm sorry.

Do you think I should raise breast?

I'm goin to send the shimmies, actually.

But we don't know what that is.

And I said, what's this?

And you stand there till I say come to.

Till I say at ease or tension.

Then you could.

The rest is at ease.

Then you go like that.

Attention!

At ease.

Then I say parade, right Like that.

I just thin it was the mood of the country.

I mean, we were ma and we wanted to do something.

I wa still a senior in high school.

Eleanor Berg was 18 and still in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Both of her brothers were already serving.

So when she turned 20, she thought, it's her turn.

I originally went down to join the Marines, but their quota was filled, so I went across the hall and joined the Navy.

Eleanor went to Hunter Colleg in New York for basic training.

When she arrived, she said the Navy wasn't quite ready.

They didn't have our uniform.

We got our shoes and our stockings.

We didn't get our coach because I remember some of the girls with their flat black shoes and fur coats marching.

You know, we started drills right away, and eventually we got our uniforms.

We had to learn how to make a bed the right, the Navy way.

The spreads were had lines in them and Navy written across.

And that Navy better be in the middle of the bed and the stripes just better be straight.

So I think for the first couple of nights, we slept on top of the bed so we wouldn't have to make it.

This is the fleet records Office, just a section of it.

Eleano was stationed in San Francisco.

She worked at the Fleet Post Office, sorting mail and always re addressing letters to sailors because they were always changing ships.

Many people would address the letter.

John Joan, United State Navy, Kierra fleet post office.

Well, I have a picture there.

We were in what they called tabs, and we had a card for every man in the service.

So we had to look through John Jones and try to maybe look at the return address or find out what state they were from.

And forward the mail for Eleanor.

Things really got interesting when she worke for a short time in Parcel Post.

People sent things like maybe a little wine and they had it in a, you know, hair tonic bottle or something.

And we were supposed to confiscate those.

And I think the men thought of.

Wrap that up and shipped it off.

After serving two years, mailman second Class Eleanor Burge went home to Overbrook.

Being a wave changed her life.

You grow up and you, you have different sense of values, too.

You appreciate what you have and you appreciate the people having been in the service, you appreciated those that served.

More than 400,000 women served in World War Two, almost all of the stationed in the United States.

Waves, Spars and women Marines were restricted from overseas assignments.

The exceptions nurses in WACs.

They served overseas throughout the war.

Look at that.

You kept this all this time, Can you still fit in?

Lillian Lasalle was among them.

As a professional nurse, she joined the Women's Army Corps in 1942.

I had an uncle who was in World War one, and, he talked about it, and he always said the nurses were so great in the World War one and so nice to them that I always though that if there was another war, I would be a nurse and go serve in the army.

Lily wanted to see the world, too.

So after a stint at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, she was sent to the Pacific.

I went to, China, Burma, near theater.

They set up, hospital Station hospital, 335th Station Hospital.

And that was an all African American, hospital.

All the personnel were Afro-Americans, officers and everyone.

These are some of the hospital corps sent here to as an African American woman, even faced the same discriminatio in the service as she did out.

Sometimes they were surprised.

And, they hadn't been around black people.

I remember seeing one that he looked around and kind of seemed kind of frightened that I was, you know, but, I gave him good care, and he got to be, adjusted to having that black nurse come to take care of him.

Now, I've heard stories about the the blood supply being segregated.

Is that true?

Yes.

It was marked with the day and blood supplies and marked with an A, and I think that that African-Americans not like that.

But in my commanding officer, we got all kinds of patients who refused to have a segregated area.

And he said any person who needed care in that area, white, black would come to 335th Station Hospital.

He insisted on that.

And and another thing we we insisted on tha we weren't taking a rest leaves unless we could go where everyone else went.

We refuse to be segregated and go to other areas.

So we felt that we, didn't have discrimination any more, we could go where everybody else went.

Then.

On August 15th, 1945, V-J day victory over Japan signaled the end of World War Two and most immediately, wome who served were told to go home.

Did you want to stay in?

Yes.

I was anticipating in going someplace else and I wanted to see the world.

So they wrote me a letter and told me.

Enjoy your time to leave, Lieutenant.

And the kind of let I get into your terminal leave, Lieutenant.

So I had to enjoy my terminal leave.

The schools were eager to get students at that time, and they accepted me.

I had three years under the GI Bill.

It was toug because I'd been out of school.

We got married in 1946.

Christmas Day had our daughter, and when she was three years old, I decided to use the GI Bill and I started to California.

It was then California State College.

By the end of World War Two it was acknowledged that women served with they earn Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and legions of Merit.

Some were prisoners of war and some even died for their country.

Evil Lily Eleanor and Sally all agreed they would do it again.

It was just an experience where you met new people saw a new thing.

It came.

I felt much more tolerant of other people.

I'd come from a town of about 500 people, and this was just an amazing experience.

I watched birds, I watched plays fly.

I watched the mail pick up.

Sunday.

We'd go to the airport watching airplanes.

Well, that was fun.

A dream.

For Florence Shutsy Reynolds of Connersville.

Flying was her dream from a very young age.

When I learned to read that, I start reading it recently.

Got aviation.

And then when they were about seven years old, my dad said to my sister, my two brothers, what are you going to be?

And I said, I wanna learn how to fly.

They all laughed, and I kno I am going to learn how to fly.

So Florence signed up first, taking the ground course, learning navigation, weather and regulations.

Then when she was finished with that, she took the written examination.

Florence was told the top five scores would receive a scholarship for flight training, with a promise one would go to a woman.

They came out in the first.

In the first five.

Scholarship was mine.

That's how I learned how to fly.

But before I could go to the airport and start my flying lessons, I said that day to day there's going to be a war.

We're probably gonna be involved in it.

Girls don't fly.

Girls don't go to war.

We're going to give it to the next guy that was up for six.

I fought him.

I fought tooth and nail.

Florence got her flying lessons at age 18.

She earned her pilot's license.

Then World War two started.

Then were going off to fight, and women were asked to quote Men the home front.

It wasn't long before Florence got a telegram from the military.

A group was being formed called WASP, which stood for Women Airforce Service Pilots, and they were looking for licensed female pilots to train and fly military aircraft.

The telegram told Florence to report to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

I got off the bus.

They said, light up.

Raise your right hand.

And I took the oath to defend and serve the Constitution.

United States.

The officer who gave the oath said, you're in the army now.

I said, I thought I was.

You're in the army.

More than a thousand women served as Air Force service pilots during World War Two.

They were deployed in the U.S.

to free up more male pilots to be sent on overseas combat missions.

These women pilots transporte personnel and tested airplanes.

Though Florence knew how to fly, she had to learn to fly the military way.

Getting 560 hours in ground school and logging 210 hours in fligh training was a six month course.

We were taught fly across country.

Not all made i through the rigorous training, but in the 40s it seemed unheard of.

A woman flying a plane, let alone a military plane.

But these women did it.

And they were paid too.

While he traded, got $150 a month.

When we graduated, we got $250 a month.

No insurance.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots were civilian support corps and therefore not accorded any military benefits.

If Florence got sick, she paid her own medical expenses.

No death benefits either.

After training in Avenger Field, they were assigned to numerous military bases around the country.

When the war ended, the men were coming home, taking back the jobs women were doing.

Florence found herself grounded.

There was no jobs available.

There was a lot of the military pilots coming back.

Men, the jobs are open to them.

We applied to the airline.

They said, well, we'll give you a job as a stewardess, but not in the cockpit.

In 1977, 33 years later, women Air Force servic pilots were finally recognized.

Congress granted the corps full military status, and in 2010, 300 surviving veterans came to the U.S.

Capitol to accept the Congressional Gold Medal.

I had a dream, and I realized the dream.

I realized my dream very early in life.

I was in the 12th grade.

That's when the war broke out in 1941, and things changed.

It changed very much because girls became a little bit more important.

I decided to try to get a jo somewhere in the war industry, and the only place I could get hired was a messenger for Western Union.

It was such fun.

I was based in the Oliver Building that time, and government telegrams got priority.

So we would deliver them to the Atchison, Topeka and all.

All the different places in the city, and of course, for all the industries along the river.

But then I had to deliver a desk message.

I had to close the office an and take a telegram to a family.

All I could think of was my brothers.

So my mother thought that was a little upsetting.

I was still interested in the roses, so I wen and applied a DRAVO corporation and said that I had machine shop.

Didn't have anything.

I was just a kid.

They hired me, but they said, Will you still be a Rosie?

But we'd rather you went in the engineering offic and worked on expediting orders.

So that's what I. That's what I did.

A Rosie was a girl who wa willing to work on on the LSTs, LSTs, landing ship for tanks.

They would open the giant doors, take it as close to the shore as possible, and in that the tanks or the troops would come out of the other state.

I thought the Rosie were very important because they had ships lined up.

They produced them like one a week, and then they decided that somehow or other there was a great need for more ships, and it got down to the time when they were ready, producing them two and a half or three in a week.

So they had big iron masks or steel masks, and they threw rivets, and they acted just like the men.

And we thought that was fascinating because you have to remember girls were not very important, you know, to to the war in the beginning.

But they became very important later on.

The war taught me that I could do a lot of things I didn't think I could do.

And I think because my father insisted on all of us being risk takers, I did it.

My job in the waves was cryptanalysis to break the code that the Germans were sending to the U-boat people in the Atlantic.

I was in the waves were over two years, and I got I saw an ad in the Pittsburgh Press that the Nav was looking for women to join.

I saw this and applied immediately.

It sounded like something I would like to do.

I had graduated from college and, was working for Army Ordnance.

Everybody in the waves wanted to help, too.

We had the patriotic urge.

Everyone was extremely patriotic at that point.

We were sent to Smith College for a three month Officers Training Corps.

A lot of us were assigned to Washington to the communications field.

There were many sections that you could be sent to, and they asked if anyone had ever studied German.

And I had, had taken it in high school.

So that was it.

I was sent to the, German section, and we decoded the U-boat traffic.

Out of, Germany early in the game, we had sunk a submarine and everybody got off.

The captain of the submarine ordered everyone to get off the submarine, and they did.

And the Americans boarded immediately, raced down to the engine room and got the machine and a copy of the codebook for the next three weeks.

And this is how they began to find out how the whole thing was set up.

We did the work to find ou what to put into the machine to break the code.

The subs could only send they couldn't send underground, and they couldn't recharge the batteries underground.

They had to surface in order to send a message.

And that was one of our best clues we got, so that we knew some of the German sub skippers by name, and they would get birthday messages from their families or little blurbs.

Their son said something, or they had a somebody had a baby and it was sent through the wires to to let them know.

And when the sub was sunk, sometimes we felt really unhappy about it because the were doing what they had to do.

It was not, doubtful that all of them knew what they were headed for when they joined their Navy.

We were all sworn to secrecy, of course, and apparently the secret was kept.

They released the information.

Somebody in Englan wrote a book about the enigma, and so they decided they might as well forget the secrecy.

That was in 1974.

I didn't know about it til 1999, when I went to Washington, and a wave that I had known still lives there.

So she said, do you want t go out and see the NSA museum?

So I said, sure.

So we went and there was the enigma.

And I said, for heaven's sake, I didn't even know it was off the secrecy list.

They said this was the best kept secret that anybody ever had.

It was an exciting time an women were treated quite well.

I thought I never had anyone patronize me or anything like that.

Although I will say all of the officers were older men.

We were all glad that we had helped in the war, but I said we ended our own careers there too.

It was hard because women went back to where they were before you were the housewife or whatever.

Everything that you did in the war was, negated.

The Rosie the Riveter were screwed.

Nobody wanted to hire them, even though they were good, if not better, than some of the men that they had had.

Everybody was done.

Go home.

Go back to your kitchen.

And it was hard for people to take.

It really was.

I know it was hard for me to be back home again.

This wasn't what I planned.