HELEN U KENNARD Denver, Colorado Unit Transcript of an Oral History Interview All rights, title, and interest in the material recorded are assigned and conveyed to the Women ’s Overseas Service League for the purpose of publication, use in teaching, or other such uses that may further the aims and objectives of the League, such use and participation to be acknowledged in appropriate fashion and with due credit to: Helen U. Kennard PREFACE This transcript is the product of a tape-recorded interview conducted on 13 February, 1986, for the Women’s Overseas Service League. Signed, dated agreements of release and biographical information accompany the original cassette. Transcribed by Patricia Siggers Lansing, Michigan e HELEN U. KENNARD Denver Unit 4 MB: HK: Ulhat is your name? My name is Helen U. Kennard 6 MB: HK: When did you join the Denver Unit of WOSL? In April, 1973. MB: Were you in the service? B HK: MB: Yes, I was in the service. What branch? 10 HK: I was in the Women ’s Army Auxiliary Corps and the Women’s Army Corps. IB MB: What influenced you to come into the service? HK: The spirit of patriotism was the motivating factor that 14 influenced my decision to volunteer. Other factors were the opportunity to see places and meet people from other IB parts of the United States. That was not possible while living in a small town in the midwest in Malden, IB Missouri. MB: What did you do prior to enlistment? 20 HELEN HK: U. KENNARD, DBnvBr Unit E Prior to enlistment I uias employed in the local agency of 22 the Chevrolet dealership. I was manager of the parts department and General Motors accountant. MB: What year did you come into the service? 24 HK: September, 1042. MB: What were your Jobs while you were in the service? 26 HK: In the First permanent station I had, I was a typist in a 20 typing pool. My First love was automobiles so I contin­ ued to try to get reassigned to the motor pool, which I Finally did; stayed in the motor pool and loved it all 30 the time until I decided that my next priority was going overseas. At that point, there were no WAC drivers being 32 sent overseas, and I wanted it so badly that I switched back to being a typist. 34 While I was overseas, I worked as a statistical typist until I Finished my enlistment. 36 MB: How long were you in the WAC? HK: From September, 1942, until September, 1945. 30 MB: Where did your travels take you? 40 HK: In the United States, I was stationed in Florida; Washington, D.C. CFort Washington, Maryland, which is a suburb oF Washington, D.C.D; in Georgia; in CaliFornia. 48 HELEN U. KENNARD, Denver Unit 3 The only permanent station was in Washington, D.C., Fort Washington, Maryland, to the adjutant generals’ school. 44 The others were training centers. 46 When I went overseas, I went directly to Hollandia, New Guinea, and From there to Leyte and Luzon in the Philippines. I was in Manila at the time Japan 48 surrendered. I came home and was discharged at that point. 50 MB: What kind of housing did you have when you were in the service? 58 HK: 54 56 MB: 58 HK: 60 MB: 68 HK: 64 Housing varied from the training center in Florida, where we were in hotels; then into a permanent barracks in Fort Washington, Maryland, that was an old Army post. From there, overseas: It was primarily tent arrangements; and then in Manila, we were billeted in a boys’ school. When you were living in tents, how many women were there to a tent? □h, I ’d say varying from four to six. What were the uniforms that you wore when you were in the service? The uniforms that we wore when we were in the service— this was early on, as you recall, because WAAC was formed in May of 1848, and I went in in September— it was all HELEN U. KENNARD, Denver Unit 4 khaki from the skin up and created a lot of conversation; 66 a lot of queries: And sometimes when people said, ’Could I see your underwear?” they weren ’t really interested in 68 your skin or what was there. They wanted to see this khaki underwear that they had heard so much about. It 70 was loads of fun. Then as things progressed and we got the dress uniform of 72 worsted wool, we felt pretty smart because that was a sharp-looking outfit. 74 MB: Can you relate a couple of your more exciting experiences when you were in the service? 76 HK: Well, all experiences are exciting as you go through them. My most exciting one was because we were treated 78 more like UIP ’s than any place I had ever been. In going from New Guinea, being transferred to Leyte when the 80 general headquarters were changed, the plane that I was on developed an oil leak. We had a planeload, but there 82 were only ten W A C ’s. The others were G I ’s and male officers. We had to go down because the oil leakage was 81 so great, and the men— they had seen both officers and enlisted men— but the fellows on this island of Palilau, 86 which is a little man-made island in the Pacific, had never seen any women in uniform. 88 We stood out on an incomplete airlift until they had a council meeting of the officers of the island as to what HELEN U . KENNARD, Denver Unit 5 90 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 106 to do with us because they Just had no experience; so we stood out there For about an hour, and after their pow-wow they took us to the nurses’ quarters which had been made, but no nurses had arrived. UJe were literally under guard because when they took us over there, they said, ’W e ’ll come For you, wherever we want you to go, and don ’t go out by yourself.” We were there for a littlB over twenty-four hours because we had to wait until one of the other planes came back from Leyte to pick us up. We ate in the officers’ mess and were served. It was a long time since we had been served. Then we got up and left our dishes. That, actually, is the most unusual and the biggest thrill because anytime you feel important daughter) it makes you a thrilling experience. All of thB experiences were good. I enjoyed the whole bit. MB: What was the biggest adjustment you had to make when you went into the service? 108 HK: I think the biggest adjustment that I had to make Cand many of the people that went in at that time, because we 110 112 had mostly been people that had worked quite awhile with responsible Jobs) was the fact that you didn ’t make any decisions. You did what you were told and you thought, Oh, my, am I so stupid that I have to be told everything? 114 but you learn to swing with the tide and then it ’s not so HELEN U. KENNARD, Denver Unit 6 bad to have somebody else tell you what to do; but I 116 118 180 would say the regulations. MB: Did you expect your experience in the service to prepare you for a career? And if you did, did it? HK: No, I did not expect my career to be changed— maybe benefited, but not changed— because I had worked for a long time, and I was in a position to know that I could getting a degree in Business with a major in Accounting 138 in June of 1858. After that, I continued the accounting HELEN U. KENNARD, Denver Unit 7 140 142 144 14B 140 150 152 154 business, but on a broader scale than the General Motors system that I had been used to working with. From then until the time I decided to retire, I worked in private accounting, public accounting, and self-employed For the last ten years of my working career. MB: What does being a member of WOSL mean to you? HK: Being a member of UJOSL means to me the same thing that any other experience has meant. It ’s a broadening of your friendships; it ’s the learning of other rules of the club, the organization; and the benefits that are to be gained by membership with it, whether you are gaining the benefits or whether you are giving the benefits to someone else. MB: Thank you very much. Transcribed by Patricia Siggers Lansing, Michigan