Interview of Lee Gordhammer 
on her service in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) 
and the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during WWII 


Lee Gordhammer:	This is Lee Gordhammer. I served in the WAAC and the WAC from 1942 to 1945, a total of 39 months. My choice in basic training taken at Fort Des Moines was to be in the Motor Transportation Corps, where I became in instructor. One year later, I was sent to Texas and through more training became a semi-skilled mechanic at the Normoyle Ordnance Depot in San Antonio. In 1943, I received my overseas order to go to London. Driving there during buzz by – buzz bomb time was quite an experience. Although most of the bombs came at night, occasionally you would run for the nearest air raid shelter if that awful siren sounded during the day. I was in London during D-Day. The most memorable experience of the service came on July 14, 1943, when the first contingent of women landed on Omaha Beach. I was their company driver. After bivouacking in an apple orchard for a month, my Jeep, named The Wacky Wagon by me, caravanned with the troops into Paris. I remained there until the end of the war in 1945. November of 1945. This was the day that I returned home and received my discharge at Camp Dix, New Jersey. 

[1:39] What influenced me to volunteer? There were several reasons. I was young and very adventuresome. I wanted to do my share in helping the war effort. And I enlisted the very first day they took applicants at 39 Whitehall Street, New York City. My job prior to this was at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City where I was a statistician. A good job. My pay dropped to $21 a month when I entered the service. My experience in the Army has always been a very memorable one. It was never thought of as a stepping stone for career purposes. I think generally I could’ve filled many assignments, perhaps any type of office job, which I would say most women in the service did, and which I eventually had to to retain my rank. Housing consisted mostly of hotels in London and Paris, bivouacking in tents on the Normandy peninsula, and in the States’ typical army barracks. My uniform consisted mostly of fatigues or a combat jacket and trousers. Later in Paris, as Secretary to the Motor Transportation Officer, I wore the dress uniform. I cannot say there was any conflict between bein’ feminine and bein’ in the military. 

There was really no great adjustment coming into the service for me. Once you got used to wearing the same clothes every day. There were certain times when bed check came much too early. My hair didn’t want to stay off my collar, which was an annoyance to my superiors and me. Getting up at the crack of dawn when the bugler sounded for reveille was probably the most unpopular regulation. After my discharge, I did use the GI Bill. I went to college and later on to the Berlitz School in Austria to learn German. The service was my jumping off point in life. It definitely inspired my love of travel, of being with people in various far-off places. A year later, after discharge, I entered the Foreign Service U.S. State Department and was on my way to China and have been to many, many other posts throughout the world.


/jw