Interview of Eileen Jackson Crane on her service as a civilian U.S. State Department employee working at military bases in the U.S. and overseas from June 1943 to October 1946 Neola Ann Spackman: [0:03] This interview is for Women’s Overseas Service League. It is the second one on this tape and I am interviewing Eileen Jackson Crane – and what was your, uh, position in the service? Eileen Jackson Crane: At first, I worked at Camp Myles Standish, the Boston port of embarkation, as cafeteria hostess, which is actually the manager of the cafeteria at one of the service clubs and, later, as command hostess for the Air Force at Wiesbaden, Germany. Neola Ann Spackman: [0:32] How were you, um, what – how were you re, re, considered with military service? Were you paid by the, uh, military or were you paid by a civilian fund or were you um… Eileen Jackson Crane: I was a civilian working for the State Department. I was paid by the State Department. Neola Ann Spackman: [0:52] Mm-hm. How long did you serve? Eileen Jackson Crane: From 19-, uh, June of 1943 to October of 1946. Neola Ann Spackman: [1:03] And what was the influence that got you into the military service? Eileen Jackson Crane: Pressure from the military [laughter], actually. Uh, I went to my alma mater, Simmons College, to work on a master’s degree for the summer of 1943 and they told me that Camp Myles Standish needed a manager there at one of their cafeterias and would I do it for the summer, or at least until they could get someone to do it? And um, so I did take it and, consequently, worked for them for the next 3 years. Neola Ann Spackman: [1:37] What had you been doing at the time that you took this? Eileen Jackson Crane: I was director of a vocational school in Auburn, Maine. Neola Ann Spackman: [1:44] Was this in connection with the college or was it a, just a vocational school separate from the college? Eileen Jackson Crane: Uh, a man – a philanthropic man – decided that he would like to set up a, a vocational school to teach young women to earn a living when they got out of high school. But, uh, he didn’t think the training that was being given was proper. Neola Ann Spackman: [2:05] And, in the service, you were a hostess in clubs and cafeterias? Eileen Jackson Crane: Yes. They named us hostesses because, I guess, we worked in social clubs but, actually, we had authority. Army regulations, um, gave us ah, ah, authority and we had professional ratings. Neola Ann Spackman: [2:23] Did you, uh, feel that this experience was gonna prepare you for a future career or was is just something that you did be – out of patriotism or whatever? [laughter] Eileen Jackson Crane: No, I already had my career and I did it because, um, they asked me to fill in and then I found out that I really enjoyed it and uh, went on from there. Neola Ann Spackman: [2:45] Did you go back to your career at a later time, or…? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, I married, um, a young man that I had known for 6 years, actually. I didn’t meet him in the service. And, um, I did go back to teaching in New York City as a substitute teacher for about 8 months. Neola Ann Spackman: [3:02] Uh, what kind of pay did you receive in the military? Eileen Jackson Crane: Uh, better than I had in the civilian life. Um, at first it wasn’t that much better but, uh, by the time I finished I was earning about, I think, $5200 a year. Neola Ann Spackman: [3:19] Did that compare to what teachers were getting at the time you got out of the service? Eileen Jackson Crane: I don’t think teachers were paid quite that well. Neola Ann Spackman: [ 3:31] So your pay in the military was in excess of what you would have gotten had you continued in the civilian life? Eileen Jackson Crane: It was bet...yes, it was. Neola Ann Spackman: [3:37] Um, were there any – was there any discrimination against you because you’re a woman or…? Eileen Jackson Crane: No. We experienced no ex, discrimination. The army regulations designated that these jobs were to be held by women in this. Neola Ann Spackman: [3:53] Was there any educational op, opportunities in there, other than just, a, the broadening experience of travel? Eileen Jackson Crane: No education ad, advantages. Neola Ann Spackman: [4:05] And these, as you say, these assignments were listed as women’s categories. Eileen Jackson Crane: Yes. Mm-hm. Neola Ann Spackman: [4:11] What kind of housing did you have? Eileen Jackson Crane: At Camp Myles Standish, it was excellent. We had a, uh, an established Cape Cod cottage on the base, uh, that was very comfortable. The only problem I had was I had to go through someone else’s room to take a shower. But, other than that, it was very, very comfortable. Neola Ann Spackman: [4:29] Did you have any, um, did you receive medical care or did you have to go to civilian doctors, off, off base? Eileen Jackson Crane: We had to furnish our own, uh, all of our own, uh, care, uh, in here – in this country. Overseas, we were allowed to go to the medical but I, I only once went to a doctor. Neola Ann Spackman: [4:49] Before you went overseas, did you have, uh, were you allowed to eat in the mess halls or did you have to eat away from the military also? Eileen Jackson Crane: We never ate, uh, with the military in the States. I ate at the service club over, if I was working over a meal but, other than that, we were responsible for our own meals. Neola Ann Spackman: [5:11] And you were given a – were you giving, given a food sustenance in the States or was it only when you were overseas that you were given an allowance for… Eileen Jackson Crane: We were only given an allowance overseas. Neola Ann Spackman: [5:23] And was that true also of housing; or, in the States you said you lived on base. Eileen Jackson Crane: In the States, we lived on base. Neola Ann Spackman: [5:28] And did you have to pay a, a st, [inaudible 5:30] Eileen Jackson Crane: It was a small amount, a very small amount. Neola Ann Spackman: [5:33] And was that considered part of your salary, or…? Eileen Jackson Crane: I think it was. I… Neola Ann Spackman: [5:39] Mm-hm. Um, tell me some of the things that happened to you while you were in the service that, that you remember most distinctly. Eileen Jackson Crane: Well, I'll start with the most difficult thing in, at Camp Myles Standish. We knew when we were getting a, a large number of men into the uh, camp to be shipped out, the station [count 6:04] was 200 and my club was used at noontime, mostly, to feed the civilians working, uh, on the base. But, when we got a battalion in, or, uh, even less of a battalion, they would tell us how many were coming in and we knew that we had to really gear up and we were given strict orders -- never run out of apple pie. So, we never did but, um, we never knew when the troops were leaving because of security reasons. So we might be geared up to feed 3,000 the next day and wake up in the middle of the night and hear, "Hut, 2, 3, 4," knowing that we were probably going to be left with about 200 at the base and, um, sometimes I had eight cases of apple pies ordered so that was a little bit difficult. Neola Ann Spackman: [6:54] Well you, did you have cooks and cafeteria workers? Eileen Jackson Crane: I had 30 people working under me in the cafeteria. Neola Ann Spackman: [7:01] And, uh, were cooks and bakers among them or did you get all of your food brought in? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, cooks -- we had cooks and um, uh, for the last 3 months that I was in the States, we had um, 4 Italian prisoners of war that were assigned to...[clears throat] Neola Ann Spackman: [7:19] Okay, we'll go from there. Eileen Jackson Crane: You can see I've had a cold [laughter]. Neola Ann Spackman: [7:25] What other memorable experiences did you have overseas that were...? Eileen Jackson Crane: Well, overseas, I had a great many of them. I, there would be too many to mention all of them but the first trip I made to set up my first service club in [east of Latoue 7:38] outside of [Marseille 7:39]. I flew in a B17 with a young pilot and we got over the Alps and they discovered that the hydraulic, uh, defrosting equipment wasn't working and that, uh, the ground crew hadn't put any manual defrosting equipment in, so we were told to get into our parachutes, that there was a possibility we might go down but, fortunately, we made it and, uh, and coming back one time from [east of Latoue 8:09], uh, it was in a B29. We got over Paris and couldn't find the airfield. Another young pilot who, it was his first trip and, uh, he was taking a heading for [early field 8:21] and they were giving him directions to land at Villacoublay and, after about 4 or 5 times, tries they did find that, um, the solution and we did come into Villacoublay without problems. Neola Ann Spackman: [8:36] Did you have, uh, a language difficulty with the local people, or did you speak French, or did you learn to speak French? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, we did not have to speak any, uh, foreign languages. Uh, practically all of our, uh, communication was with the troops and the American, uh, people. We weren't allowed to fraternize with the German people. We were not allowed to buy things in the stores, so we really didn't have very much contact. We had a German civilian secretary; my roommate, who was the command librarian, and I shared a secretary. She spoke English quite well, so we really didn't have any problem. Neola Ann Spackman: [9:15] And how long were you in France? And then did you go from there to another station, or...? Eileen Jackson Crane: Yes, I arrived in Paris in September of '45, when the air force discovered the army had hostesses to set up service clubs, which they felt they wanted to do at the same time and so I was assigned directly to the air force and was the command hostess, since I had a senior rating. Uh, we stayed in Saint Germain, which was the air force headquarters outside Paris for about 3 weeks and then moved to Wiesbaden, Germany. Neola Ann Spackman: [9:49] And, in Wiesbaden, did you, uh, stay in the town of Wiesbaden or did you have a military station outside of town? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, we stayed at, uh, one of the hotels. There were 3 large hotels right in the center. I stayed at the Palast Hotel, which then was used to have, to house field grade officers from major, uh, to lieutenant colonel... Neola Ann Spackman: [10:17] Do you see any comparative, uh, anything that compares today with USO hostesses in the service or the hostesses in the military service compared to what you did when you were in, or haven't you had a chance to compare? Eileen Jackson Crane: I haven't really compared. I mean, I was married soon, it was just in a few months after I got out of the service and I really haven't checked back. Neola Ann Spackman: [10:43] Did you find any conflict in being female and being in the service or...? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, none at all. No. Neola Ann Spackman: [10:49] You just went along as if you had... Eileen Jackson Crane: Yes. That was my job and everyone understood that this was... Neola Ann Spackman: [10:55] And being a civilian employee, you did not have any GI bill of rights or anything like that [inaudible 11:00]? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, we had to follow the rules, especially overseas, that applied to the military but, uh, they were not difficult to follow... Neola Ann Spackman: [11:07] But you, you were not given any veteran's benefits or anything of the sort when you got out... Eileen Jackson Crane: Oh no, we didn't get, no, we were strictly civilians. Neola Ann Spackman: [11:13] And, uh, was there any great adjustment that you had to make in any particular area, in wearing a uniform, or living with others, or following regulations, or...? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, actually, no. Uh, it might have been difficult had we had civilian clothes with us over in Germany but, um, we were told just to take enough uniforms -- a change of uniforms -- that we would probably get our foot lockers in a, uh, a month or so. We didn't get our foot lockers 'til about 7 months later, so all we had were uniforms to wear, so [chuckles] it wasn't very difficult to comply with. Neola Ann Spackman: [11:48] And, what did you do after you got out of the service? Eileen Jackson Crane: I got married [laughter]. Neola Ann Spackman: [11:54] And you never went back -- or you went back to teaching then, or...? Eileen Jackson Crane: Uh, I taught for about 8 months, uh, after I was married. Since I was bored in New York City in a 1-room apartment, I did substitute teaching but, um, I had known my husband before I went into the service and this wasn't a, uh, related romance to the service. Neola Ann Spackman: [12:14] And, did you find, uh, that your time in, in military service in any way prepared you for civilian life? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, not really. Uh, I hope I contributed to making it a little bit more pleasant for the, uh, men that were going overseas or that were overseas but, um, other than just a pleasant experience for me, and, and I did learn to cope with a few hardships but they weren't really that bad. Neola Ann Spackman: [12:44] What was the greatest number of hostesses that you had working under your command at any one time? Eileen Jackson Crane: Uh, about 14. I set up 10 clubs, uh, while I was there in 13 months and we could only assign one hostess to each club to begin with, with the exception of uh, a club, a black club, uh, that we set up and we had 2 black hostesses, uh, assigned to that... Neola Ann Spackman: [13:14] And you still had the segregation of the services of the black and white? Eileen Jackson Crane: Yes. Uh-huh. This, of course, the air force in those days was part of the army, it was the army, we were designated USAAFE... Neola Ann Spackman: [13:26] Yes. Eileen Jackson Crane: ...United States Army Air Forces in Europe. Neola Ann Spackman: [13:30] I wondered because, uh, I had understood that under, uh, Eleanor Roosevelt's [AJC 13:36] segregations of the troops and the services had been pretty much obliterated in late '44 or early '45. I am just wondering how, how long it took them to actually get around to doing this? [laughter] Eileen Jackson Crane: Well, we didn't -- this hadn't filtered down to us at that point... Neola Ann Spackman: [13:55] You didn't see any [inaudible 13:56]...? Eileen Jackson Crane: No, no. Neola Ann Spackman: [13:58] Do you have anything else you want to add? Eileen Jackson Crane: I don't think so, except that it was a very pleasant experience for me and I really enjoyed it. Neola Ann Spackman: [14:05] Thank you, I... /ab