Interview of Dorothy M. Harrison on her childhood in Royal Oak, MI, attending the University of Michigan and her service in the American Red Cross during WWII Interviewer: …Harrison on her background history of service during WWII. [0:00:11] Dorothy, would you give us a biographical sketch of yourself before you went into service? Dorothy Harrison: All right. Um, let me see. First of all, I was born in 1914, uh, in Highland Park, Michigan. My family moved to Royal Oak, Michigan, and that is a small suburban city, I believe it’s 60,000 now, which, um, where I grew up and I graduated from the Royal Oak High School. And, um, my, uh, um, college education was then at the University of Michigan, I got a degree there, a BA in 1936 and BALS (Bachelor of Arts and Library Science) in 1937. Subsequently, I became a member of the Detroit Public Library and staff and, um, uh, interrupted it for the next 5 years only by going to the University of California for my Master’s of Arts degree in librarianship. I was in the stacks of the Detroit Public Library in 1942 when I noticed a, a, an advertisement for, from the American Red Cross asking for volunteers for overseas duty. This, of course, we were already in the war. And my brother had joined, volunteered his services in April of, of, actually of 1941, before Pearl Harbor so that, um, I felt responsible as an unmarried woman with no res-, no particular responsibilities, uh, to, to do something too. I wrote to Washington. I was interviewed. I went down to Washington for an interview and I was hired as, um, an assistant, uh, as an assistant in a supposedly an aero club, not an aero club, in a city club. Whatever they call [inaudible 0:02:24] clubs, something of that sort. Interviewer: Some I believe are called area clubs. Dorothy Harrison: At any rate, uh, I always remember the date of my training session which lasted 2 formal weeks and a, and a bit in addition. The date was December 7, 1942, which was 1 year after Pearl Harbor. We were given, um, no training at the American University. I understand that that was the place where a great many ARCs were trained later, but we were in some miscellaneous buildings down in Washington. I can’t even remember where they were now. But at any rate, we were taken with packs and had taught to jump into water if it was necessary with our packs and our helmets and how to shed everything and, uh, float or swim to the nearest side of the pool. I kept thinking of what it would be like if you were in a real sea [chuckle]; however, we also were expected to use gas masks and go through a session of walking through an area filled with gas, a room filled with gas. Um, those were 2 of the active things. Of course, we had all the shots that were necessary for the, both the ETO and the South Pacific. I think I had 3 or 4 in each arm as I remember. But, um, we had a visit from Margaret Mead who came over and talked to us. She was not as famous then as she is now, but somebody felt that perhaps her experiences in the South Pacific might have, have, um, given her some authority to speak to us and, uh, I remember that she did say “Now let’s when we’re discussing things call a spade a spade, let’s call a penis a penis if we’re dealing with men.” And I thought that was rather, rather unusual because at this time nobody mentioned such things amongst nice people. At any rate, uh, we also had a man come from the army who said very thoroughly, uh, “Be sure that you do not call soldiers ‘boys’ they should be called ‘men.’” And I thought, oh, for goodness’ sakes. Then there was another man who came and taught us a little, some little games we could play and I can remember one was called, I can’t even remember the name of it. It was sort of a little dance and gestures that you put together so it began put your little foot, put your little foot. Interviewer: Oh yeah. Dorothy Harrison: You remember that? Interviewer: [0:05:12] Didn’t you use it? Dorothy Harrison: Never! Never! Interviewer: We had dances and such. We did. Dorothy Harrison: Oh, you did that a lot of times. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Dorothy Harrison: Well, I never had occasion to put the little foot, put the little foot. But I, I thought it didn’t quite go along with that men, men, let’s call’m “men” and don’t call’m “boys.” I remembered my grandfather always referred to his own contemporaries as, as boys, so I figured that was all right. I also remember the directions about the fact that you were not supposed to date, uh, enlisted men. You were to have officer rank, assimilated officer rank and you were not to, to date an enlisted man. Since my brother was an enlisted man at this moment, I raised my little hand and said that I would certainly date my brother if he happened to be around. And they said, well, yes, that did cause problems and that in that case be sure to wear your civilian clothes. Interviewer: [0:06:13] You were allowed to take civilian clothes with you? Dorothy Harrison: Oh yes, very definitely civilian clothes. I even packed an evening dress. So that was one of the strictures. And I do also remember they talked about the primitive conditions in some of the areas of the world where we might serve because none of us had our assignments at this point. And I do remember one woman who I think rather fancied her wealth and breeding was aghast at the idea that she might be someplace where she would have to wash her own hair but, um, I, I’ve often wondered where she landed and how long she lasted. At any rate, um, just shortly after I finished my training session I received orders to go overseas and… Interviewer: [0:07:11] Under what name were you serving? Dorothy Harrison: At that time. Gosh, didn’t I say that? I was… Interviewer: I don’t… Dorothy Harrison: Believe so. All right. Interviewer: …believe I heard it. Dorothy Harrison: Well, my name was Dorothy McDonald and as I say, I grew up in Royal Oak. My father was Thomas H. McDonald. He worked for the Detroit Times, which is Hearst Newspaper in the city of, of Detroit. So yes, that was my name. I was a, I was a little partly Scots girl. My grandparents had all immigrated to this country so I had a lot of relatives in, in Britain and I was very anxious to be sent to, to the ETO rather than to the Pacific. I don’t hold up well in heat and I was much, much more eager to deal with the cool of England and the continent which I knew about. Interviewer: [0:08:08] Dorothy, how were you transported to your assignment and with what groups were you assigned when you finally received your assignment? Dorothy Harrison: Well, um, [throat clearing] actually, I went over on a small ferryboat, a ferryboat that, um, trav-, traveled a distance, the 1300 miles between New Zealand and Australia. She was called the Rangitata. We did not know until we had spent a few days in Brooklyn, um, at the St. George Hotel I believe, uh, in Brooklyn. We were put into a bus with its blinds pulled down and we were taken along the, the, um, to the piers. We saw the, either the Queen Mary or the Queen Elizabeth looming up ahead of us and we were tremendously excited in the bus to think, oh, we’re going over on the, on this huge ship. We anticipated that it would be quite an adventure and our journey would be very quick. As a matter of fact, we went beyond the great ship and there on the other side looking like a small tugboat was this 9000-ton ship and we pulled into that pier and we presently were on board the Rangitata. It took 18 days for us to tra-, travel in convoy, a 40-ship convoy up the coast of the United States to Halifax where we picked up some odds and [inaudible 0:09:51] of, of troops that were wanting to get on the other side of the ocean. They were Canadian Royal Air Force officers and a lovely contingent, a handsome contingent of French Canadian with their delightful accents. And there were 70 Royal Marines being sent back, disciplinary problems. They were confined until they got on board the ship and then, of course, they let them free because there was no place for them to go except in the water. Uh, we were a very motley collection. There were 25 American Red Cross girls. There were a few civilians who had come on this ship all the way from New Zealand. They were going back to England to volunteer their services, the men were, and the women were their wives and their children and they were accompanying them. We did not mix much with them, but they were nice people and we always smiled. You, as you can imagine this 9000-ton ship did not have a great deal of room and they had, had ripped out the stateroom’s, uh, stateroom furniture and had replaced it so that the room in which I lived for the 18 days’ crossing had 3 bunks in it, period. Uh, no, excuse me, I, I take that back. There were 4 bunks in it. It had been a stateroom for 2 people. They had simply added 1, uh, extra bunk over each lower bed. Interviewer: [0:11:17] Meaning a total of 8 people in the room? Dorothy Harrison: No, no. I, I mean a total of 4 people. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: It had been a 2, a 2-person, um, stateroom. We were not allowed to close our door at all. We had to leave the door open at all times. And we did have, um, a, um, porthole so we could look out and see what the weather was like, but oftentimes they put a deadlight over it or whatever they call when they block off something. Um, or maybe they had it blocked all the time. I can’t now remember. Interviewer: [0:11:50] Before you left U-, United States you probably were issued your uniforms…? Dorothy Harrison: Yes. We… Interviewer: …at that point? Dorothy Harrison: No, no, no. We had been issued our uniforms back in Washington D.C. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: We had our – we, we were given our uniform and we had to buy accessories, our shoes and handbags and things of this sort but… Interviewer: [0:12:10] Did you have a salary? Did you receive any salary or any [inaudible 0:12:14]. Dorothy Harrison: Oh yes. Our compensation was, uh, was I think approximately $1500, maybe slightly more, uh. Interviewer: Annually. Dorothy Harrison: Annually, that was $15-, let’s say $1580. I think it was a little bit more than my salary or the same, close to the same that I had at the Detroit Public Library and I remember that the first salary I had there was $1500 a year so it may have been around $1600, $1650. But as we did not anticipate having the need for a great deal of money, I had almost all of my money sent to my parents where it was banked for me. And I had only something like $25 a month that was given to me overseas because actually our food was supplied, our quarters were supplied, our transportation was supplied. Uh, almost – uh, our uniforms were, were replaced, in fact, changed. When we got to England we were given heavier clothes so that there was no real need for money except for the, for the little bit we might use if we wanted to travel or to, um, to buy things at the PX, so. Now, uh, the most interesting thing about this, this trip on the, on the Rangitata was the fact that we had approximately 75 young officers and only 25 girls. In fact, I think that counting all the French Canadians there were more likely 150 officers and 25 girls, and there were not nearly enough women to go around. It was the most, most exciting, uh, ratio that I had ever met, particularly because I was rather a quiet, reserved type and I had not dated much in college and I wasn’t particularly beautiful, but all of a sudden I was popular just simply because I was a female. And, uh, I did make several very nice friends on board. But the, the little system that was devised to keep things peaceful was that the young gentlemen asked us for dates by the hour. They would say “Could I take you, would – are you free at, at 9:00 for a walk on the deck?” And you would say “Well, I’m sorry. I, I have a date at 9, but I have 8 and 10 free.” [chuckle] And you would, you would manage to, to make 3 to 4 gentlemen presumably happier by walking out on the deck. Interviewer: [0:14:58] Did you come across any people you had known previous to your service in Red Cross? Dorothy Harrison: No. I never did. I had, I had all, they were all strangers, but not strangers by the time we got through to the, to the end of our, our voyage. Eighteen days with the same people, of course, makes you very friendly. I was, I couldn’t sing in the, in the chorus that they devised or they wonked up for one of the musical evenings, but I was popular because I could tell fortunes. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: And I was kept busy telling fortunes for night after night. My aunts had taught me how to, to use a deck of cards as a fortune telling medium. Of course, you make the whole thing up in your head but there, there is supposed to be a meaning to every card, but you can let your imagination run wild. I saw lots of strange ladies in strange beds for a great many, [laughter] which was appropriate for the situation I guess. Interviewer: [0:16:03] What about your food that you had? Dorothy Harrison: Aboard ship? Interviewer: Yes. Dorothy Harrison: We were served with, with waiters. This was really a v-, very elegant crossing and I’ve never had a happier one. I wasn’t seasick a minute I think because my mind was entirely on everything else. Uh, but we were served in 2 sittings. We did have a torpedo attack and I can remember that it was just shortly after my young man sitting next to me had found a cockroach in his salad. We had cockroach races on board the ship. She seemed to be well, well supplied with cockroaches. But as far as the food was concerned, it was, it was quite nice. Interviewer: [0:16:46] Your attack, what came of that [inaudible 0:16:50]? Dorothy Harrison: Well, the torpedo attack was, was, um, [throat clearing] was an interesting experience. Um, we had noticed as we neared Iceland we, we, we swung way north and went just south of Iceland. Interviewer: [17:08] Were you in a convoy? Dorothy Harrison: Yes, we were. We were in a 40-ship convoy and we were right in the heart of the 40-ship convoy. And most of the other ships in the convoy were, were freighters, were carrying goods and behind us was a, what we took to be a, a whaler. Well, actually she wasn’t immediately behind us. You know, how they stagger transports, I mean, convoys. Ships are, are staggered. This one was to, immediately to behind us but to our, well, if you were facing the stern it would be to, to our right. And, uh, [throat clearing] we were sitting at dinner when the alarm which we had been taught to regard as the take your, your battle stations came on. The women were to stay inside the, the ship on the upper decks. The men were to go to boat stations and fighting stations. The ship did have some guns on it as I recall, I hope. [chuckle] It’s a little dim now, but there was someplace the men were to be outside, we were to be in. And this was a particularly raucous call. It w-, it was sort of a different, like, like a combination of a fire gong and, um, a, um, siren. Interviewer: Ring. Dorothy Harrison: Yes, [siren noise] kind of a sound. And, uh, it came on in a, a set of 2, 2, 2 blasts in a set of 3. And so I was at the second sitting when this occurred and we sat absolutely stunned for a moment while everybody became deathly quiet in the, in the dining room. And then we heard a very distant whoosh and, um, this was the sound of a torpedo hitting a ship. [throat clearing] It, the sound came through, through the water and we heard it. I was out of the dining room, up the companionway into my, uh, stateroom on with my warm clothes, stuffed an orange in my pocket, and was back at the place where I was supposed to stand very close to my stateroom. Interviewer: [0:19:48] With a life preserver I presume. Dorothy Harrison: Oh yes, with my life preserver. You’re quite right. And before the next person came up the stairs, I had never moved so fast in my life. My, my, uh, my friend, uh, who sat next to me, uh, behaved in an entirely different way. He, um, he got, he, he folded his napkin very precisely, set it down by his fork, got up very slowly and deliberately and, uh, pushed his seat back, stepped out of his place, pushed the chair back underneath the table, and very calmly walked upstairs. Uh, I think I must have gone up 3 steps at a time I was going so fast. Um, when we women were allowed on deck, the ship that had been hit was, um, the old whaler that we had seen to our right on the stern. And we had identified it as a whaler because it had those big davits at the end of which you would pull a whale up onto, uh , onto the ship onto the deck so it could be cut up, and we presumed they were using it as a transport for, for oil or, or gasoline or something. At any rate… Interviewer: [0:21:19] Did the ship stop at this time? Dorothy Harrison: No. The, the entire convoy went right on. [throat clearing] Uh, the, one of the young officers who had been on the first, at the first sitting said he saw the torpedo coming and saw that it was very close to hitting us and we may well have been the target. But at any rate, uh, it finally chugged past the [inaudible 0:21:44] he said seemed to him only about 6 feet past our stern and hit the poor, the poor whaler. When we last saw her she was a smudge of smoke, broken in the center, and a destroyer was standing by to take off survivors. And in the meantime, the other destroyers were racing around the entire convoy whipping off, uh, uh… Interviewer: Depth bombs. Dorothy Harrison: …depth charges so that they, we could hear them going whoomp, whoomp, and then, uh, again whoomp, whoomp, and they were just leaning over they were going so fast, uh, trying to, to get the, the submarine. At any rate, that was the end of that. Now let me before I talk my 60 cents’ worth tell you where I went. Uh, I was immediately, almost immediately assigned as a… Interviewer: [0:22:45] You landed where? Dorothy Harrison: I landed at Bristol. We went by train to London and I was in, in London for almost since we arrived in January, and I was not assigned to the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group until March. I spent the remaining time in London, but I finally was assigned as, um, an assistant in a, an aero club. It was a new idea. You were to serve United States Army, Air Force units. Uh, they could be bombers, they could be fighters, they could be anything. But they, it was a new idea and so instead of being put into a league club in London, I had this assignment of going out and starting a, an aero club for the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group. Now this group was stationed at, uh, about 18 miles from the city of Norwich in Norfolk. And, uh, it was a, a group of, of B-24 Liberator Bombers that the commanding officer was Colonel Ted Timberlake and his, his group was called Ted’s Traveling Circus. They were a fine group of men and a great many of them died at the battle of, of Ploesti when they… Interviewer: [0:24:07] You drove out every day to this…? Dorothy Harrison: No. No. We did not. [throat clearing] Uh, I should go ahead and I’ll tell you the rest so then I’ll go back and talk about the living conditions. I, I served with the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group for, uh, for 9 months until November of 1943. Then, um, I was transferred to a group of general service engineers, the 347th General Service Engineers. Um, they built [inaudible 0:24:48] stands and built Bailey bridges, this type of thing. And the club I was to open to them was called a camp club. It was the idea of serving not only the air force but the army as well. These were all individual. You were stay with the unit. You and your staff were to serve just this one unit rather than other people. Therefore, we lived with the units. Uh, with that 3-, that particular group of engineers, the 347th General Service Engineers, I went overseas to, to France. Um, about 1 ½ months after I had landed in Normandy, I was reassigned to the 363rd Fighter Group, which within about 2 weeks or 3 weeks became the 3-, oh, did I say 336? Excuse me, that was totally wrong. It’s the 363rd Fighter Group which became the 363rd Photo Reconnaissance Group. And with the 363rd Photo Reconnaissance Group I went clear across France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, and I completed my tour of duty with them. Now, we can go from there. Interviewer: [0:26:23] Dorothy, what type of housing did you have while you were overseas in your various assignments? Dorothy Harrison: Well, that was very interesting. It’s all very interesting. In fact, I, I, as I’ve just said to you, I could talk for hours. Um, it varied. In – with the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group in England on the air base where the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group was at Hardwick, that was the name of the base, um, I had quarters, a room, a private room in a NAAFI, a hut. Now the Naafi, N-A-a-f-i were the initials for the, the, an equivalent service that the British had developed for their own troops. These were permanent buildings and, um, they had been put up and this had been a British base before it was turned over to the Americans so this be-, this NAAFI hut or housing became our quarters. It had a central courtyard and on one side of the courtyard were the staff quarters which were composed of 2 private rooms and 2 large multi-person rooms to sleep in. And the club itself had a very large snack bar, a, a room where they had billiard tables, a living room where we built a fireplace to give it some feeling of hominess, a library/radiogram room and a-, another room which we called the card room but which the chaplain also used for Sunday services. And there were snack, there was a snack bar and there were kitchens and storerooms, so it was rather a large collection of… Interviewer: [0:28:17] You said radiogram room? Dorothy Harrison: Well, I, well, I was trying to think what, you know, we didn’t call them Victrolas anymore, they were… Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: ..combination radios and phonographs. Interviewer: I see. A music room [inaudible 0:28:28]. Dorothy Harrison: A music room. Yes. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: A music room and we had some books there and we had newspapers, so we simply made that our, our music room and, and listening room. Interviewer: I see. Dorothy Harrison: Uh, [throat clearing] we, our staff was English at that place and I, I know that I enjoyed the, the attentions of the [inaudible 0:28:49] that was hired to run the, the staff, the British staff at the club. I didn’t hire her. She turned out to be a tartar as far as the rest of the staff was concerned, but I who were – I, who was her boss, got hot water bottles in my bed and my bed turned down in the proper English manner. It was very nice indeed. Uh, so we, we had that type of quarter when I was with the 93rd. Now, the 347th Engineers was, was, was quite elegant. Uh, they were, they were stationed at Moreton Morrell, which is a tiny town about 8 miles from Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. And, um, at first, the colonel of the regiment, Colonel Harry Hulen, that’s H-u-l-e-n, Harry Hulen had put us up in one of the master bedrooms of this magnificent manor house built in the early 20th century. When I tell you that it had its own private chapel, they were Roman, it was a Roman Catholic family so they had their own chapel. They themselves had moved to the priest’s home, which they had on their grounds. It was a perfectly beautiful estate. There were formal and informal gardens all over the property and surrounding this beautiful mansion. The dining room in which we ate everyday was the room in which, um, one of the archbishops of Canterbury had been born. And if I, my poor brain would come up with a name, I’d tell you. But they had taken the entire wainscoting out of this 16th century house and put it into this modern home, this 20th century home, but it had been built in the style of a, of an Elizabethan house, although it was not, was not that ancient. We had a lovely bathroom with heated towel racks when we had any heat. And our room I can never forget, it was completely decorated with blue and white Wedgwood medallions. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: Uh, it was, it was perfectly beautiful. And we looked out onto a rose garden where there were 15,000 rose bushes and a long reflecting pool. Interviewer: [0:31:20] How much Red Cross staff was there with you? Dorothy Harrison: There were just 2 of us, just 2 girls. We were to do it all. We were to hire whatever staff we needed on the countryside, and we did. Uh, I had by this time become the, uh, director of the aero club with the 93rd and became the director of this camp club simply because they kept intending to send me 3 months after I’d been with the 93rd, uh, Bombardment Group, they simply made me the field, the director of the aero club. Um, I certainly learned on the job very hard and very fast. Uh, and we had some lovely times. My… Interviewer: [0:32:03] Exactly what were the duties you had? Dorothy Harrison: Oh, it was simply to hi-, to, to manage the staff, manage a recreational program, and to keep the, the whole shebang operating. I did everything from cleaning the, the latrines, removing the dirty pictures, rip, [chuckle] painted on the walls because the, the cleaning… Interviewer: [inaudible 0:32:27]. Dorothy Harrison: Yes. The graffiti. The cleaning woman came to me and said “Miss McDonald, we aren’t going to go in there with those pictures.” Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: And so I would have to go in and remove them first so that they could go in and clean. It was very interesting. Um, I always said, I’ve always said I learned more about life in 20, in those 2 years than I did in 20 years of ordinary living. Um, where was I? Oh yes, back in that beautiful manor house in Warwickshire near the town of Moreton Morrell, really on the outskirts of it. It was called Moreton Paddocks, that was the actual name of the, of the manor house. Um, then the colonel wanted to – in the meantime had been working to fix us up a private home just the 2 of us. He eventually gave us a gatehouse, an entire gatehouse. There were, there were 5 rooms in the house and he installed a bathroom. There hadn’t been a bathroom, but he put one in for us. He, he had an engin-, group of engineers and they could do anything. Interviewer: Yes. Dorothy Harrison: We had tailors. They made us blackout curtains with white tape around the edges for decoration and the tailor came in to be sure we liked them. Interviewer: Wow. Dorothy Harrison: It was, it was, it was fun. They could… Interviewer: [inaudible 0:33:48]. Dorothy Harrison: They had bakers. They could bake and they often did birthday cakes for us and so on. So that was with the, with the 347th General Service Engineers. Well, then when we rolled ashore in France we, we became much more primitive. Interviewer: [0:34:05] And how did you go from England to France? Dorothy Harrison: Well, that will be a story I’ll tell you about later. Interviewer: All right. Dorothy Harrison: So, uh, [throat clearing] we had tents for the most part in France. There were, there was a pyramid tent that the colonel had fixed us up with and, uh, he had a shower unit installed for us and another tent attached to it so we had our own private shower and our own private bedroom tent. This was… Interviewer: [0:34:34] At what spot in France? Dorothy Harrison: This was – we landed on Omaha Beach so we were near, at this point we were very near Cherbourg at a place, an estate again, called Martin Vast, that’s M-a-r-t-i-n V-a-s-t, Martin Vast near Cherbourg. Um, when, when I joined the 363rd Fighter Reconnaissance Group again I was in a tent and I stayed in a tent until we reached, um, um, we went through, we went through Luxembourg on a, in a, I was – no, I wasn’t in a tent there. I was through France in a tent. Then in Luxembourg I had the, a, a, a broken down storeroom attached to the kitchen of a former German installation. Then in, in Belgium we spent the winter in a chateau and I had the master bedroom. There were rats in the bathroom, but that was beside the point. Interviewer: You had a bathroom. Dorothy Harrison: We had a bathroom and a tremendous 16-foot ceiling it seemed about, so. And the room was bitterly cold. We had very little, very little fuel to – we’d have enough coal, 5 pounds a week once a week. Interviewer: [0:36:00] Was your ration? Dorothy Harrison: Was our ration. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: And we could have heat with that for about 3 or 4 hours on Sunday. We didn’t bathe very much under those circumstances, mostly washing our face and hands and [throat clearing] occasionally we’d try a bath with great fortitude in front of the fire. We were, our fires were not open fires. They were, were drum stoves… Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: …that the army supplied us with. And then in, um, we went from, from the, uh, chateau in Belgium to a castle at Venlo in, um, called Castle Krickenbeck; and Venlo is on the border between Holland and Germany. And, uh, we were very well taken care of there, a beautiful room. And then the colonel moved us out of the castle and into a private home he had requisitioned, perfectly beautiful home. They had a, a Hoover vacuum cleaner I remember from Toledo, Ohio, in the basement. Interviewer: [0:37:09] Your electricity worked then in there? Dorothy Harrison: Well, they put a generator out… Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: …in, in, in the front so it became the officers’ club and we had a beautiful bedroom upstairs and a private bath which had marble floors and was done in black and gold I remember. It was quite, quite a nice place. Then from there… Interviewer: [0:37:30] All this time had you had any leave or any break to…? Dorothy Harrison: Very few, practically none. I went without any break or rest for 16 months. When we got to, um, into Germany our housing deteriorated. I had 1 room which had no windows left, no ballast in the windows. The windows were there but admitted a great deal of fresh air. And there was no roof on the buildings. We simply had a room with a ceiling, but no roof. That didn’t last too long. And we finally got into a field officer’s house in, in Wiesbaden which was very pleasant. We had 2 rooms on the, on the ground floor. Interviewer: [0:38:17] You and your, uh, other Red…? Dorothy Harrison: That was where the war ended. Interviewer: [0:38:20] Your second Red Cross member stayed with you? Dorothy Harrison: Always. Interviewer: Always. I see. Dorothy Harrison: Always. Wherever we were there was always the other Red Cross girl and we always would hire staff and they would work as long as we were in that one particular place and then we would dismiss them. And I, I could talk for hours on the problems that we had with our staff trying to hire them in different languages and under different circumstances. Interviewer: [0:38:48] Did you have much contact with the townspeople or the areas that were closed to you? Dorothy Harrison: We had to. Interviewer: [0:38:55] Other than the staff that you hired? Dorothy Harrison: Well, no. I, I must say that we didn’t have contact with the towns because there wasn’t time. I moved 11 times in 13 months on the continent. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: So there was no, there was very little time to, to establish any relationships. We simply – our system was to find the most important person in the community and go to them and ask them who to hire. And they were very helpful in most cases except for the French woman, the French lady who had left Paris to seek safety in the country and her country house, her manor house was outside of Le Mans. She quickly found herself right in the middle of, of battle. And when we went to her for, uh, advice as to whom to hire, uh, in the community, uh, she included 2 women’s names who were decent women and 1 who wasn’t. And she I think was trying very hard to find out if we knew the difference of what kind of women we were. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: And when we rejected the, the, uh, the young woman who obviously, uh, was swinging her hips too suggestively and her eyes were a little bit too eager and she was too young and too beautiful and too used if that’s – I mean, you, you just have an instinct for this or we had developed it by that time. At any rate, we questioned the woman about this particular reference. We asked if she was of good family and a respectable girl and, uh, at that point she accepted us as being proper young ladies. We had no trouble after that. Interviewer: [0:40:37] The clubs that you set up, did you have enlisted men and officers or were there different times for officers or enlisted? Dorothy Harrison: We served only the enlisted men. These clubs were set up for the benefit of the enlisted personnel. And, uh, if we sometimes entertained officers after hours, it was our own kindness of doing this. And we sometimes would give men who had worked all night on, on, for instance, photo reconnaissance units. You take the pictures in the daytime and develop them all night and you look at the pictures at night so they can tell what to bomb the next day. And so the men oftentimes worked all night and under these circumstances we would give them free doughnuts. They would, the rejects, the, the, uh, the – what do I want to say? The leftovers [inaudible 0:41:31]. Uh, in England you see we ran snack bars. We actually had sandwiches and, and a rather full menu. When we got on the continent, we served only doughnuts and coffee, so we had to make the doughnuts and we had to make the coffee. Interviewer: [0:41:46] Did your uniform change as you progressed [inaudible 0:41:49]? Dorothy Harrison: Oh yes. I – we got a beautiful tailored uniform on, done on Bond Street in London. I liked it very much. It was a heavy wool and blue and a little cap with a bill and we used to wear red woolen scarfs with it, so the little touch of bright red made it a very attractive uniform. And then on the continent they sent us a very dull, somebody else’s idea of how we should look, and it was sort of a dark gray and a loose coat belted and, uh, um, a hat that sat on the side of your head, which I didn’t find particularly – it didn’t quite suit my beauty. [chuckle] Interviewer: [0:42:33] That was your dress uniform. What about your working uniform? Dorothy Harrison: No, no. That was, those were our working uniforms. Interviewer: [0:42:38] Those were skirts? Dorothy Harrison: Skirts and, and, uh, um, and jackets. Interviewer: [0:42:44] No G.I. clothes worn at any time? Dorothy Harrison: No, we, well, there were, there were slacks issued to, to girls overseas and some of them wore them. Some of the girls wore the slacks, but I had one young man come up to me and say one time “You know so and so?” – mentioning the name of a girl in the Stratford club. “She wears slacks. You wouldn’t do a thing like that, would you?” Obviously, many of the men liked to see the girls in skirts. It reminded them that they were, they were with women. At any rate, uh, I was amused because the poor girl was probably much more comfortable in the slacks. I was given a pair, but I never wore them. Interviewer: [0:43:33] Did you and your brother get together at any time during the service? Dorothy Harrison: Yes. He was sent to England with the Troop Carrier Command and when my, my first cousin also joined us as my partner with the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group and met and married in England a young man of the 93rd, he was the person who gave my first cousin away. She was Helen McDonald. Interviewer: Wow. Dorothy Harrison: And, uh, so John McDonald gave away Helen McDonald and I was her maid of honor. It was a very nice affair. Interviewer: [0:44:09] Dorothy, tell us about some of your memorable experiences. Dorothy Harrison: Well, here’s where the, the – I could go on talking for 2 or 3 tapes because it was all memorable to me. Uh, some of it very sad, as sad as the little Belgium child we saw dead under, under, uh, some straw that his neighbors had covered him up with. He had been playing in a, a pit where there had been a German gun and he had found an explosive and hit it with a rock or done something to, to explode it and it had killed him and a little neighboring boy. That sort of thing is very distressing. Uh, and I could talk about the many experiences, funny and again kind of sad, about our operation of the, of the clubs from time to time, but I think what I would like to talk about here is the week of beginning the 6-, Saturday the 16th of December 1944. And, uh, of course, this is the period of the Battle of the Bulge, and it was Saturday that was the be-, marked the beginning of the German’s Ardennes offensive. At any rate, it was a very memorable week for us because it had so much of the type of thing which we dealt with. Uh, uh, an unhappy, very unhappy, very unhappy events and, and some, some happy events, that kind of strange combination which you find in, in wartime. Nancy Pochan, her name was P-o-c-h-a-n, was my assistant at that time. We were getting ready for Christmas and, um, we had planned to have, um, a, a group of schoolchildren come over to the Chateau Meldert, that’s spelled M-e-l-d-e-r-t. Its French name was Maillard, M-a-i-l-l-a-r-d, but it was a very handsome Belgium chateau. I believe they told me that it had belonged to a former finance minister of the Belgium government. At any rate, we proceeded on, um, this particular, at this particular time, to the school which was nearby in the village of Meldert to ask the children if they would care to accept an invitation to come to a party on, on Christmas Day. Now the men, of course, at headquarters had already spread the word that we were planning this party so it was very amusing to us as we waited to speak to the, to the sister who was the head of the, of this school we could hear the children chanting in the next room, one of the classrooms in English “We thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your kindness.” Interviewer: Ah. Dorothy Harrison: And so we, when the Mother Superior came in, we issued our obviously [chuckle] expected invitation and she said yes very graciously, that they would be delighted to come on Christmas Day and that we were, they were, the children were, would look forward to it. And so we then left the, the children happily expecting the big treat to come. That same day we took some milk powder and some sugar to the local bar café where the owner’s wife had promised to make us some ice cream. And she did as a matter of fact make it for us and gave it to us although we had supplied most of the materials, but she, she would not accept any payment for, for making the ice cream because she said it was for the children and she hated, hated the Germans. On Sunday, this was the next day, the news of the previous day’s German attack came to us at the chateau. And, uh, if we had been in a mood of, of some, some boredom and resigned attention to duties at hand, it, it vanished at that point. I mean we were very subtly aware from reports that there were Germans in, in American uniforms and that they were appearing in American jeeps and they were infiltrating into our lines and that they were driving, one prong was driving straight in our direction. We were at, at Meldert. We were about 15 miles from the town of Tirlemont in Belgium and not too far, maybe 18 miles, the other 20 miles the other direction from Louvain, and Brussels was to the north of us so we were not too far, and about 20 miles from Namur and the Germans were driving in Namur. The, um, the commanding officer, Colonel Smelley, uh, an odd name but good Scottish name by the way, asked us all in a for a dress rehearsal complete with gas masks and helmets and we, we began to think very seriously about what might happen. Now the week that came following that Sunday, on, on Monday, big Sergeant Hill of Supply brought us a magnificent 30-foot Christmas tree which he had cut down. We, we, we knew that there was a rule about not cutting trees in Belgium without permission, but we cut it anyway. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: And, uh, we had a Gothic-styled conservatory where the Red Cross club was set up outside of this chateau. It was called The Orangery, L'orangerie, and we had converted it into an aero club. You could imagine the difficulty of trying to, to black out 30-foot windows. Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: The windows were huge, but the tree was gorgeous. It nearly touched the ceiling when it was fas-, finally fastened upright. And on Tuesday we noticed that extra guards were, were put up all around the chateau and the grounds and the rumors about the, the Germans in American uniform were, were even more widespread and that 6, they said 6 paratroopers had been killed near Tirlemont. Well, I had the fe-, feeling that that was a rumor that wasn’t true, but nevertheless. On Wednesday of that week, uh, I heard that Lieutenant Barnby, one of the officers at headquarters, he was actually a pilot and with one of our, uh, our squadrons that was doing liaison duty at headquarters and he was going to fly some of the officers on an errand to England and I asked him if he would see if he could possibly find a, a motion picture film for the children that – a Donald Duck cartoon or a Mickey Mouse. He was going to special s-, he would be on a big base where they would have a special service officer and as they were to be gone for several days I hoped that he might find something that would be suitable for the children. And so that particular party of officers flew off and Lieutenant Barnby had promised he would try to do something. On Thursday the 21st, that was 4 days before Christmas, the Germans had reached Bastogne and beyond and we were to learn to our horror, uh, because it came to us just as we were stringing the lights on the Christmas tree, that our, our very cheerful, blonde-headed Private Xenos, a Greek American, had been killed in an ambush on a run between our camp and headquarters at Luxembourg. He was the kind of a young, young man who, who would come up behind you and put his hands over your eyes and say “Who, who is it sweetheart?” And just always such a cheerful soul. He had been driving courier to Luxembourg and where the 9th Air-, Air Force Advanced Headquarters was and with him was driving a private by the name of [Henson 0:53:45] who was a real goof off in [inaudible 0:55:48]. He was a tough boy. You could tell from his accent that he came from somewhere around New York, and not one of its better places, but he was a taskmaster at the art of getting out of doing anything, and he was riding with Xenos. Xenos was driving and [Henson 0:54:08] was acting as his guard sitting in the seat, uh, in the jeep which was next to the ditch. [throat clearing] Uh, just as another American jeep was approaching them from the opposite direction, um, [Henson 0:54:28] suddenly yelled “Dive!” to Xenos and he himself rolled out of the jeep into the ditch and at that same just, you know, seconds after he had yelled this to Xenos, I’m sure while Xenos was looking around in his happy, pleasant fashion for what he was supposed to duck from. The shots, machine gun bullets sprayed across the windshield and, um, shattered, shattered the jeep car. Now the jeep rolled into the ditch and the Germans who were indeed in the, in the American jeep [inaudible 0:55:12] got out and they, they went over to look at the, at poor Xenos and his, and his ditched jeep and [Henson 0:55:26] with his machine gun killed them both. They were 2 men. And so he came back a hero, which just shows you that his whatever education he had may have, whatever street education he had made him very quick with the wits because what he had seen was, um, a gun coming outside of, of the other car and he just he, he himself warned, tried to warn Xenos and then he got out himself. On Friday, [Henson 0:56:00] returned on Friday and as I say he was an instant hero. Then that was the same day that we learned that Lieutenant Barnby, uh, had taken off from Burtonwood in England and had slammed into a tree killing himself and, uh, wounding and critically damaging other members of the group. Um, it, the wo-, what the word we had about the accident was that the weather was quite bad, it was foggy, and that Barnby had voted to, to return to the, to the base in Belgium in spite of the weather. And we never, I will never know, no one will ever know whether it bec-, was because he was trying to bring children’s their pictures. Uh, the Friday was also the day that our P-51 Squadron flew to Saint [inaudible 0:57:09] to support Patton’s Third Army leaving only the 33rd P-38s and some Piper Cubs on our airfields. The flight line near the village of Beauvechain, where we used to serve doughnuts and coffee, was largely deserted and the mood of the men left behind, of course, was pretty grim. They were very unhappy. Now this situation in, in Belgium was such that the headquarters company or the headquarters and one company were in the chateau at Meldert. There was not space for the entire group in that area so they had stationed 2 squadrons, uh, in buildings in this nearby village of Beauvechain and they had stationed the flying officers in still another place so what we had done in order to try to serve this scattered group of men was we set up what we called a sub club. We had the big club in L’orangerie in the headquarters, but then we had this little sub club in a private home, we rented it, the upstairs. You came up a little, you came in the front door, you went upstairs to what were the bedrooms, but there was a big hall up there and we used that big hall as a little place where we could serve doughnuts and coffee and we’d take them there in a, in an urn and the doughnuts, of course, getting cold en route but nevertheless. Um, we, we went Friday evening to this little sub club and, uh, we had 2 armed escorts to take us there. They were still afraid of the, of the Germans and we had road blocks we would have to pass and they, they would ask us questions about or they asked our drivers questions about, you know, who was Henry, you know… Interviewer: [0:59:22] For identification? Dorothy Harrison: Iden-, identification purposes some of the questions they asked… Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: …were Henry James wife, who was Henry James wife? Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: So forth and so on. And they were, they were oftentimes baseball questions, and I was so glad they never asked me anything because I never knew anything about the baseball clubs. Um, now the, uh, the, the, the occasion which was coming close to Christmas that, that I feel special about was the evening at Beauvechain when we had brought the doughnuts and coffee and a small Christmas tree. Here we were going to try to cheer up these men who were feeling somewhat apprehensive, whose, whose comrades had left them, who were terribly homesick for their families, and we, all we had was some white stationary, some scissors, and, uh, this little green tabletop tree completely without any ornaments. Years before my grandfather had taught me how to fold paper, snip out portions and then shake it out into a lacy-like table mat or a star or whatever you wanted to make. And my i-, my idea was that maybe other people would know other things that you could fold out of paper or make out of paper. So when the first soldier came up the stairs, the first boy, [chuckle] the first man came up the stairs looking very glum indeed, we immediately said “Well, you must make a star for the tree.” And we showed him how to do this. He said “Make a star for the tree!” He was obviously disgusted with the whole idea and – but we, we insisted and so he sat down and with his big hands and grinning rather sheepishly he cut a lace star out of paper and we put it on the tree. Well, it really looked beautiful, this very white paper against the dark green of the tree and, uh, then the next, the next guy arrived and the first one who had been forced into making a star now joined us… Interviewer: Oh. Dorothy Harrison: …in assisting that the newcomer make a [inaudible 1:01:58]. Interviewer: [inaudible 1:01:58]. Dorothy Harrison: So one by one, as they all came they all made something. Well, they really got very, very clever about it. They made paper dolls and they made paper accordions and they made folded hats and they had, they had flowers and boxes and boats and bells and all kinds of little ornaments they made out of the white paper. And as they were busy and making these things and, of course, kidding each other about the… Interviewer: They were razzing. Dorothy Harrison: Yeah. They were razzing each other about it and drinking the coffee and the, the room warmed up with the bodies in it. It had been cold when we first arrived, but they began to feel better. You could see the morale rising or feel it rising, and then, um, someone began to sing Silent Night when we had finished the tree and the rest of them joined in. If they didn’t know the words, they just hummed. At any rate, they went on from that singing other songs and there was a moment then when the singing was done and the tree was standing there beautiful in its white ornaments that you could just sense, you could just sense their comradeship, their sharing of this night, and their unspoken memories of other Christmases with loved ones had made them feel better and we felt good because that was what the Red Cross was all about and what we were trying to do to make it all a little bit more bearable. For most of the men overseas, it wasn’t the danger of fighting, it was boredom of just doing routine things all the time and we felt we had really made a difference. On Saturday the 23rd, I drove to Tirlemont again with an armed escort [inaudible 1:04:06] with a tommy gun and [inaudible 1:04:08] with his Garand. Now a [inaudible 1:04:10] was one of the members of our, our staff. We did have a few soldiers who would come over or assigned actually to help us in the Red Cross club and he was one of them and I always found him rather a charmer. He was Cajun from Louisiana and I’ve often wondered what, what happened to him because he was transferred from our, our unit to the infantry at the time when the Battle of the Bulge had left vacancies in the infantry and they’d called upon air units to relinquish certain men that might be spared. Now the weather at this time as I drove to Tirlemont was [throat clearing] very pleasant for a change. There was actually some blue sky. It had been very foggy and we found it rather depressing along with the news. When in Tirlemont I bought red roses and poinsettias to bring some Christmas color to the club and for the Sunday services that were held there. I picked up a Saint Nicholas costume for Master Sergeant [Gervase 1:05:25] and some paper boxes for gifts. And then back at Meldert the men off duty helped us decorate the great tree with tinsel, paper, and streamers. We had already put up the lights. The – while we were doing this, the men told us that the villages were very worried about the Germans, really terrified, but they took heart from the, from the fact that the G.I.s were strolling around with somewhat steady nonchalance and also the fact that we had not canceled the children’s party. While decorating the Christmas tree we also interrupted ourselves long enough to run out of L'orangerie to watch a tremendous formation of allied planes thunder overhead in the direction of Namur and Bastogne [throat clearing] and we all ran out as I’ve said to gawk at the sky which was literally filled horizon to horizon with, with bombers. Now I worked late that night at the club and I noticed even more guards around. And it was dark in the evening when I returned to the main chateau from the club and I stepped into the dark entrance hall and to my surprise a flashlight was turned on my face and a male voice asked me who I was. Since I was one of the only 2 women at headquarters the interrogator could hardly have failed to recognize me; however, I played it straight and answered Dorothy McDonald, American Red Cross. And the answer came back “Passed, Dorothy McDonald. Sleep tight.” We had church services on Sunday and a carol service that Christmas Eve night. On Christmas Monday, it was a clear day again. A little before 3 o’clock, trucks drove into the village for the children, I with them, but the children weren’t there. The villagers shouted and made us understand that the children had gone to the chateau and indeed they had, through pathways known better to them then to us, marching with their teachers, never expecting us to pick them up for a mere walk of a mile and knowing exactly when and where the festivities would begin. Our Colonel Smelley for the few hours of the party freed all the men he could. Then, following my formal welcome, the children entertained us with an hour of skits, songs, and little presentations, all of course in Flemish. Now the G.I.s listened with patience and they applauded strongly at the obviously appropriate times. One young man, for instance, of about 10 demonstrated the evils of smoking with gestures of lighting up and getting sick that needed no words although he discoursed steadily. In the middle of his skit, explosions began near enough to gently shake the stone walls and great glass windows. Later we learned at a nearby light bomber base had been hit, but the young man, man never missed a word. The entertainment ended with a chorus of multiple “We thank you for your kindness.” Afterward, the children were then able to concentrate on the vanilla ice cream and the doughnuts brought them by the G.I.s and that wondrous green tree which towered in such splendor over their heads and the arrival of Saint Nicholas in golden mitre and robe. He carried a crook and a sack on his back filled with the donated candy rations which the G.I.s had, had given. Saint Nick was promptly recognized and mobbed. His very American mutter of “geez, wait a minute, wait a minute” was drowned in shrieks and yells from the excited children. Very wisely he dispensed his goodies by throwing them outwards from his pack. The noise [inaudible 1:09:58] around the walls. The children scattered after the treats and eventually everyone had something. The G.I.s carried the littlest children to get them out of the crunch, one coming up to show me his small guest smeared ear to ear with ice cream and his comment, and it was wryly, was “Jesus Christ, look at this little Belgie kid.” As for the Battle of the Bulge, that particular day we heard that Patton and his 3rd Army were moving toward Bastogne which still held out. The Germans’ forward thrust seemed to have halted near La Meuse, which was about 30-40 miles from us. We couldn’t yet feel absolutely certain that the enemy was kaput, finished, but there was no doubt that all of us in the chateau felt more relieved than we had before that [inaudible 1:11:03] Christmas of 1944. Now, Virginia, I know what the next question is that you’re going to ask me, so I’ll ask the questions since you’re preparing us some refreshments and, um, I’ll answer the questions. [1:11:19] The next question is: Can you compare service careers then with the present? No, I can’t. My answer is no, I can’t, because I have no experience with the present service careers, only with the brief brush I had with them in the 2nd World Sor-, 2nd World War. [1:11:44] The next question is: Did you experience conflict between being feminine and being a military professional? My answer is there was no conflict between being a feminine and being a military professional because I wasn’t a military professional, I was a civilian attached to the military. I certainly felt it very important to be feminine in a, in a situation where men were very anxious and eager to keep in touch with home shall we say. We were simply the representatives of the women at home. I don’t know how many times I had men talk about their wives and their sweethearts with me and with the other girls that served with me. They seemed very anxious that we behave ourselves very well. Um, I remember a young man coming to me once and told, to tell me how he had really given this English girl a line. He had told her all sorts of things including that he was going to marry her and take her back to the United States. And I shook my head at him a little bit and he said looking earnestly into my face “Gee, these girls, you can feed’m a line and they’ll believe anything. You wouldn’t, you wouldn’t believe that kind of stuff, would you, Mack? You wouldn’t believe that.” I was at one of my bases called Mack. As long as we’re using the word conflict, where I did find trouble was in dealing with the officers who were supposed to be automatically supplying the Red Cross according to the agreement between the Red Cross organization of the United States and the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force, which, of course, was attached to both of them. I found that instead of being given, um, things which were our due which we had been promised such as transport, I’m very sorry to say that the officers who should have been gentlemen and should have known what was, what they were responsible for, um, tended to want personal favors which was not the sort of thing that, um, I or most of the young ladies that were there or prepared to, to get, to give in exchange for services which we knew we had as our, as our ride. Um, we had to handle these on an individual basis, of course, and we did handle them, um, and still managed to carry on, but it was sometimes not pleasant. I did find that it, it paid to go straight to the colonel who was always helpful and who in all of my commands and then I could go to officers beneath them and say I have asked colonel so-and-so for his permission to ask you if you will do such and such. I had much less trouble after I learned how to do that. The next question is: [1:15:33] Did you use benefits of the G.I. Bill? And my answer, of course, is that no, I did not because I had as a civilian no right to any of the benefits of the G.I. Bill. The next question: [1:15:50] What demanded the greatest adjustment [throat clearing] uniforms, living with others, regulations, lack of freedom, terminology? And my answer is that I didn’t find any of these, uh, an adjustment. I was prepared to tolerate whatever circumstances I found myself in. I accepted whatever assignments I was given and carried out my duties to the best of my ability. I never felt any, um, difficulty in adjusting to what was demanded of me. Um, I did as I have indicated earlier, resent the request for, um, [throat clearing] my affectionate attention in exchange for favors, but that was simply, um, the way some men reacted to my presence in the group, though I must say it was kept at a minimum and was only from certain sources. In general, I was very, I’m very happy to say that most, most of the men treated, treated me, particularly the enlisted men, with the utmost respect and, uh, they even modified their language in my presence. I, I didn’t hear 4-letter words and, um, uh, they always seemed to be on their best behavior so they were in front of their, their members of their family and that pleased me because that was the, what I had hoped I, the way in which I hoped I would be treated. All right. Now the next question is: [1:17:48] What was the most unpopular regulation? Um, I, I must say that I think the person who devised this question must, um, have been thinking of an army setup, not so much a war situation. Regulations can be easily broken when you’re in the field. I used to break them all the time, though I tried to, to, um, live by the spirit of the law if not anything else. For instance, when I say that I, I, I will have to make myself a little more clear. Um, one of the regulations was, a regulation was that if you broke any part of a field kitchen you should go through channels with paperwork and get your replacement part in due, due course back through channels. Now had we actually done that, um, it would have taken us weeks to get a replacement of a very breakable part on a field kitchen and we used them daily, a little copper tube which was continually twisted off by overeager G.I.s trying to, to remove the tube before the thing was actually cooled. So, of course, what I did was I went with my jeep to the nearest supply depot and simply talked the sergeant out of, out of a couple of copper tubes and he fixed up the paperwork anyway he could. I smiled at him and he smiled at me. And knew I needed the tube in order to function, so he gave it to me. Now if you want to say that all, uh, the paperwork of the army is, is unpopular, I’m sure I would not be overstating the thing, but let us say that when you are in the field what you do is you, you do what you must and you get things the way you can. It was called moonlight requisitioning where I was and, of course, I never did it where it would I felt have jeopardized someone else’s operation and I’m sure neither would the supply sergeants have given me tubes if he knew that this was, uh, a, an item which was of crucial importance to the war effort. Now the last question is: [throat clearing] [1:20:28] What did you do after service, your service was concluded? Well, what I did was wait until the Red Cross let me know that my services were no longer needed in the ETO. This occurred in August of 1945, and they told me they would be sending me home shortly and they would give me a brief leave before I embarked for the United States, so I took that leave and I went up to visit friends in England using a hitchhiking system that was universal in, in the wartime. You just simply went to the nearest air base and, and asked for a seat on whatever plane was going where you wanted it to go. And then I, after seeing my friends and relatives in England, I went up to Scotland for a brief rest and it was there in Fort William that I heard that the war was over, that the Japanese had surrendered, that the, the atomic bomb had been dropped and we had V-J Day at last. Had, um, had I been sent back to the United States I could possibly have been sent to the Pacific theater. Some girls had already been sent from the ETO directly to the Pacific, but, um, I had continued on in Europe long enough so that I – this did not happen to me. I, I was then given orders to return to the United States and I came back in, in September of 1945, landing on the Cristobal, from the Cristobal in Boston. I was debriefed in, in New York City where I spent a great deal of time talking about the irritation, some of the irritations that we had met as I have already indicated from certain army officers. I was a little keyed up about it at that time. Then I went back to home to the, to my family, had a month’s leave, and then joined, um, the Red Cross at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas for 6 months as assistant field director. In April of 1946, um, the Red Cross asked all of us to resign from the service if we did not intend to make it a, our career. As I did not wish to continue with the Red Cross in a non-war situation, I decided to return to my profession, which was librarianship and I, I did resign from the Red Cross and journeyed north by train to my home in Michigan. Um, I arrived there in, in April, late April, and, um, there renewed my acquaintance with a young officer and a true gentleman whom I had met with the 363rd Photo Reconnaissance Group. He had gotten a job in Detroit with a, with the Harley Earl Corporation, a designing firm. He himself was an industrial designer, and we renewed our acquaintance and in June of that year he asked me to marry him and I became the following September 14th, Mrs. Edward W. Harrison. We subsequently moved from Detroit. He, he stayed with the Harley Earl Corporation less than a year. We moved to Indianapolis where he set up in business for himself for about 4 years and then finally he rejoined the General Electric Company in Louisville, Kentucky, where we have since lived and, um, actually since 1952 and we have since. This is 1983, we have been here almost 30 years. My husband and I both retired in 1976. I had, after raising 4 children to school age, had gone back to work as a librarian in our local school system, the Jefferson County Public Schools. And after 3 years as an audio visual librarian at [inaudible 1:26:02] High School in this city, I was asked to be director of media services. Actually it was coordinator of media services or coordinator of libraries, but the final title was director of media services for the Jefferson County Public Schools, a fairly responsible position. We had, um, 147 schools and over 200, uh, librarians in the system, 201 to be exact, and, um, I was responsible for this, this, the operation of the school libraries. [throat clearing] This job as I say continued until 1976 when I retired and joined him in his retirement. I had a heart attack in 1977, a rather severe one, and had open heart surgery. I have since had a pacemaker installed. I feel so completely wired at this point like the bionic woman, but I have been fortunate in finding good medical attention and I feel very happy to still be on this earth. I feel that one of the things I have enjoyed doing most in my retirement has been helping the Museum of History and Science here in Louisville establish a library. They – I began with 4 makeshift shelves and about 100 books and we are, I am slowing helping the museum to build its collection up to a, a total of will eventually be around 5000 books. This has been done entirely on a voluntary basis. I am given the wonderful title of adjunct curator, but that simply means you are a professional doing something free of, of charge. And, um, I find it stimulating to still be in the field. And a number of retired librarians have joined me so that we, we have that association still to go on. Otherwise, my husband and I vacation each summer in our summer home in Deer Isle, Maine and, uh, we do some traveling from time to time. We have 4 children who are very dear to us and whom we visit from time to time. They are Priscilla Harrison who married William [Litchman 1:28:58]. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut. And our second daughter is Deborah Harrison Weeter. She married Gregory Weeter of, of Louisville. And Julia Harrison Appleton, she married Bruce Appleton and also lives in Stamford, Connecticut. Debbie by the way lives on a houseboat in Madisonville. Her husband is a marine surveyor so that seems appropriate to them. And our son John Edward lives at this time in the city of Redmond, which is just outside of, um, Seattle, Washington. Oh, excuse me, that’s not Redmond. He’s going to live there he says. He’s currently in an apartment in, in Renton, R-e-n-t-o-n, just outside of Seattle in Washington State and he is a mechanical engineer and works for Boeing there. So we feel that our retirement is very satisfactory, a little dull with the children gone, but still we are contributing still to life around us. And we enjoy concerts and plays from time to time and so it goes. And that I believe is the end of this interview. /mlc