Veteran's Day - Thinking of Mom

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My Mom was a veteran. I wish I could share more about her time served. We have photos and letters but haven’t taken on the project of organizing them to learn the story now that it’s too late to ask her. When I read the letters several years ago I got the feeling that she was a very different person at that time than the one I knew as Mom. That makes sense because she was 27 or so and became a mom at age 38. In the years that I have memories she was in her late 40’s and older and a much different person then.

This blog post is just meant to gather some of the photos that I scanned quite awhile ago and just found on my computer. My daughter and I have talked of putting Mom’s letters together in a book, transcribing the hand-written ones. I thought of this after seeing a Ken Burn’s show on World War II because of the way he followed the lives of people involved in the war. I think her letters provide a glimpse of the everyday person’s life at that time. I hope that one of us has time to follow through on that project someday.

Young women WACs in the barracks near their bunk beds.

The writing on this photo says “We prepare for inspection. April, 1943.”

Three young women crowding around the bunk beds in army barracks.

“Relaxation after Saturday (?) inspection.”

I don’t have details on most of the photos. I know that she was in Palm Springs.

Letter typed on letterhead from Palm Springs Air Transport Command in 1943.

Here is one letter that I scanned. I have a binder (somewhere) with the others, or maybe my daughter has that now. I’m feeling like I want to follow through on this now. I found this link that explains the origin of the WAACs (Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp) in 1941 and the conversion to the WACs (Women’s Army Corp) in 1943.

Woman in office behind desk with map on the wall and marked 1943.

I have no details on the rest of these photos.

Young woman in Army uniform in 1943.
Young woman in Army uniform in front of vine covered building in 1943.
Head shot of woman in Army dress uniform in 1943.
Letter of thanks for serving in the Armed Forces signed by Harry Truman.

Maybe there will be future posts if I ever find time to dig deeper into this.