Women's History Commons^™

Beth Parks, Interviewed By Sarah Kneeland, Part 2, Mary Beth Clayfield-Parks

MF144 Women in the Military

Beth Parks, interviewed by Sarah Kneeland, February 16 and 23, 2005, Corea, Maine. Parks talks her experiences in the Vietnam War and how she dealt with it afterwards: reasons for becoming a nurse; training at D.C. General Hospital; volunteering as an officer in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC); Viet Cong tunnels underlying the base camp at Cu Chi; attacks against their camp; operating rooms in the MASH and evacuation hospitals; it was the peak of her career; army vs. civilian nursing; attending the reunion; Annie Cunningham, Glenna Goodacre and Diane Carlson Evans; her film “A Chunk of My Soul”; coping …

Barbara Beal, Interviewed By Amy L. Stevens, Barbara Ann Kasnic Beal

MF144 Women in the Military

Barbara Beal, interviewed by Amy L. Stevens, May 1, 2003, in Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, Maine. Beal, age 56, talks about her service as an Army nurse in the Vietnam War; her family and friends’ reaction to her deployment; her anxiety prior to deployment; her training experiences; her preconceptions of the war vs. the reality; her emotional experience of the war; her typical day at the medevac hospital; the dangers of the job; her leisure time; socialization between men and women; her most important relationships during the war; her reception upon returning as a veteran; whether the war …

Christine Dipompo, Interviewed By Sarah Beazley, Christine Ermentrout Dipompo

MF144 Women in the Military

Christine DiPompo, interviewed by Sarah Beazley, May 15, 2003, in her home in Brewer, Maine. DiPompo, age 82, talks about her family background; joining the Women's Army Corps in World War II; her basic training experiences; barracks life; her work as a W.A.C. lab technician; married women being forced out of the lab; working a second job at a plastics factory; her treatment from her male and female superiors; visiting home; social life during the war; meeting her husband, a fellow lab technician; her family and friends’ reaction to her enlistment; the W.A.C.’s scandalous reputation; lesbians in the W.A.C.; her …

Angel Tyler, Interviewed By Miranda Coombs, Angel Tyler

MF144 Women in the Military

Angel Tyler, interviewed by Miranda Coombs, May 5, 2003. Tyler talks about her experiences in the Gulf War. Text: 23 pp. transcript. Time: 00:57:59. Photographs: p14544-p14548.

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Olive Benton, Interviewed By Miranda Coombs, Olive R. Stuart Benton

MF144 Women in the Military

Olive Benton, interviewed by Miranda Coombs, May 2, 2003, in Benton’s home in Bangor, Maine. Benton was born in Etna, Maine. Topics covered include Benton’s experiences in the Army during the Korean War; basic training; segregation of men and women in the military bases; being in Tokyo during the Korean War; treatment of lesbians; homosexuality unacceptable in the military; Benton’s relationships within the military; her marriage and death of her husband; treatment of soldiers in foreign countries; Benton’s willingness to rejoin the military. Text: 27 pp. transcript. Time: 00:41:13. Photographs: p14549-p14551.

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Deborah Owens, Interviewed By Jessica Mayhan, Part 1, Deborah Lynn Owens

MF144 Women in the Military

Sergeant First Class Deborah Owens, interviewed by Jessica Mahan, October 30, 2001, in Owens’ home in Newport, Maine. Owens, born in Clemens, Georgia in 1966, talks about joining the army when she was 18; experience driving trucks in the Army; difference between training for men and women in the army in 1985; tasks as an army recruiter; experiences while stationed in Saudi Arabia; family support of her going overseas; equality of genders in military squads; plans to remain in the army until retirement; experiences in all the places she was stationed. Also included Xerox copies of photographs; 2-page journal. Text: …

Deborah Owens, Interviewed By Jessica Mayhan, Part 2, Deborah Lynn Owens

MF144 Women in the Military

Sergeant First Class Deborah Owens, interviewed by Jessica Mahan, October 30, 2001, in Owens’ home in Newport, Maine. Owens, born in Clemens, Georgia in 1966, talks about joining the army when she was 18; experience driving trucks in the Army; difference between training for men and women in the army in 1985; tasks as an army recruiter; experiences while stationed in Saudi Arabia; family support of her going overseas; equality of genders in military squads; plans to remain in the army until retirement; experiences in all the places she was stationed. Also included Xerox copies of photographs; 2-page journal. Text: …

Colonel Frances Auclair, Interviewed By Kim Sealy And Sarah Lawler, Part 1, Frances M. Auclair

MF144 Women in the Military

Colonel Frances Auclair, interviewed by Kim Sealy and Sarah Lawler, November 29, 2001. Auclair talks about running away to join the army after hearing stories about other’s experiences in it; her parents’ experiences in the Army, followed by Auclair joining the Navy; basic training followed by her first military job; being a hospital corpsman for the Navy; inequalities between gender in the 1970s; a typical day in the military as a woman; her time working in a hospital in MA; her opinion on jobs and work policies; community support for military personal; how leisure time was spent in the hospital …

Colonel Frances Auclair, Interviewed By Kim Sealy And Sarah Lawler, Part 2, Frances M. Auclair

MF144 Women in the Military

Colonel Frances Auclair, interviewed by Kim Sealy and Sarah Lawler, November 29, 2001. Auclair talks about running away to join the army after hearing stories about other’s experiences in it; her parents’ experiences in the Army, followed by Auclair joining the Navy; basic training followed by her first military job; being a hospital corpsman for the Navy; inequalities between gender in the 1970s; a typical day in the military as a woman; her time working in a hospital in MA; her opinion on jobs and work policies; community support for military personal; how leisure time was spent in the hospital …

Colonel Frances Auclair, Interviewed By Kim Sealy And Sarah Lawler, Part 3, Frances M. Auclair

MF144 Women in the Military

Colonel Frances Auclair, interviewed by Kim Sealy and Sarah Lawler, November 29, 2001. Auclair talks about running away to join the army after hearing stories about other’s experiences in it; her parents’ experiences in the Army, followed by Auclair joining the Navy; basic training followed by her first military job; being a hospital corpsman for the Navy; inequalities between gender in the 1970s; a typical day in the military as a woman; her time working in a hospital in MA; her opinion on jobs and work policies; community support for military personal; how leisure time was spent in the hospital …

Colonel Frances Auclair, Interviewed By Kim Sealy And Sarah Lawler, Part 4, Frances M. Auclair

MF144 Women in the Military

Colonel Frances Auclair, interviewed by Kim Sealy and Sarah Lawler, November 29, 2001. Auclair talks about running away to join the army after hearing stories about other’s experiences in it; her parents’ experiences in the Army, followed by Auclair joining the Navy; basic training followed by her first military job; being a hospital corpsman for the Navy; inequalities between gender in the 1970s; a typical day in the military as a woman; her time working in a hospital in MA; her opinion on jobs and work policies; community support for military personal; how leisure time was spent in the hospital …

Joan Strayer, Interviewed By Shavonne Brosnan, Joan Strayer

MF144 Women in the Military

Joan Strayer, interviewed by Shavonne Brosnan, May 8, 2003, Bangor, Maine, about her service in the U.S. Navy and her perspective on women serving in the military. Lieutenant Commander Joan Strayer, U.S. Navy Aviation Maintenance Officer, retired in 2007 after 20 years in service. Time: 00:24:20.

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Petty Officer Lee Oliver, Interviewed By Shavonne Brosnan, Lee Oliver

MF144 Women in the Military

Petty Officer Lee Oliver, interviewed by Shavonne Brosnan, June 1, 2003. Text: 15 pp. transcript. Time: 00:29:57.

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Cheryl L. Martin, Interviewed By Kim Sealy, Part 1, Cheryl L. Martin

MF144 Women in the Military

Cheryl L. Martin, interviewed by Kim Sealy, November 15, 2001, Brewer, Maine. Martin talks about personal and parent’s educational background; decision to join Air Force instead of go to college; military history; “MAINEiacs”; federal versus state military service; time in basic training; benefits; logistics and shipping duties; year off with Fortune 500 company; CCAF; time as boom operator (air refueling); time in Kosovo; war effect on family; Shaw Air Force Base; rank and gender issues; air versus ground combat; experience in “gender free” military culture; officer versus enlisted rankings. Text: 44 pp. transcript. Time: 01:19:43.

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Cheryl L. Martin, Interviewed By Kim Sealy, Part 2, Cheryl L. Martin

MF144 Women in the Military

Cheryl L. Martin, interviewed by Kim Sealy, November 15, 2001, Brewer, Maine. Martin talks about personal and parent’s educational background; decision to join Air Force instead of go to college; military history; “MAINEiacs”; federal versus state military service; time in basic training; benefits; logistics and shipping duties; year off with Fortune 500 company; CCAF; time as boom operator (air refueling); time in Kosovo; war effect on family; Shaw Air Force Base; rank and gender issues; air versus ground combat; experience in “gender free” military culture; officer versus enlisted rankings. Text: 44 pp. transcript. Time: 01:19:43.

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Lisa Powell, Interviewed By Jessica Mayhan, Lisa Powell

MF144 Women in the Military

Staff Sergeant Lisa Powell, interviewed by Jessica Mayhan, November 5, 2001, in Powell’s home in Hermon, Maine. Powell, born in McAdam, New Brunswick in 1968, talks about joining the Navy after high school; her experiences with basic training; moving on to tech school to learn her job; what Powell had to do at her job as a radioman; her time stationed in Saudi Arabia; treatment of foreign women in Saudi Arabia; how she spent her time overseas; Navy paid for her housing while overseas. Text: 7 pp. transcript. Time: 00:29:05.

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Ursula Pritham, Interviewed By Hillary Jackson, Part 1, Ursula A. Bobst Pritham

MF144 Women in the Military

Ursula Pritham, interviewed by Hillary Jackson, November 5, 2001. Pritham, who was born in New York City in 1955, talks about her background (Swiss); serving in the Army Nurse Core; serving stateside, in Germany, and in Korea; initial training; Vietnam; Gulf War; husband; typical day; toll on family; public support; funny moments; husband’s experiences in the military; his views of the military; travel; male/female relationships in the military; relationships among the women; harassment; her thoughts about the military. Text: 24 pp. transcript. Time: 01:30:05.

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Ursula Pritham, Interviewed By Hillary Jackson, Part 2, Ursula A. Bobst Pritham

MF144 Women in the Military

Ursula Pritham, interviewed by Hillary Jackson, November 5, 2001. Pritham, who was born in New York City in 1955, talks about her background (Swiss); serving in the Army Nurse Core; serving stateside, in Germany, and in Korea; initial training; Vietnam; Gulf War; husband; typical day; toll on family; public support; funny moments; husband’s experiences in the military; his views of the military; travel; male/female relationships in the military; relationships among the women; harassment; her thoughts about the military. Text: 24 pp. transcript. Time: 01:30:05.

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Ursula Pritham, Interviewed By Hillary Jackson, Part 3, Ursula A. Bobst Pritham

MF144 Women in the Military

Ursula Pritham, interviewed by Hillary Jackson, November 5, 2001. Pritham, who was born in New York City in 1955, talks about her background (Swiss); serving in the Army Nurse Core; serving stateside, in Germany, and in Korea; initial training; Vietnam; Gulf War; husband; typical day; toll on family; public support; funny moments; husband’s experiences in the military; his views of the military; travel; male/female relationships in the military; relationships among the women; harassment; her thoughts about the military. Text: 24 pp. transcript. Time: 01:30:05.

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Yvonne Roland, Interviewed By Hillary Jackson, Yvonne Roland

MF144 Women in the Military

Yvonne Roland, interviewed by Hillary Jackson, November 26, 2001. Roland, who was born in Alabama, talks about the days when she was in the Air Force: being stationed in Turkey, Andrews Air Force Basin Maryland, and been to Colorado, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina, and Pease Air Force in new Hampshire; her start as a commissioned officer; Gulf War; benefits of military training; politics; changes she saw; funny moments; Egypt; travel; competitiveness in the military; feelings about the military; women in combat. Text: 13 pp. transcript. Time: 00:29:19.

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Phyllis Sprague, Interviewed By Kristen Frey, Part 1, Phyllis M. Wheeler Sprague

MF144 Women in the Military

Phyllis Sprague, interviewed by Kristen Frey on November 14, 2001. Sprague was born in Newbury, Vermont in 1943. Sprague talks about joining the Army in 1961; a typical day in basic training and then working for the Army; experience as a medical officer in the Army; Sprague’s attitude toward the military and government becoming more patriotic after her service; way soldiers were welcomed home after Vietnam compared to the Gulf War; relationship between men and women in the military in the 60s; having to leave the military for pregnancy; absence of sexual harassment in the Army. Text: 10 pp. transcript. …

Marion Townsend, Interviewed By Phyllis Von Herrlich, Marion Adell Townsend

MF144 Women in the Military

Marion Townsend, interviewed by Phyllis von Herrlich, January 6, 2002. Townsend talks about joining the service in 1942; twenty-eight when she joined the Navy; Hunter College for boot camp training; lived in dorms; went to store keeper school; ordered supplies; was in for two years; trained with just women; didn’t get trained to shoot a gun; it was either get out or go to Japan; naval reserve for two years; type a certain WPM to pass store keeper school; went to Gates Business College; went to the University of Maine for a year then to Farmington; teaching for thirty-seven years; …

Patricia Conlon, Interviewed By Kristin Taylor, Patricia Conlon

MF144 Women in the Military

NA3227 Patricia Conlon, interviewed by Kristin Taylor, November 6, 2001. Conlon talks about her personal and family histories; her childhood in Newark, New Jersey; her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Conlon; being a commissioned officer in the Air Force during the Gulf War; McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey; hers and her family’s reactions to her enlistment in the Air Force; being a mother while serving in the military; Shephard Air Force Base in Texas; her experiences and duties as a flight nurse for Air Evac in Europe and the United States; her opinions on differences between men and women …

Susan “Sue” Murphy-Hammond, Interviewed By Phyllis Von Herrlich, Part 1, Susan Murphy-Hammond

MF144 Women in the Military

Susan “Sue” Murphy-Hammond, interviewed by Phyllis von Herrlich, October 28, 2001, Augusta, Maine. Murphy-Hammond talks about the U.S. Navy: enlisting in 1970; basic training at 18; the strict list of what could be brought; barracks; having to walk paths that were unmarked, punishment if you went off; training with just women; having to have a physical twice; wearing dungarees; 3 uniforms; training with 28 or 30 girls; room standards; failing inspection too many times, didn’t graduate; wearing a wig so she didn’t have to cut her hair; her station in Quonset Point, RI; waves; black shoe; brown shoe; working in …

Susan “Sue” Murphy-Hammond, Interviewed By Phyllis Von Herrlich, Part 2, Susan Murphy-Hammond

MF144 Women in the Military

Susan “Sue” Murphy-Hammond, interviewed by Phyllis von Herrlich, October 28, 2001, Augusta, Maine. Murphy-Hammond talks about the U.S. Navy: enlisting in 1970; basic training at 18; the strict list of what could be brought; barracks; having to walk paths that were unmarked, punishment if you went off; training with just women; having to have a physical twice; wearing dungarees; 3 uniforms; training with 28 or 30 girls; room standards; failing inspection too many times, didn’t graduate; wearing a wig so she didn’t have to cut her hair; her station in Quonset Point, RI; waves; black shoe; brown shoe; working in …

Deborah A. Lee, Interviewed By Kristin Taylor, Part 1, Deborah A. Lee

MF144 Women in the Military

Deborah A. Lee, interviewed by Kristin Taylor, November 8, 2001. Lee, a member of the Air National Guard and was born in Boston in 1957, talks about joining the National Guard and her family’s reaction; job of in-flight refueling of jets; experiences with basic training and specialty training; time in survival school; equality between men and women in the Air National Guard; quality of officers in the Guard; pros and cons of being in the Air National Guard; experiences overseas; how service changes attitude toward military and the government; life after service and keeping in touch with people afterward; what …

Deborah A. Lee, Interviewed By Kristin Taylor, Part 2, Deborah A. Lee

MF144 Women in the Military

Deborah A. Lee, interviewed by Kristin Taylor, November 8, 2001. Lee, a member of the Air National Guard and was born in Boston in 1957, talks about joining the National Guard and her family’s reaction; job of in-flight refueling of jets; experiences with basic training and specialty training; time in survival school; equality between men and women in the Air National Guard; quality of officers in the Guard; pros and cons of being in the Air National Guard; experiences overseas; how service changes attitude toward military and the government; life after service and keeping in touch with people afterward; what …

Deborah A. Lee, Interviewed By Kristin Taylor, Part 3, Deborah A. Lee

MF144 Women in the Military

Deborah A. Lee, interviewed by Kristin Taylor, November 8, 2001. Lee, a member of the Air National Guard and was born in Boston in 1957, talks about joining the National Guard and her family’s reaction; job of in-flight refueling of jets; experiences with basic training and specialty training; time in survival school; equality between men and women in the Air National Guard; quality of officers in the Guard; pros and cons of being in the Air National Guard; experiences overseas; how service changes attitude toward military and the government; life after service and keeping in touch with people afterward; what …

Sara Bilodeau, Interviewed By Phyllis Von Herrlich, Part 1, Sara Bilodeau

MF144 Women in the Military

Sara Bilodeau, interviewed by Phyllis von Herrlich, November 10, 2001. Bilodeau talks about going into service in 1986; marrying a man from Maine; being on active duty in 1992; United States Air Force; “slick sleeve” airman basic; family in military; a building designated for all women in 1986; the 60 other women in basic with her; open bay; guide on; law enforcement; selecting 1 woman a month; becoming a dog handler; training at Lackland Air Force base; 15 weeks of training; being the only female in her group of 6; going to Guam; PRP certification; walking the “red line”; “red …

Sara Bilodeau, Interviewed By Phyllis Von Herrlich, Part 2, Sara Bilodeau

MF144 Women in the Military

Sara Bilodeau, interviewed by Phyllis von Herrlich, November 10, 2001. Bilodeau talks about going into service in 1986; marrying a man from Maine; being on active duty in 1992; United States Air Force; “slick sleeve” airman basic; family in military; a building designated for all women in 1986; the 60 other women in basic with her; open bay; guide on; law enforcement; selecting 1 woman a month; becoming a dog handler; training at Lackland Air Force base; 15 weeks of training; being the only female in her group of 6; going to Guam; PRP certification; walking the “red line”; “red …