Narrator: Wilma Herren Interviewer: Andrew Ward  AW: Describe one of your best experiences at your job?   WH: Well I met my husband. [That is a good experience…laughs].   Narrator: Esther Duncan  Interviewer: Elizabeth Ellery     EE:  Describe one of your best experiences during your time in the military service.    ED:  Well of course I think the best time is when I met my husband.    EE:  So you met him while you were in the service?  ED:  I met him in Paris.  He had been injured. He had been in London, and they were unloading jeeps onto boats, and the cable broke.  And he and another fellow were driving under this jeep when it fell.  The other fellow was killed, and my husband had a broken leg.  So he had to change jobs, but then the military sent him over to France.  And then he was a mail carrier, delivered mail to different offices.  And that's how I met him.  And I think it was Halloween, and they were having a party at some USO or something like that, and 'cause there were always a lot of boys from the front coming back for their rest.  Anyways, they'd come back for maybe ten days then they'd have to go back to the other stuff.  And the girls wanted me to go to this dance, and I said "Oh I, I can't go I'm on guard duty." 'Cause at the hotel, one of the girls, well an MP had to be on duty all night long and all day long, to make sure no one came in the hotel that wasn't supposed to.  And um, so she went and got someone to replace me, so I went to the dance with her. I never did learn to dance.  You know growing up in the country that way, I didn't go to a lot of parties and things.  And um, so several guys came up and asked me to dance, and I said "No I can't dance," then they'd find somebody else.  But when my husband, his name was Iley, I couldn't remember that name to save my soul, but he had red hair so I called him "Red."  And I said, "No I can't dance," and he didn't take no for an answer; he just took my arm and took me out on the floor. 'Course that wasn't a very good dance, the first one.  So then he wanted to take me home; we went home in a HUGE truck, and the back had a canvas cover; you've probably seen these kinds of army trucks.  A lot of us got in the back, and I don't remember now if my husband knew the driver or not, but anyway we got in the front seat.  So they took me to our hotel; 'course we had to be in by a certain time you know.  And uh, but then he called me and we started dating.  And uh, we dated for about six months and uh he asked me to marry him and so I wrote and told my folks. 'Course my sisters weren't happy I was getting married in France. I said "But the two of you got married while I was over here and I didn't get home to your weddings."  So we went ahead and got married and I was married in the American Cathedral Church, you probably haven't heard about that have ya?  That evening, I don't remember now who put it on, but someone had a nice reception for us.  And one of the guys was there with a huge camera, and took all kinds of pictures and I found out later he got drunk and lost his camera (laughs).    EE:  Well, to counteract that question, what was your worst experience in the military?    ED:  I don't know.  Gosh.  I don't know if I had a worst experience.    EE:  Really?  That's good!  ED:  I was sort of disappointed when this girlfriend that went in with me was sent to Illinois, and I didn't get to go. But uh, I don't think I had a bad experience.      Narrator: Eileen Black   Interviewer: Brittany Marlow    BM: What was one of your best experiences while working at Williams Air Force Base?  EB: I think it was partly, all of those girls and women that I worked with were all friendly. BM: Did you do a lot of socializing?  EB: At lunch time we would sit out in the grass in shade with our legs out in the sunshine trying to get a tan, to get our legs brown. We had lunch together. We sort of were a family just there. The girls and women came from all parts of the Valley; some of them were from Chandler, some Tempe and some Mesa, and I don't remember anybody coming any further away than Tempe. But we all pretty well knew each other. BM: So it was kind of fun to socialize, work and make some money?  EB: It was! We would talk about boys or whatever. BM: What was one of your worst experiences that you can remember?  EB: When there would be a plane crash and we would keeping track of the airplanes and the engines and other things…[things] that these cadets were given as part of their equipment, and if there was a plane crash and these things were destroyed we would have to make a record of it. I remember thinking one time while I was doing the bookwork that the airplane was not expendable, and the jacket that the kids wore was not expendable, but the cadet was expendable. And it was kind of a sobering thought to be sitting there putting that into the records. You had to keep records of everything that was not expendable.   Narrator: JP  Interviewer: Marianna McLean      MM: What was one of your best or worst experiences, is there one that stands out in particular?  JP: When I was in New York we did many, many things- insurance papers for the families. And my boss, Commander Henry was gone, my Lieutenant Pomeroy was gone, and there was only the CPO (Chief Petty Officer) Yomen, and he took me to identify a mangled soldier on the subway. He had been shoved onto the tracks and we had to notify the family and bring back his dog tags. That stands out, that kinda lives with me everyday.     Narrator: Muriel Kelly   Interviewer: Brittany Litherland     BL: Describe one of your best experiences during your time in the military service.   MK: VE Day! When the war was over, we went into Times Square with everybody else; we had a lot of fun. The people in New York were wonderful; they had big block parties and oh boy when you were in uniform they couldn't say enough. I wasn't afraid to go on the subways or nothing or buses; they were all very well protected.   BL: What was one of your worst experiences?   MK: Um 1944, big news on the radio (we didn't have TV) big news on the radio was that there was a big circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut and my family was going to it. I knew they were going. As a matter of fact I have an article; I think my son has it though. Well anyway, [it was a] big tent my mother and father and my two brothers were in it at the circus, a lot of people in Hartford didn't get out. My brother was a policeman at that time, my oldest brother. It was terrible for everybody, and I couldn't get through on the phone to call Hartford so I went to the Red Cross two days later. I found out how they were, but my brothers who were in Hawaii and Italy, they didn't find out how our family was for a couple of weeks. I mean they didn't know they were okay. Luckily my Mother had noticed the fire and said "Oh John look over there the tent is on fire." You won't get me in a tent today, no how. I wasn't there but just for that reason. The way my Mother described it to me, she said that the fire just crawled over it and my Father said "hang on to me" so my little brother was only two and I think my other little brother was only about twelve, so they all held together and they got out.   Narrator: Anne Krizanauskas Interviewer: Andrew Ward    AW: What was one of your best experiences?  AK: I just can't pick out the best; there were so many. It was a great experience. The thing I would list which was personal was that I was sent to Europe and there I was able to find members of my mother's family in the displaced persons' camps and bring them to America.