Narrator: Helen Brenaman  Interviewer: Kristin Sowden    KS: What was the most difficult time for you during your service?  HB: Learning Communications, they go all through the night. 48 hours: 48 hours on, 48 hours off. I was not used to staying up all night [Laughs], but I lived through it. KS: Did you feel a lot of pressure or stress because of that?  HB: No, the only um, pressure, not even stress, was relearning the typewriter. The civilian typewriter has, for example, the number "one" is the small "L". Then the "2" is up on the top on the left. The communications typewriters are all capital letters; there's no small "L", so the one is moved up to the top level and every number had to be moved over. Now, after typing normally for years and years it was a little difficult to learn a new angle. KS: How did you and the other girls and the other people around you entertain yourselves?  HB: We were busy all day; I think we were so tired we almost fell into bed. We had to get up really early. KS: What was it like to be a woman during WWII?  HB: Very different it was so new. I was in the third group that was formed. As I may have said before I was not 21 'til January and the first group was formed the year before so I had to wait 'til my 21st birthday. And we were so new that I was walking along the streets of New York, at home, and people would come over to me just to talk to me because it was so different. KS: Did you face any obstacles because you were a woman?  HB: Only the fact that people, men mostly, came over to talk to me, they thought, "OOH Uncle Sam's giving us nice ladies!" [Both laugh].   Narrator: JP   Interviewer: Marianna McLean     MM: Did you ever feel any pressure or stress during your time in service?   JP: Well the regular Navy didn't like the women and they resented us very much.  And they were sent away overseas. The men bonded more, and the women were disliked more. But gradually they came around.   Narrator: Wilma Herren Interviewer: Andrew Ward  AW: What do you remember about the food rations during the war and other hardships?  WH: Yeah, it was hard to get coffee, things like that. And I lived with my mother until my husband got back. She helped me with daycare for my daughter while my husband was gone. AW: How long was he gone?  WH: Probably about two years. AW: What happened after he returned?  WH: We moved to El Paso after 1949. He was in school here at ASU from 1945-1949. I didn't work for awhile. I enjoyed staying home during that time. After we were in El Paso, he was recalled for the Korean War. So we traveled to Arkansas and Oklahoma. And when he was shipped overseas, I came back here [to Arizona] and worked for the Veterans' Administration. AW: How old was your daughter then?  WH: She was in school, so she was about 8, 7 or 8 years old. AW: How long was your husband gone?  WH: Seventeen months [laughs] because that's all he had left to serve!  AW: What do you remember about those times when your husband was away at war, both WWII and the Korean War?  WH: Well, you had lots of responsibilities. You had to take care of everything...just like I'm doing now [laughs].