LTJG Mary Elizabeth Gehman Oral History

title:

LTJG Mary Elizabeth Gehman Oral History

creator:

Gehman, Mary Elizabeth Murrell Husson (1918 February 27 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Mary Elizabeth Gehman (formerly Husson) was born on February 27, 1918 at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, which is where her father was stationed during World War I. She largely grew up with her parents and sister in New York City, often visiting her grandmother in Florida. She graduated from a girl’s high school in New York City and enrolled in Florida State College for women, attending there for two years and transferring to Barnard College in New York. After the attack on Pear Harbor and the creation of the Navy WAVES, Gehman saw an article about it while in Florida and decided she would try to enlist. She was accepted for midshipman school and was sent to officer’s training at Smith College in Massachusetts. They spent one month training as seaman, then two more months training as midshipmen. After training, she was stationed in Miami, Florida and clearly noticed mixed reactions to her presence among the men she worked with. Her assignment there was in the code room—nicknamed the “Salt Mine”—radio shack, and eventually all the landlines on the base. In Miami, enlisted women were all made to live in a hotel, but the women officers had to find housing themselves. She ended up renting a couple of different houses with three other women officers throughout their service. Gehman left the service in 1945 after becoming pregnant when she had reunited with her husband when they were both on leave. When her husband left the service, they moved first to Princeton, New Jersey, then to New York where they lived for forty years. The couple then retired to the house that had belonged to her grandmother in Florida, where they both do volunteer work. When she left the service, Gehman had reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade (three weeks shy of a promotion to lieutenant), and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Moffett, Claudia Beverly Reed

date:

1990-02-20

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

206; 1990.206

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

541643

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1942-45

rights:

Unrestricted