AERM3 Sheila W. Martin Oral History Side A

title:

AERM3 Sheila W. Martin Oral History Side A

creator:

Martin, Sheila (Walsh) (1924 September 15 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Side 1 of 2. Sheila W. Martin (formerly Walsh) was born on September 15, 1924 in New York City, New York. She graduated from high school in Amityville, Long Island in 1941 and her mother always planned for her daughter to go to college. She enrolled in Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and began her studies in the fall of 1941. When the United States joined World War II in 1941 she wanted to contribute, so she joined a program at the Defense Training Institute that trained her for a job in the defense industry at Cornell University. After finishing the program, she went to a Curtis Wright plant in Buffalo, New York to work as a draftsman, tracing copies of blueprints. She knew the work was important but found it boring, so when she was old enough, she enlisted in the Navy WAVES in September 1944. She went to basic training at Hunter College and was put on track for aerography (weather) school, heading to Lakewood, New Jersey after basic. The school took 80 men and 20 women, and she remembers poor treatment from at least one professor and some male students who were especially bitter that they hadn’t been selected as pilots. After three months there, she was assigned to a top-secret project in Washington, DC and worked near American University. The job was somewhat tedious, and she never enjoyed the walk between their barracks and office because there were aggressive Marine guards who liked to harass them by “searching” them for contraband. She was also in the Navy band, which was rehearsing when they found out the war had ended and immediately began playing “Stars and Stripes Forever.” She was still in her enlistment period when the war ended, so she was assigned to Jacksonville, Florida where they collected weather data and recorded it in formats useful to forecasters. She met her future husband, a Navy electronics technician, while stationed here, and she left the service when her two years were up in 1946 to build a life together. She used the GI Bill to attend the University of Delaware and got an English degree in 1948 and bean teaching at Pierce Dupont High School as her husband continued his studies. When he finished his program, they started a family, and she worked as a freelance writer and part-time English teacher at an evening school. When she left the service Martin had reached the rank of aerographer’s mate 3rd class, and for her service she was awarded a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Bellafaire, Judy

date:

2003-08-01

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

608; 2003.608

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

058410

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46

rights:

Unrestricted