SK2/C Oletha Jayne Gill Oral History

title:

SK2/C Oletha Jayne Gill Oral History

creator:

Gill, Oletha Jayne (Lowe) (1921 May 11 - )

subject:

Coast Guard SPARs

description:

This is the original, unedited interview audio. Oletha Jayne Gill (formerly Lowe) was born on May 11, 1921 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She and her three sisters grew up very involved in Campfire Association, which was similar to the Boy Scouts. She graduated from high school in 1939 and began working in the office for Campfire, which is where she was working when the United States entered World War II. She first decided to enlist when she went to the post office and saw a Navy WAVES recruitment poster, and instead chose to join the Coast Guard SPARS because a recruiter said she’d have a greater chance of advancement. She joined at the start of 1943, only months after the SPARS were created. By February, she was in basic training at Hunter College in New York. They had to stay there an extra couple of weeks because they hadn’t gotten their uniforms. After basic, she went to storekeepers school in Boston, Massachusetts since she had an interest in accounting. Her first and only assignment for the rest of the war was back in New York at the Brooklyn Supply Depot. She ended up there because they we given two options: Stillwater, Oklahoma or New York, and since she was from Oklahoma she wanted to see something new. While there, she met her future husband who she had, coincidentally, gone to high school with. After dating for a year, they were in Shawnee, Oklahoma for Christmas and got married. At the Brooklyn Supply Depot, she worked in procurement for clothes. She became pregnant while stationed there, and because the military wasn’t completely prepared for that possibility with servicewomen and it was well before her discharge, Gill’s superiors didn’t know what to do and she kept working. She was discharged in September of 1944. She and her husband returned to Shawnee, Oklahoma and she used the GI Bill to go to business college to get an executive secretarial certificate. When she left the service, Gill had reached the rank of storekeeper 2nd class, 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:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2005-04-14

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

341; 2005.341

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

222505

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-44

rights:

Unrestricted