LTC Carolyn Egerton Graves, USA Oral History Side A

title:

LTC Carolyn Egerton Graves, USA Oral History Side A

creator:

Graves, Carolyn (Egerton Smith) (1956 October 8 - )

subject:

Army

description:

Side 1 of 2. This is the original, unedited interview audio. Carolyn Graves (formerly Smith) was born on October 8, 1956 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Her father was in the Army, so she grew up in several different cities in the United States and Germany. When she was twelve years old, her father joined the faculty at West Point, so she went to junior high and high school in Highland Falls, New York. When she was finishing high school, she wasn’t initially considering joining the military because she wanted to go to Middlebury College, where her older sister was a student at the time. When she received her acceptance letter there was also information on the ROTC program there, which is when she found out her father had signed her up to receive recruitment information. She was the only woman in her freshman class at Middlebury interested in ROTC, which had only been open to women for a year at that point. Before she graduated, Middlebury was going to be phased out of ROTC, so they attempted to fit two years-worth of training into her third year. This meant she didn’t get to lead the younger ROTC students when she was in her final year of college. When she graduated in 1978, she was assigned to her top choice – the Ordnance Corps in the tank and ground maintenance track at her second-choice location: Fort Lewis, Washington, which is where her older sister was also stationed. Before getting to Fort Lewis itself, she went to a three- or four-month training at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds School. At Fort Lewis, she was assigned to the 9th Maintenance Battalion as a Platoon Leader in the Armaments Section. She was at Fort Lewis for four years, moving to other positions within the Ordnance Corps throughout. She was stationed in Germany in 1990 when Kuwait was invaded, and the company she and her husband were in was selected to be deployed in Operation Desert Storm. They quickly figured out how to send their children to her brother-in-law in Austin, Texas and went east. Her sister arrived in Saudi Arabia around the same time she did, so they celebrated Christmas together. She remained in Saudi Arabia until April, and was able to talk to her husband every few days while they were stationed in different areas of the country. As of the interview, Graves was still in the Army, retiring in 1998 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. For her service, she was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), and Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emirate of Kuwait). A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Atkinson, Martha

date:

1994-07-06

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

51.018

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

035869

coverage:

Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm—1990-1991 | 1978-interview

rights:

Unrestricted