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LTJG Evelyn W. Swenson Oral History
Publication date: 14 August 2024
File metadata
Dublin Core Metadata
title:
LTJG Evelyn W. Swenson Oral History
creator:
Swenson, Evelyn (Wheeler) (1921 August 20 - )
subject:
Navy WAVES
description:
Evelyn Swenson (formerly Wheeler) was born on August 20, 1921 in Tilden, Texas. After high school, she attended the University of Texas in Austin, getting a degree in nutrition. Before enlisting in the Navy WAVES, she was working at a chemical plant in Arkansas. After visiting, her mother thought joining the military would be better for her than working in that plant because of the fumes in the plant. She joined in 1944 and went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts for officer indoctrination. They took classes most of the day every day, drilled two or three times a week, and stood at attention and were reviewed by officers every Saturday. After graduating from Smith, she was assigned to Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts with two other WAVES officers. They lived off-base, so they found a place to live together within a few days of arriving in Boston. She was in the Supply Corps, and her assignment involved staying in the supply building overnight. In March 1945 she was sent to Harvard Business School for a three-month course on dispersing and supply before being assigned to Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, where she had to find housing once again with other officers. She was a priorities officer there, and had relieved a WAVE who had been sent to Hawaii. When the war ended in August 1945, she was sent to War College at the Pentagon then to her final station at the Naval Purchasing Office in Chicago, Illinois. She met her husband at this station, and remained there until her discharge in June 1946. When she left the service Swenson had reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade, 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:
Weigand, Cindy
date:
2002-06-24
type:
Audio
format:
Cassette
identifier:
909; 2003.909
source:
Weigand | CLIR - Recordings at Risk
language:
English
relation:
054568
coverage:
World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46
rights:
Unrestricted