Helen Vivian Given Oral History

title:

Helen Vivian Given Oral History

creator:

Given, Helen Vivian (Milam) (1920 July 13 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Helen V. Given (formerly Milam) was born on July 13, 1920 in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from Robert E. Lee high school and attended Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee, Florida for one year before transferring to University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill, graduating in 1942. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, she had already taken civil service exams in the hopes of getting a job in Washington, DC and attending law school, and after the attack she wanted to enlist instead. Her father had also been called up from the Navy Reserve as a doctor and her older brother had left Northwestern to join the Navy. On the first day women were allowed to apply for the Navy WAVES, she was in Charleston taking all the tests. In October 1942 she went to Smith College for officers training, which she finished in January of 1943. She then reported to the Gulf Sea Frontier in Miami, Florida. Their primary job was routing ships through the Canal. She had met her future husband before going to officers training, and although he wanted to get married while she was there, she wanted to finish what she’d started. At first, the Navy had a rule that WAVES could only marry men from other branches of the military, which would have delayed her weeding to her Navy fiancé, but that rule was scrapped rather quickly, and they married in 1943. She and her husband kept missing each other on their leaves, so when he seemed to be sent to St. Simon’s Naval Air Station long-term, she resigned in 1944 and went there with him. Ten months later, she gave birth to their son Billy, who himself joined the Marine Corps. When she eft the service, Given 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:

Finch, Beverly Bradley

date:

1989-02-27

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

133; 1989.133

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

268718

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) |1942-44

rights:

Unrestricted