2LT Frances Lott Ratliff Oral History

title:

2LT Frances Lott Ratliff Oral History

creator:

Ratliff, Frances (Lott) (1920 June 20 - )

subject:

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) | Army Medical Corps

description:

Frances L. Ratliff (formerly Lott) was born on June 20, 1920 in Blackshear, Georgia, where she grew up with her parents and sister as well as her extended family who all lived in the area. After high school, she attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, Georgia and graduated with a BA in English and a minor in library science. Her father had attended West Point but his father passed around the same time he graduated, so he resigned his commission to help his mother, remaining on a reserve commission and getting called to active duty during World War I and briefly in World War II. He loved being in the service, so when women were allowed to join during World War II it was expected that she would. She enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in February 1943. She went to basic training in Daytona, Florida and then moved to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for recruiter training. Her assignment after training was with the 6th Service Command, where she remained for the entirety of her service. She mostly traveled to Lacross and Superior, Wisconsin, and she enjoyed the greater degree of freedom the position allowed her. She was sent to physical therapy school in October 1944, which was an emergency school to help address the high number of orthopedic injuries that required physical therapy for recovery. Studying in this school was tough but she greatly enjoyed it, and thinks that if she had studied medicine earlier then she would’ve pursued that field. After training, she worked at Hines Hospital near Chicago, Illinois as a physical therapist, and remained at this station until she was separated in March 1946 from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She spent a few years working in Des Moines, Iowa at the Iowa Society for Crippled Children and Cerebral Palsy before returning to Blackshear, Georgia with her husband and three children. When she left the service Ratliff had reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant, 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:

Fesperman, Anna McAlpine

date:

1988-10-11

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

579; 1988.579

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

074954

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-44 | 1944-46

rights:

Unrestricted