Capt Sarah Dodd Geiger Oral History Side A

title:

Capt Sarah Dodd Geiger Oral History Side A

creator:

Geiger, Sarah "Sally" (Dodd) (1914 - )

subject:

Marine Corps Women's Reserve

description:

Side 1 of 2. Sarah “Sally” Geiger (formerly Dodd) was born on in 1914 in Manhattan, New York. Her father was an electrical engineer who wanted and was set to serve in World War I, but the war ended before he could be shipped out. He was sent to Norway after the war to work on electrical processors, so the family lived there for six months before returning to a house that her father bought in Brooklyn. She went to a local public school for years, then a private high school, before she graduated and enrolled at Swarthmore College. She graduated in 1936 having majored in biology and minored in chemistry with the goal of going to medical school, but because of the Depression her family didn’t have the money for her to go. Instead, she worked as a special assistant at the Long Island School of Medicine, keeping the department together for six years. When the war began, she immediately wanted to join the WAACs or WAVES, but she got scarlet fever and her recovery pushed her enlistment, so she joined the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve instead. She was told that she was too overqualified to enlist and was made an officer candidate instead. She went to Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts for training with other Marines and WAVES. She was disappointed to be assigned to Washington, DC at the Marine Corps Headquarters in Signal Supply, Quartermaster Corps. She ordered supplies and arranged delivery and storage, and because the materials included batteries, she had to take a course in electricity in Omaha, Nebraska with five other Marine women and enlisted men. She lived in Arlington, Virginia, where Marymount University is now, while stationed in DC. They would often eat lunch at the Navy Annex, and sometimes also at the Pentagon as it was still under construction. The men she worked with outwardly resented her. Although they didn’t directly confront her, she could hear them speculating that she was only commissioned because she was a woman who went to college. She left the service in 1946 after marrying a Marine colonel. Only ten days after they were married, he was shipped to Pearl Harbor. She planned to follow with his son, but he was informed he’d be going to China from there, where he was stationed for 18 months before returning to the United States. When she left the service, Geiger had reached the rank of captain, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Binker, Mary Jo

date:

2000-06-01

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

333; 2004.333

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

033480

coverage:

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

rights:

Unrestricted