Tech 5 Mary Myrilliam Sagan Oral History

title:

Tech 5 Mary Myrilliam Sagan Oral History

creator:

Sagan, Mary Myrilliam (Patterson) (1924 October 3 - )

subject:

Women's Army Corps (WAC)

description:

Mary Sagan (formerly Patterson) was born on October 3, 1924 in Lilburn, Missouri as the fourth of seven children. She graduated from high school in New Madrid, Missouri in 1941 and moved in with her older brother in San Diego, California to attend San Diego State University. She had to work her way through college, so she got a job as an operator at the Western Union Telegraph Company. She lived and studied there for two years before joining the Women’s Army Corps after her boyfriend was killed in the war. She went to basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa and, because of her two years in college, initially planned to go to Officer Candidate School. While waiting for the formation of the next OCS class, however, she realized she did not like the inactivity and requested a position as an enlistee. Her commanding officer, seeing her telegraph experience, sent her to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where atomic bomb testing took place. She traveled there on her own, and a staff car drove her from the train station to the site itself. Once there, she was trained as a cryptographer to both receiving and decoding messages, and encoding and sending them. They were very closely monitored and restricted. Their mail was heavily censored, they had to get permission slips to date officers, and their appearance was closely policed. She remained at Los Alamos until World War II ended after about one year there. She returned to San Diego to finish her studies, and was able to take back the exact same job she had before enlisting. The telegraph company was instituting a new system, and asked Sagan if she was interested in going to San Francisco, California to teach the new system to employees there. She took them up on the offer despite having to withdraw from her college courses. She moved and worked there full-time, but still didn’t feel like she was occupied. She got a part-time job at a French laundry as an office manager and bookkeeper. One of the two men running the business wanted a change, so the other owner gave her a loan to buy him out of his stake in the business. She then used the GI Bill to learn French since all of the employees spoke the language, and within a couple of years she purchased the other half of the business. The city of San Francisco bought the original location from her for a parking lot, so she moved the business and used the money to open additional locations. The expansion was so successful she retired at age 39. She then married Naval officer, and they spent their life since traveling the world. When she left the service Sagan had reached the rank of technician 5th grade, and for her service she was awarded an Army Meritorious Unit Commendation, Army Good Conduct Medal, Women’s Army Corps Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Bellafaire, Judy

date:

2003-07-24

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

813; 2003.813

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

552498

coverage:

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

rights:

Unrestricted