Sgt Regina R. Honer Oral History Side A

title:

Sgt Regina R. Honer Oral History Side A

creator:

Honer, Regina R. "Jean" (Szabo) (1918 April 12 - )

subject:

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

description:

Side 1 of 2. Regina R. “Jean” Honer (formerly Szabo) was born on April 12, 1918 in Kincaid, Illinois. She grew up with her parents and eight siblings on their family’s farm, which helped them get through the Great Depression. She left school to work after a year and a half in high school, bringing meals to priests in a hospital in Springfield. At 16, she moved with one of her sisters to St. Louis, where they did domestic work. From there, she went back and forth between home and another one of her sisters in Michigan, helping her take care of her new baby. She worked in a factory for a year before returning to hospitals, working as a nurse’s aide in several hospitals between 1937 and her enlistment in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). She initially called the Red Cross to see if she could join but she didn’t have a college degree, so they pointed her towards the Army. She went to basic training in March 1943 at Daytona Beach, Florida and remained there for administrative and NCO school, finishing all three by mid-July. After training, she remained at Daytona Beach through the rest of 1943 as a supply sergeant, mostly ordering uniforms for the next groups of women coming in for training. At the start of 1944, she was assigned as a supply sergeant to the Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee until August 1944. She was then moved to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where she completed medical training for herself and worked as an instructor afterwards. She was very briefly assigned to Fort Des Moines in the summer of 1945, but when she heard that her boyfriend has returned to the States and been discharged, she requested a discharge for herself. It took another couple of months to be discharged, getting married in the meantime and officially receiving her discharge in September 1945. When she left the service Honer had reached the rank of sergeant, and for her service she was awarded a Women’s Army Corps Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2005-05-07

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

447; 2005.447

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

557428

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45

rights:

Unrestricted