TSgt Vera Barnes Nelson Oral History

title:

TSgt Vera Barnes Nelson Oral History

creator:

Nelson, Vera Barnes (Dodds) (Gilpin) (1919 June 7 - )

subject:

Marine Corps Women's Reserve

description:

Side 2 of 2. Vera B. Nelson (born Barnes, formerly Dodds and Gilpin) was born on June 7, 1919 in Garland, Texas. She grew up in California and Texas with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. She graduated from Ventura High School in Ventura, California in 1937. She took many business classes in high school, so she started working as a bookkeeper at an electrical firm the day after graduation. Soon after getting this job, she moved instead to working as the private secretary for the county superintendent of schools. She then received a promotion to Ventura College, where she worked for the Dean of men and managed the cafeteria. It was while working at Ventura that she decided to enlist in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in August 1943. She went to basic training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The Marine Corps was very strict during basic, including their drill instructor who was unhappy being sent there to train groups of women, but despite any harshness Nelson enjoyed the structure. She isn’t completely sure anymore, but she remembers, on their final day of boot camp, former president Herbert Hoover was present to review the troops. She was sent to Cherry Point, North Carolina to wait for her assignment, but got sick while there. She got out of the hospital in December and was feeling very homesick, so she marched into her captain’s office and requested an assignment in California, which she got. She was assigned to the Naval Air Station San Diego, and stayed on Coronado Island with Navy WAVES for a year since North Island didn’t have barracks for Marine women at the time. There were only ten Marine women at North Island for a few months, so she was trained in all of the squadron offices. After all of that training, she was a part of Squadron 8, Airbase 2, establishing the squadron office and setting up the barracks for the 600 incoming women. Airbase Group 2 was responsible for repairing damaged planes that came in from the Pacific theater. They served there until June 1945, when the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station opened, and they were assigned there. While at El Toro, she played the accordion with a band they formed for bond rallies. She was discharged in January 1946, and in July she married another member of the Marine band she was in, Ray Gilpin. They had one daughter together and lived around the United States for fifty years before Ray passed. In 1997, she went to an Airbase Group 2 reunion and met up with an old friend, Clarence Nelson, who became her second husband in June. When she left the service Nelson had reached the rank of technical sergeant, 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:

Wilson, Eleanor M.

date:

2005-08-15

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

688; 2006.688

source:

MCHC | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

011914

coverage:

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

rights:

Unrestricted