Sp(S)1 Coralie Farrier Molnar Oral History

title:

Sp(S)1 Coralie Farrier Molnar Oral History

creator:

Molnar, Coralie Farrier (Harnett) (1921 November 5 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Coralie F. Molnar (formerly Harnett) was born on November 5, 1921 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Before the United States entered World War II, she went to secretarial school and began working in an office in New York across the street from City Hall. While working there she would see many women walking by in uniform, and decided to join herself. She enlisted in the Navy WAVES in March 1943 and although her father wasn’t happy about it, he couldn’t stop her. She went to Hunter College in New York for basic training and, after taking the various aptitude tests they were given, she was sent the aviation machinist’s school in Memphis, Tennessee. Although her captain was not fond of WAVES in the slightest, overall the training was quite valuable and she learned a lot. After training, she was assigned to the Opa-laka Naval Air Station in Florida. The WAVES who were stationed there all stayed in Al Capone’s nearby estate. Her job was to set the tolerance on spark plugs, and after doing that for some time she opted to go on mess duty instead. She served WAVES officers tables on mess duty and was given on opportunity to transfer again, this time to Master of Arms at the WAVES barracks. She took this chance, supervising enlisted women as they came to the base. There were five main groups of WAVES on the base: radio girls, parachute riggers, meteorologists, tower operators, and pharmacists. Her husband had served overseas in Italy, where he was wounded twice. When he returned to the United States, she continued her service until becoming pregnant with their first of two children. Molnar received her discharge in December 1945 and left the service with the rank of specialist shore patrol 1st class, 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:

Driver, Wanda

date:

2005-05-12

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

657; 2006.657

source:

Greensprings Collection | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

605092

coverage:

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

rights:

Unrestricted