YN3 Jean Porter Moore Oral History

title:

YN3 Jean Porter Moore Oral History

creator:

Moore, Jean Porter (1920 January 3 -

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Jean Porter Moore was born on January 3, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father had been in the Army Air Corps in World War I. She attended Northwestern University at night, and on the night of the attack on Pearl Harbor she'd been at a sorority meeting where she heard of it over the radio. While she was surprised by the attack itself, she'd had a feeling that the US would enter the war for years already because she had gone to school with many Jewish students who would talk about what was happening in Germany regularly. She worked as a precision inspector when she met a friend training to join the Army Signal Corps, and that's when she decided to enroll with the Coast Guard. They directed her to enlist in the Navy in the summer of 1943, and she served with the Navy WAVES in the Bronx, New York, going through boot camp at Hunter College. After this, she was assigned to work in a captain's office in New York. She felt the need to join partially because she was so moved by the stories she'd heard from friends and classmates about what was happening in Germany and Japan. She also didn't have any brothers, so she wanted to do her part on behalf of her family. She served through the rest of World War II in New York City, working mostly in entertainment planning, helping to coordinate music groups within the Navy, booking commercial shows for them, and writing scripts for shows that the Navy produced and broadcast themselves. This work wasn't to sell bonds, but to promote the idea of women in the military being positive by freeing up men for service overseas. She was almost promoted to the rank of ensign, but remained a Yeoman 1st Class by the time she left the service in 1946. After the war ended, she worked at the Separation Center to inform women of the rights and various benefits they had access to when they left the service. She worked for an advertising agency in New York City after leaving the Navy, and then went to Hollywood for a few years with a radio show before returning to New York. While working there, she met her future husband who was a director on the radio show she was working on. For her service, Jean was awarded the American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Waters, Jay

date:

2021-11-07

type:

Moving Image

format:

Born Digital

identifier:

1350; 2021.015

source:

Voices of Freedom Project

language:

English

relation:

761217

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-1946

rights:

Unrestricted