Cpl Janet Swanson Post Oral History Side A

title:

Cpl Janet Swanson Post Oral History Side A

creator:

Post, Janet (Swanson) (1921 May 31 - 2007 December 3)

subject:

Marine Corps Women's Reserve

description:

Side 1 of 2. Janet Post (formerly Swanson) was born on May 31, 1921 in Stromsburg, Nebraska. She grew up on a farm in Stromsburg, moving with her family to San Diego, California in 1938 due to the drought and Depression. During World War II, she was living with her parents and three siblings in San Diego and working with the Civil Service in the Supply Department at the Naval Air Station North Island. She met her husband, a Marine already in the service for the war, in August 1943 while out with friends after work one day. They were engaged by the end of 1943, and would see each other every day when he would drive her to and from work. In June 1944 he told her that he was being transferred overseas, and she immediately decided to enlist in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. She was enlisted by July and arrived at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for basic training. During basic, her staff sergeant designated her as a platoon leader. After completing training, she was assigned to Air Base Group 2 in San Diego. She appreciated being close to her friends and family, but didn’t enjoy her work there. One day her fiancé’s father, a Marine Corps major, visited and asked how she liked her station, and she answered she didn’t feel very useful. Six weeks later she was reassigned to the legal section at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and lived in Henderson Hall in Virginia. In June 1945, her husband flew to D.C. on emergency leave after his father had a heart attack and they decided to get married at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, receiving approval to do so on July 2, 1945. He was reassigned to Headquarters to stay near his father, and they moved to a small apartment in Falls Church, Virginia together. She remained in D.C. until her discharge in July 1946. Her husband remained in the service after World War II ended, and received orders to Guam. They drove to California together and Post planned to stay with her family until she could meet him at his duty station. She gave birth to their first child nine months later, and they joined her husband in Guam in April 1948. They returned to the United States in December when he got orders to El Toro, California. They were stationed around the United States and in Yokosuka, Japan in the 1940s and 1950s, and had three more children in that time. They settled in California near Camp Pendleton, which was her husband’s final station before retiring in 1958. They had a fifth child together, and she worked at Supervisor and Shipbuilding and Repair for 30 years before retiring in 1991. When she left the service in 1946 Post had reached the rank of corporal, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. She passed away on December 3, 2007. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Wilson, Eleanor M.

date:

2004-01-29

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

751; 2004.751

source:

MCHC | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

073332

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46

rights:

Unrestricted