YNCM Anna Der-Vartanian, USN Ret. Oral History Part 1

title:

YNCM Anna Der-Vartanian, USN Ret. Oral History Part 1

creator:

Der Vartanian, Anna (1920 December 6 - 2011 August 4)

subject:

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) | Navy WAVES | Navy

description:

Part 1 of 2. Anna Der-Vartanian was born on December 6, 1920 in Detroit, Michigan, where she grew up with her parents, older brother, and three younger sisters. She graduated from high school in 1939. By the time the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was created in 1942, she was itching to join. She enlisted and was sent to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for basic training. She was then stationed at Fort Mason, California, where she had an awful first sergeant. By the time the WAACs were allowed to either join the new Women’s Army Corps or get out, she chose to leave. When she got home one of her sisters was just visiting after Navy boot camp, so she went to enlist in the Navy as well. After signing up in 1943, she was sent to Hunter College for boot camp. She couldn’t swim, so to get out of the requirement in training she claimed to have athlete’s foot. She then went to Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa for Yeoman’s school, and from there she was assigned to Washington, DC with the Bureau of Naval Personnel. She served there through the rest of World War II, and when the women were given the options to leave or re-enlist she decided to stay. She was one of the first three women to be promoted to the rank of Chief in 1946. Between 1946 and 1949, she continued to work in various clerical roles in DC; Great Lakes; Illinois; and San Francisco, California. She was then stationed in Pensacola, Florida with the Naval Air Training Command in Public Information in 1952. In 1954, she was stationed with the Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl Harbor, still working in public information. She took some night classes at the University of Hawaii while stationed there, which she found quite fun. After two years there, she returned to Washington DC to work as Admiral Gardner’s writer before being stationed in Lakehurst, New Jersey as the head of the personnel office. In 1958, she was promoted to Senior Chief. She was then stationed at the Naval War College as the Assistant to the Global Strategy Officer when she was promoted to Master Chief in 1959—the first woman to reach this rank—before being sent to Paris to SHAPE HQ in 1960. There, she was in the Office of the National Military Representative. Her final station was back in DC before she retired after 20 years of service in 1963. After a year not working, she got a position at the CIA as an analyst in the Middle East, traveling on temporary duty to Tunis, Algiers, Bahrain, Calcutta, Nepal, Germany, France, and Spain. She passed away in August 2011. Der-Vartanian retired with the rank of Master Chief, and for her service she was awarded a Navy Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and National Defense Service Medal with a gold star. A transcript of this interview is available

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Reborchick, Marcy

date:

2007-12-17

type:

Moving Image

format:

MiniDV

identifier:

182.01; 2007.182

source:

CLIR -Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

023774

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | Korean War (1950-53) | Vietnam War (1964-1975) | 1942-43 | 1943-46 | 1946-63

rights:

Unrestricted