CPT Jeane N. McIlwee Oral History

title:

CPT Jeane N. McIlwee Oral History

creator:

McIlwee, Jeane (Newell) (1921 January 20 - )

subject:

Women's Army Corps (WAC)

description:

This is the original, unedited interview audio. Jeane McIlwee (formerly Newell) was born in Junction City, Kansas on January 20, 1921. She was the eldest of four children, and her father was a farmer. When she graduated from high school, she attended business school and got a job with the federal government in Washington, D.C. working as a clerk at the Signal Corps Center. It was here that she was asked to figure out the costs for a new unit which turned out to be a unit of women, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). In 1942, Jeane and her roommate debated joining WAAC, and decided they would later that year. Jeane was sworn into the Army on December 31st of that year. She was then sent to Daytona Beach, Florida for basic training, and from there attended Officer Candidate School (OCS). After OCS, she was first assigned to Fort Devens, Massachusetts and then Fort Benning, Georgia. There, she worked in the Army Special Training Program. That program was shut down after the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 when manpower was urgently needed, so Jeane was sent to the Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis, Missouri. She was then recommended for an overseas assignment in Cairo, Egypt while she was a First Lieutenant. She was in Cairo for ten months as the executive officer of a unit of Army telephone and radio operators. She also ran a warehouse for the PX where she eventually met her husband, a Transportation Corps Warrant Officer. Jeane returned to the United States after the war and was assigned to Fort Des Moines, Iowa. She remained in the WAC and was assigned to the Adjutant General's office in Washington, D.C. and worked in finances. Jeane left the Army in August 1946 and married her husband when he came home from overseas. She finished her college degree at the University of Kansas on the G.I. Bill and taught school for 26 years. She later finished her master’s degree and worked as a consultant for the school district. Jeane was in the first generation of women who received retirement pensions for their own service rather than their husband's work. She passed away in November 2009. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Bellafaire, Judy

date:

2003-11-24

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

627; 2003.627

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

060961

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1942-46

rights:

Unrestricted