CPT Libby Radus, PhD Oral History Side A

title:

CPT Libby Radus, PhD Oral History Side A

creator:

Radus, Libby (1914 January 23 - )

subject:

Women's Army Corps (WAC) | Army Air Corps

description:

Side 1 of 2. Dr. Libby Radus was born on January 23, 1914 in New York City. Her mother died when she was fourteen years old and her father, distraught by the passing of her mother, turned over the family business of restaurant equipment supply to his brother, but it soon failed. As a result, the family was very poor. After graduating from James Madison High School in 1932, she took a job at R.H. Macy and Company as a packer. By the time World War II started in 1941, she was the secretary for the Rug Department’s buyer. Outside of paying for her lunch at the company cafeteria and subway fare to and from work, she put all that she made towards her family. Libby decided to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in early 1943 and the Army sent her to Daytona Beach, Florida for Basic Training. She was assigned to Stout Field near Indianapolis, Indiana to do office work. Interested in switching locations, she interviewed to go to Officer Candidate School. She attended OCS at Fort Des Moines, then went to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia to attend Officer Training School. At the end of Officer Training School, she was sent to Air Technical Service Command at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio. Her job required a top-secret clearance and entailed keeping track of aircrafts in every theater of the war. She liked the job and remained there until March 1946, being discharged as a captain after three years of service. After her service in the Army, she returned to New York City to visit family and then traveled to Denver, Colorado, eventually finding a job as secretary to the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Denver. Using the G.I. Bill, she later enrolled at the college while continuing to work 20 hours a week as the secretary to the head of the children’s speech clinic. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in speech and became the assistant administrator at the clinic. She later received a master’s degree in speech in 1952. After receiving her master’s degree, she decided to move to Hampton Roads, Virginia and took a job at the Service League School of Speech. In the early 1960s, she received a scholarship to get her doctorate at the University of Florida working under Dr. Paul Moore, a nationally known expert in the field. In 1968 she accepted a position as the head of speech department at Riverside Hospital. There, she helped develop and fund a highly specialized clinic that treated people with cranial facial anomalies. She retired from this position at Riverside Hospital in 1977 but continued to work at the clinic until 1993. Because of the G.I. Bill, Libby became the first in her family to attend college, and she remains constantly amazed at how much her time in the Army impacted her life. When she left the service Radus had reached the rank of captain, and for her service she was awarded the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. She passed away in July 2004. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Bellafaire, Judy

date:

2003-05-02

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

762; 2004.762

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

074552

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-46

rights:

Unrestricted