LCpl Alice A. Dolbear Oral History

title:

LCpl Alice A. Dolbear Oral History

creator:

Dolbear, Alice Alden (Parrish) (1941 August 21 - )

subject:

Marine Corps

description:

Alice Alden Dolbear (formerly Parrish) was born in Hartford, Connecticut on August 21, 1941. Her father had been in the Navy and met her mother in Philadelphia, and all of her uncles and grandfather were in the services, mostly the Marine Corps. She went to an Italian kindergarten, so she became fluent at the age of 5 - to the delight of her Sicilian maternal grandparents. She lived in Philadelphia from the age of 6 until graduating from St. Mary Grey High School in June 1959, and she was very closer with her grandmother, who she’d see after school most days while growing up. Initially, she entered a convent and remained for 4 years while she earned a degree in education from the Assumption College. However, both she and the sisters in the convent realized that she was not called to holy vocation, partially because she had just been using it as an escape from her emotionally abusive mother. Dolbear then enlisted into the Marines in November 1963, and although her grandmother wasn’t happy about it, she understood. Dolbear went to Parris Island, South Carolina for basic training in January 1964, which she found stressful but not too much unlike her strict upbringing with her mother and the Catholic church. Although they initially wanted to send her to aviation she wanted to go into communications, so she went to Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Virginia where she was a TPX Operator on base. Although she knows some women had bad experiences in the Marines, she had a great time and was very close with the three other women who she worked closely with. She was discharged in 1965 at the insistence of her commanding officer because she had recently married a Marine who had left the service. She lived with him on his family’s farm for 13 years, but after several trips to the hospital she began seeing a psychologist and realized her husband was abusive like her mother had been, so they divorced a few years later and he refused to let her take their children. A year after the divorce, she got her daughter back and her sons chose to live with their grandparents. She remains close with all three of her children. In 1978, she went up to Connecticut and met her half-siblings, and found out from them that her mother had lied to her about growing up, including blaming her for infertility that actually came from an abortion she’d had. She met her second husband in Chester, Virginia while working at a Public Relations Day in town. Recently, she has submerged herself into Red Cross work, the Women’s Marines Association, working with people with disabilities, and other such causes. When she left the service, Dolbear had reached the rank of lance corporal, and for her service she was awarded a National Defense Service Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Wilson, Eleanor M.

date:

2006-10-10

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

240; 2006.240

source:

MCHC | CLIR -Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

201129

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) | 1963-65

rights:

Unrestricted