Maj Janet Marie Kemmerer, USMC Ret. Oral History

title:

Maj Janet Marie Kemmerer, USMC Ret. Oral History

creator:

Kemmerer, Janet (1939 April 1 - )

subject:

Marine Corps

description:

This is the original, unedited interview audio. Janet Kemmerer was born in Lancaster, Ohio on April 1, 1939. She graduated from high school in 1957 and went to Ohio State University for one year. Her parents had 14 children, and she was the oldest girl and second child. She left college after one year and joined the Marine Corps in September 1958 because her parents could no longer afford her tuition. She was one of 80 women in her boot camp company at Parris Island, South Carolina. After finishing basic, she spent 11 months at Camp Pendleton, California assigned to the communications field. She then got transferred to Camp H. M. Smith in Hawaii and was assigned to the Fleet Marine Force Pacific in the communications center. In her free time, she participated in inter-service sports events, and in 1960 the women's Marine Corps basketball team won the all-women's basketball tournament in El Toro, California. After completing her first tour of duty, she went back home to Ohio. 26 days later she re-entered the Marine Corps and was re-assigned back to Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii as an admin clerk. Her next assignment was Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and she then received orders to Parris Island, South Carolina to be a drill instructor from January 1965 to September 1966, and she was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant. Some of her following tours included Camp Lejeune, North Carolina at the Communication Center; Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia as a platoon commander; and communications school at Newport, Rhode Island where she became a 1st lieutenant. She was then assigned overseas as the officer in charge of Communications Center and Telephone Facilities of Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Japan. She then returned to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune as Officer in Charge of the Communications Center, then was stationed at the Telecommunications Division at Marine Corps HQ, Washington, D.C. Her last duty assignment at CGMF Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPac), and she retired from this station in October 1981, after 23 years of service, and returned to Lancaster, Ohio. She trained and completed her education and worked in counseling with abused men and women. Kemmerer retired with the rank of major, and for her service she was awarded Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, a Navy Good Conduct Medal with a star, National Defense Service Medal, Marine Corps Drill Instructor Ribbon with a star, and Marine Corps Unit Citation. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Wilson, Eleanor M.

date:

2006-10-10

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

516; 2006.516

source:

MCHC

language:

English

relation:

654167

coverage:

Vietnam (1964-1975) | 1960s | 1970s | 1958-81

rights:

Unrestricted