1LT Martha S. Putney, PhD Oral History Part 1

title:

1LT Martha S. Putney, PhD Oral History Part 1

creator:

Putney, Martha (Settle) (1916 November 9 - 2008 December 11)

subject:

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) | Women's Army Corps (WAC)

description:

Part 1 of 2. Dr. Martha (Settle) Putney was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in November 1916. Her father worked at Norristown State Hospital, and she was one of 8 children. Growing up during the Great Depression everyone in her family worked to help out, working in their garden everyday and taking on odd jobs whenever they could. Education was very important to them, and all of her siblings graduated high school. She felt opportunities were very limited for African Americans, especially in Norristown, and wanted to go to college. In 1935, she earned some money as an aide for the Roosevelt campaign and a connection from it helped her get a full scholarship to Howard University. She majored in history and education to prepare for a teaching position and got a Masters degree in modern European history. After college, she got a job as an assistant stockroom clerk as part of the War Manpower Commission, a New Deal program, and learned typing. She helped train other workers, but felt she was passed over for promotion. This, along with how little she was making compared to what she knew the Army would pay, led her to the Women’s Army Corps recruiting station. After doing well on the Army General Classification Test and being invited back to enroll, Martha received orders to go to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for basic. As soon as she reached Fort Des Moines and everyone was separated by race at the gate and put in segregated companies, Martha understood what segregation in the Army would look like. On base, only 3 places were not segregated: the Post Exchange, the chapel, and the theater. Unlike the Army fort, Iowa and Des Moines did not have segregation laws at the time and many places were open to African Americans. After basic she went to administration school as an officer candidate. There, her barracks were integrated. She encountered some racism while there, and in some cases the Army was responsive and supportive. She also had a bunkmate who was initially very hostile but became friendly over time, with the bunkmate leaving a note on Commissioning Day calling Martha a "fine gal" and signing it as "a reconstructed southerner." In Officer Candidate School she learned bivouac, long marches, gas drills, everything except firearms. After OCS, she went into Intermediate Officer’s School and then was assigned as a basic training company supply officer. She decided to enroll at Adjutant General School (AG) even though African Americans were being assigned to Mess Officer or Quartermaster School. She was accepted to AG School and was sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The group of 10 officers she was with serving as her protector shield, and she had no problems while there. After AG school, her first assignment was a troop transport to Texas. On the way back, she was told she had to sit in a segregated train car on the and refused. This made the conductor upset and he reported her. Eventually, after Army officers intervened and got her back to Midland, she had to take a flight back to Des Moines. Her next assignment was a special training unit and then she was assigned to a WAC Army General Hospital in May 1945, and while some people around the hospital objected to the presence of black women in the area, none of the patients in the hospital itself ever objected and most were quite friendly. She was transferred to Fort Custer, Michigan in 1946, which she found miserable because of how poorly they treated the women stationed there. Wanting out of Fort Custer right away, she asked to be discharged from the Army. She left with the rank of First Lieutenant. Using the G.I. Bill, Martha attended the University of Pennsylvania to earn her Ph.D. in European History, and worked for several decades afterwards as a professor at Bowie State College and Senior Lecturer at Howard University. In 1992, she published When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps During World War II, and in 2003 she published Black in the United States Army: Portraits Through History. She was awarded the American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and WAAC Service Ribbon for her service, and she was also awarded several medal and awards for her contributions as a scholar, researcher, writer, and professor. She passed away in December 2008 at the age of 92. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2004-03-26

type:

Moving Image

format:

Hi-8

identifier:

758.01; 2004.758

source:

VHP

language:

English

relation:

219400

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-1946

rights:

Unrestricted