LTJG Mildred Eleanor Feichtinger Oral History

title:

LTJG Mildred Eleanor Feichtinger Oral History

creator:

Feichtinger, Mildred Eleanor "Mac" (McLaughlin) (1921 June 23 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES | Navy Reserve

description:

M. Eleanor “Mac” Feichtinger (formerly McLaughlin) was born on Jue 23, 1921 in Falls Creek, Pennsylvania. She graduated from college in 1943 having majored in math, and there was Navy training at her college. She wanted to leave her small town and travel, so she decided to join the Navy since the WACs had a bad reputation. She passed the officer candidate exam and went to basic training at Smith College in the first class of college graduate women sent there. When she was commissioned three months later, she was offered a spot at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that she turned down, instead going to Washington, DC to the Bureau of Ordinance. There, she took a three month course at a Naval Gun Factory. There, she was in charge of production of several types of ammunition as well as moving ships to leave on time with spare parts and torpedo tubes. She also had to travel to meet with contractors, and she was treated well as a woman in part because she refused to take any guff. She wanted to use the math that she had studies and requested a transfer to a Naval Facility in Dahlgren, Virginia, but was refused because they wouldn’t take on a woman. She married her husband, who was also in the Navy, in August of 1945, which was one of the two times she requested to not wear her uniform. She left active duty in 1946 and remained in the Reserves until she resigned under protest in 1949. She stayed home and took care of their children, and she says the American Association of University Women was a lifesaver. She then taught high school for 12 years, and her husband retired from the Navy after 26 years of service between active and reserve duty. She and her husband convinced their son to enlist in the Navy, and he ended up serving in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. When she left the service, Feichtinger had reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Driver, Wanda

date:

2007-01-30

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

292; 2007.292

source:

Greensprings Collection | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

585501

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-46 | 1946-49

rights:

Unrestricted