Sp(S)2 Mary Louise Gaydos Oral History

title:

Sp(S)2 Mary Louise Gaydos Oral History

creator:

Gaydos, Mary Louise (Hryn) (1924 March 15 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Mary Louise Gaydos (formerly Hryn) was born on March 15, 1924 in DuBois, Pennsylvania. Growing up, she had gotten sick a lot, so by the time she graduated high school she wanted to break out of the rut she felt she was in. She passed the physical and enlisted in the Navy WAVES in December 1944. Her mother was very against her enlistment, but her father was all right with it. She saw it as an opportunity to find work elsewhere since there weren’t any jobs in DuBois. She went to basic training at Hunter College in New York for six weeks, and she remembers hating the food there. Their days were very regimented: up at 5 AM, marching, calisthenics, breakfast, classes, march to lunch, more classes, and studying. They didn’t have much time for recreation other than one weekend pass to New York City. After finishing basic she was stationed in Cleveland, Ohio at a recreation center, an assignment that had no connection to her rating. There, she helped with bowling and planning activities, often at the direction of her lieutenant. From there, she was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, she was a personnel supervisor in charge of the girls stationed there. She remembers one night when another girl in the barracks attempted suicide while Gaydos was on watch, so she had to call OD to get her to the hospital. She left the service in 1946 and returned to DuBois. She still couldn’t find work there and felt like she was floundering, so she used the GI Bill to go to DC for Restaurant Training for six months and worked her way up to being a manager. She met her husband, who worked for the government, while in DC and they married in 1969. She loved her time in the service, and credits it with making her come out of her shell and learn to assert herself. When she left the service, Gaydos had reached the rank of specialist 2nd class, and for her service she was awarded with 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:

2004-12-08

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

330; 2004.330

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

507087

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46

rights:

Unrestricted