Sp(X)3 Lois M. Hoffman Oral History Tape 1, Side A

title:

Sp(X)3 Lois M. Hoffman Oral History Tape 1, Side A

creator:

Hoffman, Lois Ruhf (Ward) (1919 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Tape 1 of 2, side 1 of 2. This is the original, unedited interview audio. Lois R. Hoffman (formerly Ward) was born in 1919 in Snohomish, Washington and grew up further east in Chelan, Washington. After attending public schools through high school, she went to the University of Washington, where she was the president of her sorority in 1941-42. She was a senior in college when Pearl Harbor was attacked and remembers when all of the Japanese students at the university suddenly “disappeared” from campus. She worked at the Army Transport Service in Seattle, Washington, first running a machine and then doing interviews with merchant seamen being hired to get men to Alaska. She briefly had to leave Seattle to take care of her mother after they were told who brother was listed as missing in action in Northern Africa, but she returned to Seattle after some time. Upon her return, she found out her job had been taken by a former Navy ensign and she was getting paid double what Hoffman had, so she enlisted in the WAVES herself. She joined in 1943 and spent the time between signing up and shipping off to basic training at home. She was at Smith College to become an officer, so she had greater restrictions on her behavior than other enlisted women. She was there for 90 days, 60 of which were spent on basic training and the other 30 on learning morse code and how to operate electro coding machines. She was commissioned and sent to the 13th Naval District headquarters in Seattle, Washington. She had met her future husband, an officer who had graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934, while in New York City, and they were married in December 1943 in Chicago since it was halfway between Seattle and Boston, where he was stationed. Although her husband then tried to get her stationed in the east, she ended up instead going to an air base in Tillamook, Oregon. She was the only WAVE there, and her job included getting the base prepared for the arrival of more. Eventually, she was transferred to Norfolk, Virginia where she did code work. She was there on D-Day, and found out after the fact that her husband had been captain on the lead ship off Utah Beach, which hit a mine and was split in half. She only found all of this out when she received a cable from him that just read “I am well.” Her husband returned with the remainder of his crew in July and spent some time with him in New York. When his leave ended he was assigned to the Naval Academy, and since they didn’t have any positions open for WAVES Hoffman resigned. Once he retired they lived in Falls Church, Virginia and she was active in efforts to expand special education services in the area and taught in several different public and private settings, retiring in 1977. When she left the service Hoffman had reached the rank of specialist, 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:

Binker, Mary Jo

date:

2000-06-07

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

438.01; 2000.438

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

042454

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45

rights:

Unrestricted