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Women’s History Month – Writing about the Women of World War II

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March is Women’s History Month. A month in which we honor the women in our families, communities, and the world. How are you honoring the women in your family who lived during World War II? It doesn’t matter if one of your female ancestors served in the military or Red Cross. All women participated in the war effort at home and overseas. It is imperative we capture their stories. The war was not won by men alone.

Women’s Roles at the Start WWII

Prior to World War II, the primary roles of women were homemakers, mothers, wives, and daughters. Their main job was to stay home and take care of the family, and run the household. The man’s role was to go into the workforce and bring home the paycheck. This isn’t to say women did not hold jobs outside the home as teachers and nurses, but the overall professional arena belonged to men. As the war years approached, women began to have more options. Many attended college and joined the workforce in office jobs.

After Pearl Harbor, thousands of men were called into service. This created a mass job vacancy across the country. Women were now being asked to take jobs they previously would not have been allowed. As men went off to train and fight, women worked together on the home front and in the service, to shorten the war.

Questions: What family stories do you have about the women in your family during World War II? Who told you these stories? Are there any documents, letters, photographs, or diaries to support the stories? Have you written the stories?

Women in the Military

At the beginning of the war, the culture and mindset of the United States was primarily that women stayed home to fulfill their roles as homemakers and daughters. As men vacated jobs to fill combat roles, the culture had to shift.

All military branches recruited women, some in auxiliary (volunteer) positions and others in full-military benefits positions. When recruitment began, thousands of women took up the call to serve. Some felt a patriotic duty to their country, while other women took up the fight for a loved one who had been killed. Some women sought adventure and a release from their “boring” lives. The military provided an opportunity to see the world, even if that meant only new parts of the United States. 

Women in all branches trained, often on college campuses, for jobs in the medical and mechanical fields, parachute rigging, clerical jobs, intelligence work, weather forecasting, and flying. The education and experience gained in the military provided women more options than being a housewife after the war ended.

Army and Army Air Forces

Women were recruited by the Army initially as Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs). By 1943, the Auxiliary was dropped, and they were officially inducted as part of the Army and became the Women’s Army Corps (WACs.)

Navy and Coast Guard

The Navy recruited female volunteers for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES.) The Coast Guard recruited volunteers for the Semper Paratus Always Ready (SPARs.)

Marine Corps

The Marine Corps sought recruits for the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve (MCWR) and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs.) 

Nurses

All service branches recruited women for nursing roles. Women served in both combat areas and the home front in hospitals.

Women who served in the military laid the foundation for women in future generations to have the opportunity to serve in the military. Their service provided the option to work outside the home in jobs that were more technical than clerical. Colleges and universities also saw an increase in the number of women attending. The amazing women of World War II proved marriage was not the only option available. Finally, these women provided the inspiration for all women to dream big, do the impossible, and have a richer life with fewer societal restrictions.

Questions: Did one of your female relatives serve in the military? Which branch? What kind of education did she receive? Where did she serve and what roles did she play? Did she ever consider staying in the military after the war? Did any other women in your family choose to serve because of this woman’s service?

Finding Records for Women

The Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) or service records for women, in any branch of the service, are held at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. You request women’s records the same way in which you request men’s records. Keep in mind the records that burned in 1973 also included women’s records. They were not separated.

NPRC also has Company Morning Reports which are invaluable if your female relative served in the Army or Army Air Forces. These reports will help you document her service history even if her OMPF burned in 1973. Learn more about researching WWI – Vietnam in my military research & writing books.

Women of World War II Writing Prompts

To help you begin writing the stories of your female ancestors during the war, here are a few prompts to get you started.

  1. Did any of your female soldiers join the military or Red Cross during WWII?
    1. Which branch?
    1. What job did she hold?
    1. Where did she train?
    1. Did she serve overseas? Where and when?
  2. Examine the reasons why a woman joined the Armed Forces in WWII. What did she contribute?
  3. How did the family react to the woman joining the military or Red Cross? Were any women disowned?
  4. After the war ended, did she remain in service? If not, what course did her life take and how did it change?
    1. Did she return home to marry or resume her married life? Did she get a job outside the house and remain single?
  5. A lot is written about men in World War II but have you considered women were just as powerful as men during WWII? Write a brief piece on how you viewed your female soldiers as powerful during WWII.

Are you ready to write?

Explore my monthly writing group, Healing the Roots. Visit the information page and sign up for the free workshop. If you enjoy this format, join the monthly writing workshop. March 2022’s theme is Wise Female Ancestors.

Can I Help With Your Research & Writing Projects

If you need help with your WWI – Vietnam research projects or writing projects, I am taking new clients. You can email me at info@wwiirwc.com to set up a phone call to discuss your projects and what’s possible.

© 2022 WWII Research & Writing Center

Women’s History Month: WAC Celia Goldberg

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Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone deserves to be remembered.

Celia Goldberg was a Women’s Army Corps service member I learned about several years ago when the then Superintendent of the ABMC North Africa and I were chatting about those buried there and locating more information. I believe Celia is the only woman buried at ABMC North Africa. I have not been able to find a photograph of Celia, or much about her or her family, but I can provide some information on her life and service.

Women’s Army Corps Details

Private Celia Goldberg was born on 23 December 1898, per military information sheet provided by the NPRC in St. Louis. According to the newspaper article below, she had a brother named Marvin, but this may be a brother in-law as Marvin is not listed in the siblings within her IDPF. Her mother, Sarah Goldberg is listed as her next-of-kin in her IDPF. Her IDPF has a document “Application for Effects of Deceased Soldier” which states she had four brothers. In very light typed text it then says and three sisters. The documentation in the IDPF also states her father died in 1903 (another document states 1924), but does not list his name. That same document shows the information for her siblings. She also had a Will and letters of administration were issued to Daniel Rosen.

She enlisted on 16 April 1943. Her Army Enlistment records states she was divorced.

She was part of the 161st WAC HQ Co at the time of her death. Sadly she died on the USAT Santa Rosa enroute to Algeria at 5:45 a.m. on 29 August 1943. She died of cystic degeneration, right adrenal and acute hemorrhage left adrenal. Her place of death listed on her Report of Burial is listed At Sea. She was not however, buried at Sea.

Pvt. Goldberg was buried at the American Cemetery in Oran, Algeria at 2030 hours on 8 September 1943 in Plot I Row 5 Grave 134. Her final burial location is U.S. Military Cemetery (ABMC) Tunis (Carthage) Tunisia, Plot C Row 11 Grave 13, under the Star of David.

As in many families, there was often one person who after the parents died, were to be the caretaker of a deceased’s memory. Francis Goldberg appeared to be that person, per the letter from the IDPF.

It must not have been easy Celia’s family to lose their mother and hear their sister died about the same time. According to the IDPF it was difficult to reach her siblings to start sorting out the personal effects and legal next of kin.

Celia’s IDPF is 51 pages long but did not contain a lot of family or service information. Her OMPF burned in the 1973 Fire at the NPRC. Since her service was such a short period of time, she likely went through Basic Training and then was preparing to head overseas.

I was not able to locate any additional family information or a family tree on Ancestry. Her family seemed to be scattered around New York and at least one brother in California, per information in her IDPF. If you know more about Celia or have a photograph, I would love to hear about her.

Women’s Army Corps Resources

Fold3.com Women’s Army Corps Collection (A lot of these publications you can find on Internet Archive (archive.org). No need to download them page by page.

George C. Marshall Collection – Women’s Army Corps.

The Women’s Army Corps Book

Article from AtomicHeritage. Women’s Army Corps.

GI Jane Writes from Overseas (PDF)

WAC Recruitment Brochure (PDF)

Can I Help With Your Research & Writing Projects

If you need help with your WWI – Vietnam research projects or writing projects, I am taking new clients. You can email me at info@wwiirwc.com to set up a phone call to discuss your projects and what’s possible.

© 2022 WWII Research & Writing Center

Women’s History Month – Love, War, & Death

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I’m often asked, why did I start researching and writing about World War II? My business began 10 years ago in genealogy. That was my dream and focus. About 20 years ago I started researching my family’s history and my uncle told me about a cousin, Robert Brouk, who was one of the original AVG Flying Tigers. At the time, that meant nothing to me because I didn’t know about the Flying Tigers or much about WWII. Then I started researching……..

Robert flew in the 3rd Squadron with the Flying Tigers and when they were disbanded in July 1942, he returned to Chicago. A month later he met Ginny Scharer and the two fell in love. Robert was ordered to report to Orlando, FL to train pilots in October 1942 and not wanting to be apart from Ginny, he proposed. The two were married late November 1942.

Three weeks later, Ginny watched Robert die in a plane crash in Orlando while training pilots. At 20 years old, she was a widow. No one in the family knew what happened to her after that. Robert’s parents and brother were dead and the story, it seemed, died too. My uncle, in 1996, was retiring from work and decided to investigate Robert’s life. He spent hours searching through old microfilm newspapers in Cicero and Berwyn, IL looking for stories on Robert. He came up with stacks of papers. Robert was Cicero’s Home Town Hero because he had fought the Japanese around the time of Pearl Harbor. His story and appearances in the Chicagoland area were written up in newspapers across Cook County, for months!

For my part, I started investigating the Flying Tigers. I contacted their reunion association and posted a message in 1996 on the Flying Tiger message boards. Nine years later in December 2005, Robert’s widow’s grandson saw my post. Ginny was still alive and had Robert’s AVG war diary, photos of his service, and some things he brought back from Asia.

Ginny and I exchanged many hand written letters and she sent me his war diary. She had also lost her second husband and had been hand writing giant volumes of her family’s history. To this written history she added photos, documents, newspaper clippings, and other items. She sent me copies of the pages that told the love story of her and Bob.

Ginny being inducted into the WAAC. Photo courtesy of Ginny Davis and used in “The Tiger’s Widow”

I sat on Robert’s war diary until 2010 when I started my business and decided, as a bucket list thing, I’d write a book. Robert died so soon after the Tigers were disbanded that he’s barely mentioned in any other books. His memory had to be preserved.

Once I wrote his story, all my other relatives who died in WWI and WWII showed up and said, ‘if you write his story you have to write ours.’ That began the start of my writing career and also my journey into the world of WWII research.

So what happened to Ginny after Robert’s death? A few months later, the minute she turned 21, she joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which later in 1943 became the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She ended up overseas in Egypt where she met her second husband Harvey. What a story they have! Harvey had a brother, Fred, who was a co-pilot on a bomber that went down 2 November 1943 in Austria. He now rests in Lorraine Cemetery.

When I wrote Ginny’s story, The Tiger’s Widow, it was meant to be a biography. However, after my editor went through it and returned it, I let the book sit for several months while I finished writing Stories of the Lost. When I returned to Ginny’s book, it took me four days, a box of tissues, and allowing my heart and soul to crack open, heal, and pour love out into the book. I cried most of those four days I edited and rewrote her story. The book didn’t want to be a biography, but a love story, and Fred and I were to be added as characters.

You never know, when you start a new project, book, or genealogy search, exactly where it will lead. I have learned with each new WWII project I start, book I begin to research, program I write, or client I speak with about their family member’s service, there are always lessons to learn. There is often a tremendous amount of love for the soldier. And there are many unanswered questions that the research or project help to answer, which brings immense healing to the client, myself, and all those living or dead attached to what I’m working on.

We are all connected in this universe through love.

I’d like to share with you some of that connection with the first chapter of Ginny’s story.

Five Hearts Joined Together

Love knows no boundaries of time and space or life and death. It exists forever in our hearts as we remember and honor those who have gone before us. Through those memories we pass life lessons on to the next generation. We teach others there is light after darkness, hope after despair, and love is the glue that puts shattered hearts back together. This is a story of five hearts separated by time and space; hearts which would meet in the perfect moment. It is a story about never ending love that lived on even after death.

A famous pilot met a young beauty and the two fell in love, Robert and Ginny. Their love soared with the eagles. Their time together was brief but they lived so fully in love in the moment, it is as if nothing but death could have broken them apart. Then death knocked on their door and a plane fell from the sky in a fiery ball. One heart silenced on earth but lived forever in death. One heart shattered into a million pieces.

A year later on another continent, two brothers fought a war, Harvey and Fred. The boys grew up as orphans and wanted a heart to come home to. Fred flew a bombing mission over Austria and was lost, listed as missing for a year. Harvey feared the worst and waited for word which came a year after Fred went missing. A brother’s love lived on after death.

Less than a year after Fred went missing, Ginny found Harvey. A chance meeting and two hearts became one. Pieces of Ginny’s shattered heart started to glue back together, slowly at first and then more quickly. Harvey’s heart had finally found its home with Ginny. He was no longer an orphan or alone. They found each other during a time of war when the world around them collapsed in chaos. Together they created a new world filled with joy, love, and the memories of those lost before their time.

Almost 65 years later, another heart emerged. A young woman trying to start a new life after her heart was shattered. She and Ginny, now a widow for the second time, connected. Little did they know the impact that meeting would have.

Five hearts separated by time and space that met in perfect time, would change the lives of all they touched. Their love would span decades. Their life lessons would provide hope to others in the future.

Five hearts joined forever.

Have you worked on a project or written something that helped change or heal you or those involved? Our readers would love to hear your stories of War, Love, and Healing.

You can read Bob’s story in Stories of the Lost. You can read Ginny’s story in The Tiger’s Widow.

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to discuss project options, fees, and time. You can also sign-up for our free newsletter!

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