Oral history interview with Betty Etten Wiker, 2008

• Main Author: Wiker, Betty Etten
• Other Authors: Koelsch, Beth Ann
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Greensboro, N.C. : The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. University Libraries 2008
• Subjects: World War; 1939-1945;Korean War; 1950-1953;United States. Army > Women; World War II era (1940-1946);Post World War II; Korea (1947-1963); Army > WAC; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/WVHP/id/4331

Primarily documents Betty Etten Wiker's service in the U.S. Army during WWII and the Korean War. Wiker briefly discusses her childhood and education in Chicago, her reasons for enlisting in the WAAC, and her basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. She describes her assignment at Bolling Field, including her work in the plotting room and motor pool, and being recommended for Officer Candidate School. After briefly discussing her subsequent finance officer and club officer assignments, Wiker discusses being a squadron commander at several bases, including Ladd Army Airfield, where she recalls the cold weather and long hours of daylight, underground tunnels, Russian soldiers on base, and taking a group of WACs to entertain troops on the Aleutian Islands and finding their barracks burnt down when they returned. " Wiker describes being a recruiting officer in New York City from 1949 to 1952. Topics include her travel to find the best looking WACs for the New York office, being stationed on Times Square, marrying her husband, and leaving the army because she became pregnant. She also recalls meeting her husband at a USO dance before she joined the serves and discusses maintaining correspondence for seven years. Other topics about her service include respect from male servicemen; salary; flying along during a bombing mission in Alaska; and being "on duty all the time" as a squadron commander. She also discusses her sister's service with the Army Nurse Corps, including rising to the rank of colonel and being stationed on Tinian Island when the atomic bomb was dropped.