Ilene Hall Joined the Army to Find Her Husband in the Middle of WWII

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Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports, and from business to history, and everything in between, including your stories. There are some of our favorites. Our next story, well, it’s one about service, love, and sacrifice. Let’s follow Eileen Hall’s incredible journey across Europe as she searches for her husband in the middle of World War II. Eileen was a member in the Woman’s Army Corps, or WHACK. We got together with Eileen and her daughter, Sherry, who both live in Canton, Ohio. Here’s Eileen.

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Speaker 2: I’m from Canton, Ohio. I was born in ten eleven, ’23, and my mother and dad had a restaurant in downtown Canton, and we had a hotel up above the restaurant, and that’s where I was raised. We lived right across the street from McKinley High School, so all I had to do was walk for high school was walk across the street and go to school. After my mother made it to my high school graduation, and shortly after that, she passed on, and my dad remarried. And I felt very uncomfortable at home with a different mother, really. And you were working at Kimpkin and Roll Bearing Company. So it’s a long time. That’s seventy-five years ago, you know, so I’m trying to remember a lot of it. I’ll never forget. But and there I met a girl, and we became friends, and we worked in the stationary supply office. And she had a boyfriend from Galli and Ohio, and every time he came up to her, he brought his brother. So she said, “Do you think you’d mind dating his brother if he brings him up?” And I said, “Oh, no.” Well, that was it because we just melded together, and it just worked out. So but he was being drafted, like all the… he was going to be sent to Oklahoma. So after my dad remarried, I just didn’t feel comfortable at home. So I said, “I think I always wanted to go to California.” So I said, “I think I’ll go to California because I’ve always wanted to go there.” So I boarded a train, and it stopped in Oklahoma, and I thought, “Well, I’ll just see, you know, him while I’m here.” So that’s as far as I got. We got married after I was there a few days. We had to go through blood tests, and it was really, you know. So, and we were married in a parson’s office. And then it wasn’t long after that that he was sent overseas. So I thought, “Well, since I’m married to him, I’ll go back home and see what I can do, you know.” So I went back home, and I decided to enlist in the service. So I went in downtown Canton where they had their recruiting office and told them I would like to join the Army. Well, the Navy I really wanted, but you couldn’t get in that one until later. So I decided I’d get in the Army if I could. So, even though I was married, I had to get my dad’s consent. Because of my age. I couldn’t do it unless I had my parents’ consent. So I went to where he worked and told him, and he said, “Well, if I don’t do this, you’ll do something else crazy.” So he signed. He was a World War One veteran, so he signed, and I took it back. And after that, I got into basic training in Daytona Beach, Florida. From there, I was I volunteer. They said, as we were being interviewed, the girls that had already volunteered said, “You’ll be sorry,” you know. And so. But I volunteered for everything, so I always got to pick up things that I wanted to do, so I thought that was a good idea. From there, I was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for driver training, and I led a convoy through Georgia as one of our tryouts, you know, to see how we did. And so. And then we had to go in gas chambers and take off of the gas mask and stay for a few minutes and then go out and catch your breath again. And then we had to lay down, and they fired shots over a… you know, to see how we’d react. And then we had to go through other training: abandoning ship. We had to go, you know, to a top of the ship that would be, and go down the sides, and a couple of the girls were just terrified of doing it, so I helped along with them. And then after that was all done, I was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, and I was only there for a little while. The fellows in the barracks were used to having women there, and boy, every time we’d walk out everywhere, shoe, there were guys walking with us. So but anyway, I volunteered. They would asked for volunteers to go overseas, so I volunteered, but there were too many, so I wasn’t going to get to go. But at the last minute, one gal dropped out, and so I took her place. And then it wasn’t long after that that we were sent to Fort Dix, Or, New Jersey, and boarded the Queen Elizabeth and headed for France. So on a ship that in peacetime would accommodate two people, there were twenty-four wax in one room. And then we went on, and we landed at Glasgow, Scotland, in the Isle of Clyde. And there we were met with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and they gave us food until they decided where we were going to go from there. And some of us boarded a train and headed for Sutton Coalfield, England. That’s where I was going to be stationed for a while.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: And we’ve been listening to Eileen Hall’s journey to find her husband in the middle of World War II. A great backstory. You can’t wait to hear more. Sure you can’t either. When we come back, more of Eileen Hall’s story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we continue here on Our American Stories with Eileen Hall’s story. And what an adventurer this lady was, my goodness, and so many other women who served in the war. She wanted to be in the theater and volunteered for it. Let’s pick up, but we last left off.

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Speaker 2: Some of us boarded a train and headed for Sutton Coalfield, England. That’s where I was going to be stationed for a while. So that’s where I had to drive a jeep. I went through the Motor Corps, so I was allowed to drive a jeep and up to a two-and-a-half-ton truck. So I drove the everybody in Sutton Coalfield in England had to list if they had a room available for GIs because they didn’t want the women staying in rooms. They wanted the men to be there. So that’s what I did for a while and got them all done. And then I was sent. I drove a major there. That four of us were drivers, and we all drove an officer. So I drove a major. So we were on call twenty-four hours a day for whatever reason they wanted us. So, but, oh, I had to drive in the fog so bad that I had to put my foot up. They drive on the left side on the curb so I would know where I was going. And because of that, my left leg is not as big as my right one. It took that much. It froze, you know, and I had to go back to the barracks, and they put me behind a bakery, and so I could thaw out. To my leg was so froz from driving. So we had gone through many air raids at night, and one of the gals said, “If I’m going to get killed, I’m going to do it right here.” And so the rest of us decided we stayed together, so that was it, because there were nightly air raids, you know. So after I left England, I went to France and was with the post office there as a driver. So every morning I’d drive into Paris, and you could… there were the streets were empty except for people going through garbage cans trying to get something to eat. People and dogs. And that’s something I’ll never forget. And as I drove to the post office… that I was beat. Just as I drove in, something cracked on the steering wheel, and I couldn’t steer it. But I was already there, so I was. I felt that was a blessing because if I’d done that out in the… you know, out on the streets, it would have been something else. I have faith, and I just felt I’d be protected whatever I did, because I, if I volunteered for something, I felt that that’s what I should do. So I just had a different life than some of the other wax. But the Battle of the Balls was going on then, and they were bringing the wounded into the hospital in Paris, and our commanding officer was called from from the hospital and asked to send some wax down to help. The wounded were coming in so fast. So our commanding officer called me and said, “You know, going to take some wax to the hospital.” So I got a ton-and-a-half truck and loaded it with wax and drove into the hospital and front of the hospital and walked in and hear the GIs are all laying on the floor, and you could just walk sideways. And so they… we would kneel down and talk to him and take, you know, we all went and talk to each one and ask what where they were from, and just got them calmed down before. And then they finally found room for them all. So, but when I had time off, I was allowed to take the jeep, and I became acquainted with two fellows from Iowa, and one was had his left leg amputated below his knees, so he was going to be sent home. And he said he hated to see go home without seeing Paris. And I said, “Well, I’ll see what I can do.” So I went to my commanding officer, told her to the store, and she says, “You take a jeep and show him wherever you want to go.” So where there were two wax in the back, and me driving and him sit beside me, and I took him all over Paris. So he was, you know, excited about that, and we kept in touch for years after I got home home. So, but I got a letter from my husband saying he was going to be sent to the CBI. That’s a China-Burma. And I thought… and I started crying, and the officer was below me, and she came up and wanted to know why I was crying. And I said, “Well, my husband’s going to be sent to the CBI area.” And I said, “I’d probably never see him again,” and she said, “I’ll see what I can do.” So she got me orders attached to Mark Clark’s, but he never knew I was part of his service. So but that got me to early airport and asked, you know, if anybody was going to Paris. And there… there was a plane just out there that was going to be going to Italy. And I told my story to the guy at the desk, and so he said, “That plane right there, you can get on.” So they put down the bomb bay doors, and I walked. And they, one on one side and one on the other, lifted me up and putting in where the gun tour it is. And that’s how I rode from there to…

00:14:10
Speaker 1: Italy.

00:14:11
Speaker 2: And I got off of the plane, and I was standing on the road, and I didn’t realize right in front of me was the Tower of Pisa, because I didn’t realize it was that big, you know. And so I walked out and I started hitchhiking, and along came a British guy in a truck with three soldiers in the back. And one was… They were attending to one. And I said, “What happened?” She said, “He got hurt, but not by fire.” I don’t know exactly how I got hurt. And they’re going into Rome. So they stopped for water, and the driver of the truck had to come back and stand in front of me so I could lean to the back because the people just came from everywhere, and they wanted to touch me, and you know, and I didn’t know what to do. So they looked out for me, and then we left and went on to Rome, to the Red Cross there, and they put me up for the night. The next morning was a Sunday, so it was church. So I went down and went to church, and after a little while, before church started, a fellow sat down beside me, and he looked at my patch. He says, “You’re not from around here.” And I said, “No,” and I told him my story. He said, “I’ll see what I can do.” So the next day he had gotten permission from his officer, and he was able to take me from Rome to Milano. And on the way it started to rain, and the fella didn’t know how to do the top to the jeep. So I showed him how to do that, and he took me up, and my husband was waiting for me waiting there. So we had our honeymoon on Lake Como, and I had our own villa attached to a regular one, which is owned now by George Clooney. And I’m sure George Clooney doesn’t know it, but I’m going to write a letter to him sometime if he ever gets it. The Villa d’Este. Yeah. So yeah, that was the Fifth Army rest camp. So we left from Le Havre on the EB Alexander headed for the United States. As we pulled into New York Harbor, all the lights came on, and they took us off the boat and fed us the best Thanksgiving dinner we ever had. So, and from there we had to go to Fort Dix to get released from the Army. And then I boarded a train for Canton, Ohio. And when I got to Canton, there… there were my husband and my dad, and just welcomed me home. He got home seven days before I did. But other than that, why, I think my experience was something that not too many people have the opportunity to experience. So that’s my love story, and I love to tell it. So, and thanks for the opportunity to tell it. So that’s it.

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Speaker 1: And that’s it, and thanks for the opportunity to let us tell it, Eileen. And what a beautiful story about so many things, particularly just a sheer sense of adventure. Off to Europe to fight Nazis, searching for each other, learning how to drive trucks and tanks, supply lines to defeat one of the world’s worst enemies in history. Eileen Hall’s journey to find her husband in the middle of World War II. Her story here on Our American Stories.