Rosemarie Dodd Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Only a part of this collection has been digitized.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/852
What's in the full collection?: January 1999 oral history transcript; Clippings; 2 group photographs in uniform.
Full biography: Rosemarie "Marie" Dodd served with United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1944 to 1946. Rosemarie "Marie" Spagnola Dodd graduated from Scienceville High School in Youngstown, Ohio, and then worked briefly in a defense plant. She enlisted in the WAVES in the spring of 1944 and was sent to Hunter College in New York for basic training. Following basic, she was assigned to Mercer Field, a naval air station in Trenton, New Jersey, where she was an aircraft mechanic. When the war ended and Mercer field was decommissioned, she was sent briefly to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City and then to the nearby WAVES separation center where she was discharged in March of 1946. Following her discharge, Dodd attended Youngstown State University on the GI Bill and graduated with a degree in education. While in college she got married, and she and her husband later moved to Cobb County, Georgia. Dodd worked as a permanent substitute teacher in Cobb County until 1965. She passed away on 29 November 2002.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Navy -- WAVES
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Navy--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Rosemarie Spagnola Dodd; Primarily documents Rosemarie "Marie" Spagnola Dodd's service with the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1944 to 1946. Dodd discusses her decision to join the WAVES in the spring of 1944, including her failure to meet other branches' weight requirements; her family's and coworker's reactions to her enlistment; basic training at Hunter College in New York; and her responsibilities and activities as a aircraft mechanic at Mercer Field in New Jersey. She provides details on her uniform, work schedule, social life, and the reaction of men to female mechanics. Other topics include Dodd's work as a teacher and education after the war, including the influx of GIs at Youngstown State University; the influence and activities of her family members; her take on her role as a trailblazer for women's rights, and general reaction of Americans to women in the military.