Margaret (Peggy) Reeve 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/853
What's in the full collection?: January 1999 oral history transcript; "You Must Be Fit: The Official Physical Training Program of the Women's Army Corps" published by the Infantry Journal in Washington D.C.,1943, 1st ed.; photograph of "Mail Call" April 1944 Ft. Oglethorpe, GA; photograph of Laura Washburn in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, April 1944; photograph of Margaret Reeve in Ft. Oglethorpe,GA in April 1944; photograph of Helena Seymbroski on "Washday" Ft. Oglethorpe, GA in April 1944; photograph of Margaret Reeve and two other women in April 1944.
Full biography: Margaret "Peggy" W. Reeve (1920-2022), of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, performed secretarial work in the Army Air Forces while serving with Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1944 to 1945. Margaret "Peggy" Wierum Reeve graduated from a boarding school in Providence, Rhode Island, and later lived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she was employed as a secretary for Eaton Paper Corporation. She married in 1941, and while her husband was serving overseas Reeve joined the WAC. On 30 March 1944, Reeve was inducted into the WAC. She was sent the following month to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for basic training. Following basic, she was assigned to Westover Field in Massachusetts, where she did secretarial work in a personnel unit with the Army Air Forces. The unit was transferred in the summer of 1945 to Seymour Johnson Air Base in North Carolina. Reeve was discharged as a corporal on 26 October 1945. Following their discharges, the Reeves moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and later to Anderson, South Carolina, where Peggy Reeve attended Anderson Junior College on the GI Bill. She later took classes at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and worked as a secretary for several local institutions, including the American Friends Service Committee.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Schools and Colleges
Branch of service: Army -- WAAC
Army -- AAF
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Army--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Margaret Reeve with two WACs; Margaret Reeve, center, is pictured with two other WACs dressed in olive drab winter uniform and Hobby hat at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in April 1944.

: Oral history interview with Margaret W. Reeve; Primarily documents Margaret "Peggy" W. Reeve's service with the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1944 to 1945 and her career as a secretary. Reeve discusses her decision to join the WAC in the spring of 1944, including her failure to meet other branches' height requirement; basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia; drilling and marching; her uniform; her reflections on being in the South for the first time; experience as a married woman in the military; and details of her work in the personnel unit at Westover Field, Massachusetts, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, including the protection of payroll cash. " Other subjects include Reeve's employment as a secretary before and after the war and her post-war education.

: WAC on a wash day; Helena Seymbroski(" stands in front of a clothesline holding a box of Rinso detergent on wash day at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, April 1944.

: WACs at mail call; WACs at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, gather for mail call in April 1944.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Margaret (Peggy) Reeve Collection

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