Laura G. Anderton Collection
-
-
Oral history interview with Laura G. Anderton
-
Documents Laura G. Anderton's early life and employment before World War II; her leadership duties in the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1943 to 1946; and her experiences in academia after World War II. Anderton details concern about the war in Europe in the late 1930s, working as the acting dean at Howard Seminary, and her father's reaction when she joined the WAVES. Topics related to Anderton's military experience focus on training and her work with enlisted WAVES. Specific subjects pertaining to Smith College include adjustments to military life, including uniforms and obeying orders; a gas drill; training courses, including ships and aircraft, naval history, personnel, and navy lingo; meeting Katherine Taylor at Smith College; and Mildred McAfee's speech at her Smith College graduation. " Anderton also discusses her experiences as a WAVES officer as company commander in the WAVES Hospital Corps School at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Topics she discusses include assisting with discharges after the war; conducting inspections of men's barracks; the difficulty of informing WAVES of deaths in their families; her relationships with enlisted WAVES; integration of the WAVES; marching a company over someone's victory garden; creating her own drill commands; social life in the WAVES, including boating, driving, and dating; learning about the horrors of concentration camps; watching medical operations; seeing wounded men from the overseas theaters arriving at the hospital; socializing with wounded men; German submarines off the coast of the United States; celebrating V-J Day; and her opinions of President Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Admiral Chester Nimitz. " Anderton also speaks about women in the military. She comments on receiving equal and unequal treatment by men; the public perception of women in the military during World War II; rules and regulations for women in the military; the kind of leaders the WAVES cultivated; the women's liberation movement; and her opinion of women in combat. " Post-war topics relate to Anderton's teaching at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, renamed the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1963, until her retirement in 1986. She talks about the postwar atmosphere at the the institution; residential colleges; working with Dr. Walter Clinton Jackson; her medical research; and her continued involvement with the university.
