Bertha Barwikowski (1923-2004) of Stamford, Connecticut, served as a teletype operator in the Women's Army Corps from 1944 to 1945.
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
17 November 2000 oral history transcript; portrait photograph of Bertha in her WAC uniform, circa 1944.
Bertha Barwikowski (1923-2004) of Stamford, Connecticut, served as a teletype operator in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1944 to 1945. Bertha Bielen Barwikowski was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on 3 September 1923 to first- and second-generation Polish immigrants. After graduating from high school in 1941, she worked for the Pitney Bowes Postage Meter Company. Barwikowski enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in July 1944 and attended basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, before serving as a teletype operator with the North Atlantic Division Air Transport Command at Grenier Field near Manchester, New Hampshire. Barwikowski married her first husband in January 1945 and was discharged from the army in May 1945 when she became pregnant. She and her husband moved to Orlando, Florida, but were divorced five years later. When her second marriage ended, Bertha Bielen Barwikowski found work as a waitress and then with the United States Postal Service. She remained with the postal service for twenty-four years. Barwikowski passed away on 31 January 2004.
Women's History Military
Army -- WAC Army -- AAF
World War II era (1940-1946)
World War, 1939-1945 United States. Army--Women
Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
