Virginia Gilbert Mattson 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.
What's in the full collection?: January 1999 oral history transcript; 1 photograph; 1946 "The Helm" yearbook/pictorial history book about the WAVES US Naval Reserve Supply Depot, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; United States "A Naval Reserve: Ship's company; How we live: Activities, Highlights, Environs"; Waventures Newsletter: Publication of WAVES Barracks, Marrisburg. Pennsylviania, 18 June 1946; WWII Victory Medal; American Campaign Medal.
Full biography: Virginia "Ginny" Gilbert Mattson (1922-2003) of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, served with the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1944 to 1946. Virginia "Ginny" Gilbert Mattson of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, was born on 27 January 1922 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Williamsport High School in 1938 and then attended Dickinson Junior College and Susie Wheaton's Business School, also in Williamsport. Mattson then worked in a women's apparel store. Mattson joined the WAVES in June 1944. She attended basic training at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York, and then completed three months of yeoman training at Cedar Falls, Iowa. She served in the personnel office at the Naval Supply Depot in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, until her discharge in August 1946. Ginny Mattson married Arnold M. Mattson on 11 June 1947, and they adopted their daughter, Katharine Mattson, in 1956. They lived in New York and Greensboro, North Carolina. Ginny Mattson died 19 December 2003.
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

: Cadet Nurse patch with Caduceus insignia, 1944

: Cadet Nurse patch, 1944

: Oral history interview with Virginia Gilbert Mattson; Documents Virginia "Ginny" Gilbert Mattson's early life; her service with the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1944 to 1946; and her involvement in WAVES National beginning in the late 1980s. Mattson recalls her decision to enlist in the WAVES, her family's proud reaction, and her concern about sending a man into combat. She describes her daily life and social activities at both Hunter College and in Cedar Falls, Iowa, during her basic and yeoman training. Mattson also reflects on her work in personnel at the Naval Supply Depot in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she updated the records of men being transferred to the South Pacific. Mattson briefly reflects on her adjustment to civilian life after World War II and her return to her pre-war job. She also discusses her involvement with the WAVES National veterans' organization starting in the late 1980s.

: Virginia Gilbert Mattson; Formal headshot of Virgina G. Mattson in WAVES seersucker uniform, taken while she was stationed at the Naval Supply Depot in Mechanicsburg, PA, from 1945 to 1946.