Today is September the 17th, 2015.
My name is John Fargo, and I'm a volunteer
at the National Museum of the Pacific War
in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Today I am interviewing Jean Adams concerning
her experiences
during World War II.
This interview is taking place in Mrs. Adams' home
in Austin, Texas.
This interview is in support of the Educational
Research Center for the National Museum of the
Pacific War, Texas Historical
Commission for the Preservation of Historical
Information Related to World
War II. Let's start with a little bit of
background, Jean. Where were you born and
And when?
I was born in Washington, D.C. on December 20,
1919 at Walter Reed Hospital.
That's how I started in the military.
Is that right?
Walter Reed.
I like that.
What was your father's occupation?
He was in the Army?
He was in the Army.
He went to West Point and he was Army Engineer Corps.
And he was stationed in Washington, D.C. at the time.
You have any sisters or brothers?
I have two brothers.
Two brothers.
And both of them were career military.
They went to West Point.
Where did you go to high school?
I went to Gunston Hall.
It was a girls' school in Washington, D.C.
Did you go on to college from there?
I went on to Ogunts.
It was a girls' college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
outside of Philadelphia, Rydell, Pennsylvania,
now part of the University of Pennsylvania.
I see.
Did you graduate from there?
Yes, graduated from Ogunts.
What year was that?
Beg your pardon?
What year was that? Thirty-nine.
What did you do after college?
In those days, I was very sheltered.
My father was district engineer in Galveston,
Texas, taking care of flood control and rivers
and harbors for the Army Engineer Corps.
So I went to Galveston and made my debut,
that's what you did then.
And then after that, my younger brother was
stationed in the Philippines, and they thought
I hadn't seen any of the world, and my brother
and his wife had invited me to come over there
so I went over to the Philippines in 1940, late 1940.
And obviously things were getting nervous
because the Navy evacuated their dependents
in November of 1940.
Is that right?
And I was evacuated back to the United States
in April of 1941, and my sister-in-law was
evacuated in June.
So we were all- 1941?
And then my brother had a battalion of
Philippine scouts, and he was actually captured before
Christmas, before the Bataan March, and so. Did
he survive? He was eventually
transferred up to Japan and then was, survived
and stayed in the military, and
went on. So when you got back to the States...
Uh-huh. It was beginning of
now, just before the war. Right. And I remember
the 7th of December. Then I
I went back to live with my parents and went to
secretarial school, that's what you did then.
You either became a teacher, a nurse, or a secretary.
My mother's close friend was assistant to Avita
Kolpabi trying to set up the WACs, Women's
Army Auxiliary Corps and she and mother were
talking and they thought that my brother being
a prisoner and they were saying that we needed
people to join the Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps because we would relieve a man to go to
war and they needed lots of men and this
war happened, and that's how the whack started,
for us to go into the military and relieve
a man to go to war, which is what I did.
So my father and mother talked me into it, and
my brothers.
You did have the blessing of the family.
They wanted me to, I mean they felt that my
brother being a prisoner and this was a terrible
situation and I should do my best to help out.
So you were one of the first people that enlisted?
I went into the second officer candidate class.
The first one was in June of 1942, and the
second one was late June 1942.
Then we went to Des Moines, Iowa, where we were
taught the, I don't know what, the ethics
of the military.
It was something-how to march.
I was going to ask you about that.
Tell me a little bit about that training.
You know what?
I wish I remembered more.
That was seventy-five years ago, and I've been
trying to think what I could tell you
happen during those six weeks of learning how
to be an officer.
And actually, the only thing I can remember is
the song we had for marching, left, left,
left my wife and 49 children in starving
condition without any bread to eat, gingerbread right
in the middle of the kitchen floor, right where
I had it.
That's beautiful.
That's all I remember, that and a silly thing,
and I'm sure it wasn't true.
I remember it this way, that they were telling
us about, if you're running a kitchen, to
be sure that they didn't use the coffee grounds
more than twice, and I can't believe that
was true, but that's what I remember.
That's great.
You were actually taught by regular Army
people, right?
Yes, the men were up there teaching us. We had
male officers, which I'm sure weren't
very happy to have the job.
How did you feel about that, being away from
home in an environment like that?
Well, I'd been away from home to go to college,
and I'd been away from home in the Philippines,
Actually, it was cold in Des Moines, I wasn't
used to that.
Where did you stay, in barracks?
We were in barracks, yes, we were in barracks,
big open barracks with all of us were in one
room, I think.
Did you each have your own rack or back of bed?
We had our own bed and kind of a footlocker at
the bottom of the bed with whatever we
had owned in it.
Typical barracks.
Uh-huh, typical barracks.
How was the food?
Typical food.
I can't remember that after seventy minutes.
So it didn't impress you one way or the other?
No, uh-uh.
After six weeks, I think it was six weeks, we graduated.
My assignment was to be the officer, to train
more officer candidates.
So I stayed in Des Moines, and then I lived in
one of the officer houses that were there,
and I guess about five of us lived in that
officer's quarters.
So you took the place of the Army-
The male.
The male Army instructors? Uh-huh.
Had you liked the new job?
And I kind of think, as I remember, I think we
still had one overseeing us to be sure
we were doing it right.
But I was the cap-
The leader.
I was the lieutenant and was the commander of
the company, yes.
A company?
Well, it wasn't a company, it was a class, and
I can't remember how many people were
in the class.
How many were in your class, do you remember?
I can't remember that either.
Did you fill up that barracks?
Pretty much.
On one floor? No.
No, you had thirty or so.
It was just an awful long time ago.
Oh, sure. Yeah.
A little over seventy-five years ago, so it's
pretty-you can't remember too much
In fact, I'm surprised you even agreed to talk
to me.
Well, Fran's pretty persuasive.
She's a great lady. Yeah.
Okay, so the thing, I did a lot of reading
before coming over here, because I've never
interviewed a WAC, okay?
You're my first one.
And what was your term of enlistment at that
point? Do you remember? Was it for the duration
of the war?
It was for the duration.
It was for the duration, okay. Did you have any
ability to resign your commission?
I think if you got pregnant you-
you could reside. Okay. So you were in the
auxiliary for about a year.
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, it was a year and
a half, I guess.
Yeah, July 1943.
Three was when they changed it over, and you
had to put your arm up, hand up, and rejoin.
And I had been somewhat-my husband-to-be, I had
known him before the war, and as I say
he was also military family and he was
stationed in Trinidad and while I was still in
Des Moines
he came back from Trinidad and came up to see
me and we became engaged and were going
to get married after the war. But then I was
transferred to Washington, D.C.
And what year was that?
To the Pentagon, 43.
In 43?
And I went to class for about six weeks again
to become an inspector general.
Where was that?
The Pentagon? Uh-huh.
The Pentagon was built at that point? Yes.
It had just been built.
I see.
So I was there in Ovita Hauptkabe's office-I
mean, not in her office, but under her and
under General Faith, who was the Army head of
the WACs.
My husband and Milt came to see me in
Washington, and we decided to get married then.
So we did, and he was transferred to California.
It was pretty hard for him to be in California
and for me to be in Washington. So I went into
General Faith and asked if I could be
transferred. That was Don Carlo's faith? I'm
not sure what his faith was. Yeah, general faith.
I asked him, and he said, Gene, you know we
can't transfer people around just for
their own convenience, and I said, well, if I
can, I'm gonna not put my hand up
and re-enlist. Oh, this was before you
re-enlisted? This was before the Army,
before it became the Women's Army Corps. And I
was making speeches about why you
should re-Enlist. I was going to the different
WAC companies telling
them why they should re-enlist, but I just
wanted to be with my husband too much.
And the next to last day, General Fay sent
somebody in to say, yes, they would transfer
me and I was going to be promoted. And I said,
well, I'd already told my husband I was coming.
And I've always kind of regretted it. I've just
felt like I should have stayed in, but
I didn't.
Well, it's understandable.
They didn't give you any difficulty with regard
to resigning?
No, I'm sure they had other people get out
then, too.
Oh, really?
Oh, it is?
It was right at that time, the transition.
I mean, you either had, everybody had to put
their hand up and say they were going to stay in.
So you resigned before you did that?
So I resigned, no, I resigned the day they did it.
couldn't resign. I had signed up for the
duration in Women's Army Auxiliary Corps,
but it turned into-you had to reaffirm, and I
didn't reaffirm. The only thing I
can say about that is that it did change the
military's ruling on transferring wives
to be near their husbands after that.
They did do it.
Let me ask you something about your tour of duty
as in the Inspector General's Department.
Tell me a little bit about that.
What did you do?
Well, I sat on a couple of court marshals
I remember one was investigated, a kitchen
group of WACs who were complaining that the
work was too hard and the pots were too heavy.
So I went out and investigated that and picked
up a couple of pots and said, see, they're
not heavy.
I almost fell down.
They were so heavy.
And I also investigated the VD raid in Fort
Oglethorpe, which was a training center for
enlisted WACs.
I had to call my husband because I was so
innocent I didn't know what VD was, that's
how dumb I was.
That's why I remember it to this day, because I
had to call.
But that's about all I can remember about it.
Do you remember anything about the
court-martial that you served?
The what?
The court-martial?
Yeah, I do, but that was also, one of them was
a young girl said that this man had raped
her. And my girl, what she did was she went out
with him and she went up to his
hotel room and was staying. In my day, if you
went up to somebody's hotel room, you
were asking for it. So I felt like she hadn't
been raped. Nowadays, I certainly
would say that she had been, but then I don't
think that,
I can't, it just didn't seem like it when she
had been.
Because I was too innocent, really.
So I was only 22, 23, something like that.
And most of the people that went into the WACs
were about 30, 35 or so.
I see.
So they convicted her?
They knew more about the world than I did.
convicted her? No, it was just kind of
half-and-half, I think, but she
didn't get the boy to be convicted, no. Okay,
well, that had to be
interesting. I remember being on the other end
of Inspector Generals, and
And these people were pretty tough.
Well, it was interesting.
I can't remember the other things that I
went-as I say, it was just too long ago.
I remember more about what my husband did in
the South Pacific than what I did, because
he was there twenty-two months.
You joined him out in California.
Where in California?
Hamilton Field.
He had a group of P-39s out there,
and then he left three months after I got there.
Oh, really?
And went to the Pacific,
and went all through Guadalcanal,
and the Solomons, and the Philippines,
and came home.
He had a group of P-39s,
and then they got P-38s.
And so he was there.
Twenty-two months overseas.
Twenty-two months, uh-huh.
Came back to California?
And back, no, back to Texas. Texas.
Mm-Hmm, was where we went first.
Were you, that 22 months?
Actually, he was supposed, he came back
after the 22 months on leave.
And I was up in, my father had retired
and I was in Portland, Oregon.
I had been, during the 22 months,
I was a service club hostess for enlisted personnel
and at Fort Lewis, Washington.
And then, so when he came back, he was supposed
to go back and have a wing to go into Japan,
but we dropped the atomic bombs so he didn't go back.
So I'm very glad they dropped that bomb.
Yeah, sure, a lot of people are very happy.
So he came back and went down to Texas?
We went to Waco, Texas, where he had a wing
which was being dismantled at Waco.
they were closing out the base, he was.
There were so many pilots that they were manning
the gates and things, but there weren't
very many enlisted men, they'd all been let out.
But the pilots were still going strong.
And then we went to Arizona and we went to
Then from Arizona, we went to Iran, where he
was air advisor to the Shah for a couple
of years.
Then we came back.
Did you follow him to Iran?
I went to Iran, was there with him, and had a
baby over there.
So he had dual citizenship.
And then we went to, oh my gosh, we went back
to Arizona, Washington, D.C. a lot, and then
we went to Vietnam, and we were there two and a
half years.
You didn't go there.
Beg your pardon?
You didn't join in there, did you?
Yes, uh-huh.
Is that right?
With the children.
What year was that?
Was the war started?
Sixty-three to sixty-five, I guess, and we were
evacuated from there.
In sixty-five?
I think it was sixty-five.
Yeah, the war heated up in sixty-five.
Sixty-five, uh-huh.
And he was with General Harkins, and then
General Westmoreland came in.
So he continued with the Vietnamese War until
it got over, actually left there and went
to Hawaii where he was Chief of Staff of the
Pacific Command, I guess. Really?
So he retired from there?
Beg your pardon?
He retired from there?
Retired from Hawaii.
We were there four years, I guess, and then retired.
Was he a general at that point?
Yes, uh-huh.
Major general.
So you were brought up in the Army and-
Ended up in the Army-ended up in the Air Force.
In the Air Force, right.
And we ended up coming here, and he was here
two years and then he passed away.
Right here in Querencia?
In Querencia.
Wow, okay. So that's an interesting life, Jean.
It was an interesting life. And my children,
really, but none of them-well, my two boys
were-during the 60s, they didn't want to join
the war. I mean, they didn't want
to join the military. None of them did, actually.
But they all liked being military children.
They had a good life.
They'd talk about all the places they were and
enjoyed it.
Good schooling?
Good schooling, all their schooling was good.
None of the boys went to West Point?
None of them went to West Point, no.
No desire?
No desire, Mm-Mm.
They all became business people.
Good, good, good, so.
Yeah, that, well, looking back on it,
you made a statement before that you wish
you hadn't resigned from the WACs.
Well, Milt went overseas in three months, I should.
So it was, didn't help for me to go out there
at all, so.
But I should have known that, but I felt guilty
because I actually, it's why I felt guilty
that I had resigned.
I went in to do a job and I didn't continue it,
so that's why I felt funny about it.
And that's why I really haven't talked much
about being in the WACs,
because I felt kind of funny about having
gotten out.
Did you get any benefits as a result of that service?
Actually, they didn't take the people
who were just in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps,
they didn't make them veterans until quite a
bit later,
but somehow I've heard that they now are veterans
and they can get veterans Compensation,
but I don't think any of them were in long enough
to get any retirement pay or anything like that.
No, no, no, I wouldn't expect that.
because I think most of them got out at the end
of the war.
Did you establish a relationship with,
I don't know whether she was a Colonel, Culp?
Ovita Culp Hobby.
Well, she came to my wedding, but...
My wedding happened to be in Washington, D.C.,
and it was, I think it was in every paper in
the United States because it was good publicity
for the wax that I was marrying a fighter pilot
and so it got a lot of publicity. But
she did come to my wedding and I saw her, but I
wasn't, no, I wasn't a friend or
anything like that.
What was your husband's first name? Milton.
Milton. Major General Milton Adams. Did you
have any kind of a relationship-not a relationship,
but did you know or have any contact with
General Faith?
Yes, I used to see him in the office a lot, but
he wasn't a friend either. I mean, we
He was my boss.
He was your boss.
He had a son, Donald, was his first name.
And he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army,
went to Korea, got killed over there, and
won the Medal of Honor.
He was in Korea at the same time I was there.
I read a lot about him, Medal of Honor winner,
real hero.
Well General Faith was a very fine man, and was
very nice of him to-I'm sure it was
difficult for him to have to be with a bunch
of-run a bunch of women instead of out there
fighting the war or something.
How old of a man was he at that point?
Oh, I don't know, probably 50.
Was he? Yeah.
Or 40.
No, not 50, 40 probably.
40, yeah.
Because I was trying to think, my husband was
awfully young, I mean, you know, because
he was general when he was something like 30 or
something, so those days.
The Army Air Corps promoted them fast.
Well, there weren't very many pilots, I mean,
they had to, so when you think about it, they
didn't have airplanes until almost the war
started, so that's why they-and I'm
sure that was kind of the same thing in the
Army, too.
My brother was head of the Materiel Command
during the Vietnamese War.
He graduated in 1932 from West Point, so he
wasn't that old either.
What about your other brother?
Well, he was a prisoner, so he stayed in, but
he became a colonel, but he stayed in
after the war.
He stayed in, uh-huh.
Actually, he went to Korea, too. Really?
Interesting, interesting life.
Looking back on it, you were a general's wife,
from what I have read, that's almost a job
in itself, is it not?
Well, in a way, I guess.
All your husband's Wives-
I mean, we did do a lot of entertaining and
things like that with people, but I guess
you did kind of-the lieutenant's wife kind of
looked up to the general's wife
and wondered if they were doing proper things.
You know, in everything I read, the
reputation-the WACs were perceived by the
public as not the
place you wanted to be, if you had a daughter
or a wife or something.
Well, I think that's exactly why they-my
wedding picture made such a-it was in so
many newspapers. Here I was marrying a-this
was, of course, in 1943 during the war. He
was a fighter pilot.
What was his rank at that time? Do you remember? Major.
a colonel and eight months after that,
Lieutenant Colonel and then a colonel. It was
fast in
those days.
But you're right, that was a good recruiting tool.
Yes. I mean, here she was, a nice little girl
going to all these girls' schools. In other
In other words, it was nice people that were
joining the WACs.
Yes, yes, professional, I agree.
But they had a hard time recruiting during
those early years in the WACs.
Well, I guess they did.
They did.
But ultimately about 150,000.
I know, that's right, there were.
So they performed well.
Well, Gene, in spite of the fact that it was
only two years, I thank you for your service.
Oh, thank you.
And you've had a tremendously interesting career.
Let me ask you one other thing before we wind
this up.
What was your most interesting duty station
during the years that you were with your husband?
Oh, interesting.
Or enjoyable?
Well, I actually, and my children and I,
enjoyed everywhere we were.
I thought Iran was a fascinating country, and
we saw a lot of the, I guess, Middle East,
and Saudi Arabia, we got to visit all those countries.
So that was fascinating.
And I was only 25 then,
so it was an interesting world to see.
And I love seeing Vietnam.
I found that part of the world fascinating, too.
So we got to travel a lot there,
got to go to Japan and China.
So that was all very interesting.
And Hawaii, of course, nobody can turn down Hawaii.
You were there four years?
And I really was ready to retire there.
I mean, I thought, well, this would be a
wonderful place
to live the rest of my life.
But Milt said, you know, all your children
are back on the mainland.
He said, that doesn't make sense.
It's too far away.
They were going to school in the States?
They were back, actually, one of them was
already married and the others were in college.
And the youngest was still with us, but he also.
So really, every place I liked very much.
and even Washington, of course, I was born there
and went to high school there, was married there,
and Milton and I were stationed there several times,
so it was, in a way, it was kind of home. Sure.
But I enjoyed it all, and as I say,
It was a wonderful life and I was very blessed.
Yes, it sounds like it.
Well, I thank you for your time this morning.
Thank you.
I enjoyed listening to your remembrances.