Interview of Ann Barbee
Transcript Number 118

The interviewer is Tim Bostwick, the date is some time in the year 2000 and the interview takes place in Oak Island, North Carolina.

BARBEE: We had WAFs in the Air Force and we had girls, _____ , they called them _____ in the Navy and those would all volunteer until that time whenever the war got really bad and so they started drafting the women and it was most necessary.

INTERVIEWER: You had mentioned the Battle of Britain and that was, I believe, in around 1940 is when, could you tell us, my knowledge is that was when the German Army and the Air Force were really attacking and bombing London. Could you share a little bit about that.

BARBEE: Now I was still at home and the war was something, we were all a little bit scared of all of it because you know we had never had anything like that before, not my age group. And I didn't live anywhere close to London. We were in Scotland which is, I'd just guess it's about 300 miles approximately, give or take, and we didn't travel that much either so I didn't know what it was like until I was in the Air Force and started having furloughs and then I went to London and it was pretty bad down there. But we had bombing too because our base was right on, close to the North Sea and that's where the bombers went up and also it was a real target for the enemy and so, we had a lot of scares. We heard air raid sirens about every night around 11:00 at night. It was just something we all had to get used to. I'd say after the first year, people began to relax a little more. They weren't as afraid as they had been when it first started. It was frightening though when you heard the sirens. Well, you always, didn't know what was going to happen, but we didn't go to shelters. My folks and I didn't go to shelters. They didn't want to go and so I just stayed with them and we lived on the third floor apartment. But we were fortunate nothing happened to us, although there were some in the neighborhood that the planes came in lower and they scraped the buildings and shot up a lot of houses. Some people were injured, but I don't believe anybody was killed.

INTERVIEWER: Did you have to take any special precautions for your family or for your house?

BARBEE: Yes, you had to have dark shades, you know, and well we were allowed flashlights, but they had to be covered. The whole front of the flashlight where the light comes out had to be covered and just have a half an inch hole for light to come through. Everybody would put a piece of paper over the lens you know inside and just cut a little hole in it and that was all the light, you know, to see where you were going.

INTERVIEWER: And why did they make you do that, your shades and the lights?

BARBEE: Because the lights, if we were allowed to have lights normal and everything, the planes up flying around could see us, we'd be targets.

INTERVIEWER: You were in the Royal Air Force, is that what you were drafted into?

BARBEE: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. 

BARBEE: The reason for that, calling it the Royal Air Force, it was the British Air Force, but everything over there belongs to the King and Queen, you see, and so it was the Royal Air Force, her Majesty's Air Force.

INTERVIEWER: Was there a Queen of England at that time?

BARBEE: Yes, but the present queen now, her mother and dad, her dad was King and her mother was Queen and the old lady is still alive. She's looking forward to her 100th birthday this year, I believe and she was the first Scottish queen in 700 years.

INTERVIEWER: Oh my.

BARBEE: She just happened to marry the King, you know, he was English and of course royalty mingles around and Queen Mother didn't live too far from where we lived. She lived at Glamis Castle and I'd say maybe 30 miles from where we lived and she was the first Scottish queen in 700 years. She's still alive and she still gets about. She's on television frequently. 

INTERVIEWER: How long were you in the service total.

BARBEE: Three years.

INTERVIEWER: Three years, so basically until the end of the war.

BARBEE: Well, when the end of the war came, the only way before the war ended, the only way married women could get out of the service was if they were pregnant and then the war was over, all the married women could get out. If they didn't want out, they'd remain in the service and I was ready to get out, so that's what I did, I got out (laughter). 

INTERVIEWER: Well speaking about that, it's a little unique that you became married while you were in the service, is that right? Could you tell us a little bit about that.

BARBEE: Oh well, my family was a little bit, hmmm, a little bit not sure about that. You know there was a lot of resentment in different areas towards Americans. A lot of people, British people were strange that way. Not all of them, but you know, there is a feeling about foreigners and so my husband met my mother and asked if he had her permission to marry me and she consented and I requested not to ask my dad cause I knew he'd pitch a fit and so that's how we got married and then we had a time trying to get together long enough. He was in England on a base, that he'd been sent down to England and I was in Lukers in Scotland, so we had a time getting together to get married. But we finally got a weekend and we had to post the bands. Everybody who gets married has to post bands, what they call bands, it's certificates telling, giving information about the bride and the groom and saying they want to get married and these have to be read out from the pulpit in all the city churches for six weeks before the couple can be married and if anyone has any reason why they shouldn't get married, they have to come forward and if they do, it's off (laughter). So we didn't have to do that because it's such short notice and both of us being in the service, we hired a lawyer and he was able to put through the special permission and all that, so we got married on the weekend. My husband called me on a Saturday afternoon about noon when the base was closing down and told me to get everything lined up, he was coming Monday morning and so fortunately, everything went well and we got married Monday afternoon. So that was okay.

INTERVIEWER: Okay great. Your husband was in the service. He was an American airman. Okay. And after the war and after you were married, when did you both return, you came to the United States at that time, right?

BARBEE: Boyce had to go back right after we were married, he had to come back to the States and then when it was on the news and everything that they were going to end the war, V-E Day, he had some documents in his briefcase that permitted him to buck the line at the airport in New York and fly over to be over there for V-E Day. So at that particular time, we were on the Square with thousands and thousands of other people when that happened, when V-E Day was declared and all the people were celebrating and going crazy, you know, and we were together.

INTERVIEWER: And when you say on the Square, just everybody came out..?

BARBEE: Oh yes, all the time, times people came out, that was where they did their celebrating and at New Year's was another time. There was a big clock on the Square and for New Year's, all the young people, basically young people, would gather with their friends, you know, groups of friends and celebrate the new year coming in at midnight and then they'd all go off with their friends and go ________ and that was what they did, you know, when the new year came in. And they would go visit friends or cousins or aunts or go to their homes, most married people stayed home New Year's. That was the custom then and all these young people would go and if somebody had an accordion, that made the music, or a fiddle. We made our own entertainment. Some of us could sing and dance and others would play musical instruments and we'd go to the first house and knock on the door, "Happy New Year", you know like that and the lady of the house would come to the door and it was bad luck for somebody red-headed to be the first person over the threshold on New Year's (laughter), so if there was a red-headed, they'd get pushed to the back and somebody with black hair, dark hair was always very welcome and they used to take a smoked kipper and it would be dressed up like a doll with tissue paper. They had beautiful dresses and gowns on it, but it was a fish and they would give that to the lady of the house and she would hang it on the back of the kitchen door and it would stay there until the next new year and that was bringing good luck. And all the party would go in and the lady of the house would already have prepared fruitcake and shortbread and have little glasses of port wine and if there were any children, they got the fruit wine like Manishevitz, something like that. And they'd stay there and entertain the folks and have a good time maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour and then they'd go to the next. They had it all planned out where they were going to stop and that would go on for two weeks and it was such fun. It was great fun. We never felt tired. We'd go home, you know, and rest every once in a while and then the next night, we'd start back out and that went on for two weeks. All the factories and things didn't close on Christmas, but it closed for two weeks at New Year's.

INTERVIEWER: So that was the big event.

BARBEE: That was the big event. Now I don't know what it's like now. It may be much different now. That was when I was growing up and I loved every minute of it.

INTERVIEWER: Sounds very exciting.

BARBEE: We didn't have cars and lots of time, it would be snowing and we'd walk through all the snow and everything to get to the different places where we were going, but it didn't matter. We were having a good time. And there weren't any guns. There was no violence, nothing like that and that was great.

INTERVIEWER: Well you said there were no cars and you shared with me an earlier story. You lived at home when you were at your first base. How far was that and how did you get there?

BARBEE: Well on the first base, I learned to ride a bicycle, but they had buses that would go back and forth, like the Greyhound from time to time and I could catch one of those, but I learned to ride a bicycle and that's what I would do and then when I was at the other base at Lukers, there was a railroad station right at the base door and I'd just hop on the train and go over the bridge and catch a bus or a streetcar and go home. There were plenty of ways to get around. Not many people had cars then, some, but I mean it wasn't an everyday thing. Everybody didn't have a car and now they do, but back then when I was growing up, they didn't. I remember when I went back the first time, I had been in this country 10 years when I went back the first time and I knew how to drive a car and my older brother, he was so impressed. He'd ask something about the car and I'd say, well the accelerator does this or name parts of the car and he was just in awe. He just couldn't understand that I had learned all that. And I never wore earrings when I was over there and I wore earrings the first time I went over, that was another thing that really sent him (laughter). Poor old Luke, and he was just so impressed with all that. We had a good time.

INTERVIEWER: Has your family ever had an opportunity to visit you here in America?

BARBEE: Nieces and nephews. My mom came over and she stayed here four years, she died over here actually. And she had a cerebral hemorrhage. I've had nieces come over here, but my dad never ventured over. Nobody else, my brothers didn't either. My younger brother had high blood pressure and I think he was diabetic also and he said the doctor wouldn't let him fly, but I don't know if that was so or not. He was an outdoor guy and he'd go mountain climbing and do all kinds of stuff and never think about taking medication unless he got feeling bad and then he'd take a pill and go on about his business. That was the way he took care of it. They weren't able to come over and he had five children too. It would have been difficult for him to come over, so.

INTERVIEWER: Back, going back to your time in the service and when you were stationed, how did you spend your free time when you were off duty?

BARBEE: Well, sometimes we had movies on the base. They were usually quite old, you know, but once in a while, they'd have a good one. And it was awfully rowdy. You know, a lot of talking and yelling, service people, but it was fun to do and we'd have parties once in a while. Some of the mess halls would have sergeants' mess, officers' mess or there would be a dance maybe a couple of times a week and everybody would go to that, the ones we wanted, so we'd do that and then we had the canteen, the nafi, don't ask me to clarify that, nafi I think, and that was just kind of a canteen where you could go get cup a tea or coffee or a bowl of soup, just snacks you know, and they always had music and people would get in groups. You know they'd be with friends and they'd just make their own amusement, play cards, just most anything and that was the way to pass the time.

INTERVIEWER: Did you have an opportunity to travel, to leave the base, to go anywhere.

BARBEE: On furlough, when we had furloughs we could. I could go off the base. I was fortunate. Most of the bases I was on were just a day trip, not even a day trip, just hop a train and go home. I could go home any day, you know leave in the afternoon when I got off the job and go over there, but I had to be back on the base at night and then weekends, we'd get weekend passes and things like that. But the furloughs were a couple of weeks and so I would usually take advantage of that and go someplace I hadn't been there like Ireland and London. London was a great place to go. It was to me, I've always liked London. You'd meet a lot of different service people from different countries and that was always interesting. I was always interested in how other people lived, how they spoke and you know, you can learn a lot that way, just by talking with people from different lands, learning by their customs and all that. That was fun.

INTERVIEWER: Were there any particular experiences when you would go on furlough like when you went to London, were there bombings?

BARBEE: Oh yes, yes. Most of the bombing was around the London area and of course in Coventry, they just about wiped it out, but we went out at evening, we stayed at a hostel, a youth hostel. I think, I'm not sure, it was the Salvation Army hostel and it was for women only, so we spent the night there and it was pitch black of course when we went there and we hadn't been in bed too long when the sirens started blowing. Right on the heels of that, the bombs started dropping. It just went on for a long long time. It was frightening, but a lot of the girls were terrified, who maybe hadn't been exposed to that and were just passing through. It was a little hysterical at times, but the next morning when we got out, our building was the only one left standing. All the rest, it wasn't a real long street, it was a short street, but everything was just flattened so we had been right in the middle of it. Thank goodness we didn't know because, you know, sometimes you push the panic button and do things you normally wouldn't do and make a worse situation, but that was the only time I was in a bad situation.

INTERVIEWER: Would you say that was probably your scariest moment in the service?

BARBEE: Hmmm, well I was scared. I can't think of anything more frightening than that. I had been in air raid shelters several times. I was required to go in the air raid shelter on the base, but it was never a bad experience. There again, there were people and children and there was a light on inside. There were little concrete block buildings so the lights weren't seen outside. We just stayed in there until the all clear went off.

INTERVIEWER: Were they underground? Were they like a basement?

BARBEE: Some of them were, but there were a few that were not underground. But on the base mostly, they were underground. You had to go downstairs to get in them. But the air raids at night, you know, that was, you just got used to that. There wasn't, you could hear air raids lots of times and no activity would be happening where you were so that was always nasty.

INTERVIEWER: Was this a nightly occurrence?

BARBEE: In the summertime, yes, because you see it didn't get dark. It's almost daylight 10-11 o'clock at night and then it doesn't really get dark like it does in the winter here. It just would get grey, sort of grey overcast, so they could see their way to spot anything when they wanted to bomb so that was why the summertime was really bad over there. 

INTERVIEWER: Talking a little bit more about your time in the military, could you just maybe tell us a little bit about what, how it was, the process by which you were inducted into the military, them making you a young 19 year old civilian into a British airman.

BARBEE: Well, it wasn't a thrill for me. I was scared most of the time. I didn't know what to expect and I'd never been away from home before, you know, for a long period like in the service, and I was a little bit apprehensive at first, but after about a week, it had begun to get a little easier you know and all the other girls felt the same way I did about things and they were all scared. We all sort of got together and compared notes and after a while, it was just old hat getting up in the morning at 5:00 and we had to get up and make up our beds. They had three little, we called them biscuits, it was a mattress, but it was in three sections and you had to make up your bed and stack those things and have the pillow on top and the blanket folded just a certain way. That had to be done and you standing by that bed for inspection when the sergeant came. That was done every morning at 5:00 in the morning when you weren't even awake yet. But that's the way they did and after that, we all had to form a line and go marching to the mess hall to get breakfast. And after that, we had to go out for a run. They'd take us down all these country roads jogging along and that was hard.

INTERVIEWER: How far did you have to run?

BARBEE: Oh I'd say maybe a couple to three miles and that was hard for girls that never had done it before. You know, nobody did jogging back then. We'd go for long walks in Scotland cause it's pretty scenery and nice roads and not much traffic and that was great, but you were doing it at leisure. You knew you could stop and turn around when you wanted to. But with the Air Force, you couldn't do that. You had to wait until the sergeant told you so there was a lot of that to get used to. After a while, we moved, during our six weeks, we moved to Moorcomb______ and we were staying with civilian people and I think there were about six girls allotted to each home and we were responsible for setting the table. We had to take turns, you know, we had a week on doing dishes and then the next week, we'd have to do setting the table or things like that. We had to help with all the chores in the house. All of us had to take a turn the whole time we were there and most of us had...there were two people in a room, but I had a private room. I was lucky. I got a private room. It was a little-bitty room, but I got a private room and we did that and then they'd take us on the oceanfront and we'd do calisthenics out there a lot of times and it was just mainly all physical. In the evening after supper, you could go out and walk around the town and they had lots of shops and fish and chips shops, you know. We'd all go and get fish and chips. There was a huge ballroom in Moorcomb____. It was the Floral Dance Hall and it was gorgeous. It was all decorated with live flowers inside on a balcony and they had that crystal ball going around, you know. Oh that was a fabulous place, so we all went there too. Most everybody over there would dance, went dancing, so that was right on for us. We'd go there as much as we could. And the people were all very nice to us, you know, friendly, so that was good. That was a good time, looking back on it. It was scary at first, you know, but after, when you're getting near the end of the training, why you begin to lighten up a little bit and then you know, I'm going home, get a little time off and that's great too. I always used to picture a big open fire and our dog...I had left my dog at home. Naturally, I had to. It was a Springer spaniel, his name was Mike and when I'd get lonesome for home, I'd think my mom making French fries, that was my favorite. I'd imagine her making French fries and seeing Mike lying on the rug in front of the fire. That's what kept me going (laughter). But anyway, it wasn't all that bad. It was just circumstance you know, coming out of one situation into another always is a bit scary.

INTERVIEWER: Until you get used to the new customs.

BARBEE: Absolutely.

INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that the training you received was practical and adequate and after you were in the service a while, do you think it got you ready to do your assigned duties.

BARBEE: Oh I think so. I wasn't one to ever break the rules. I just did that one time and it was out of my hands. That was the time when I went down to see Boyce in Norwich, when we were going to get married. I didn't want to get married, I wanted to get engaged. No, he said no way, married or nothing (laughter). And they promised him to give him permission and the papers didn't go through so it fell through and that's the only time I broke any rules. It really was out of my hands. I had no control over it.

INTERVIEWER: So what happened and then what were the consequences.

BARBEE: I overstayed my leave with the result of not getting the papers so I just hopped the train and went back and of course the first thing was my mother was angry because I hadn't called her. Well there weren't telephones like there are now and my mom didn't have a telephone and so I had no way to get in touch with her. A letter would have taken too long and so she was angry with me and then I had to go back to the railroad station to go back to the base and the MPs got there. And then they took me to the commanding officer and she bawled me out in good fashion and put me on KP for two weeks and she just really tore me up. I kept telling her, I had no control over that. We thought it was going, you had no business to anticipate getting married without my permission. I said, well I didn't know that. It was just on and on and on and anyway the next two weeks I was cleaning out garbage cans and swabbing down the mess hall tables, anything low down. 

INTERVIEWER: This was after you got off your normal, you worked all day and then you would have to do that after?

BARBEE: Yes, right.

INTERVIEWER: Were you ever late getting back after that?

BARBEE: Never. Well I'm not one to break rules. I'm a stickler for that. When you go to Catholic school, you usually stay in line. You're very well disciplined. They were back then, I don't know how they are now. No, I wouldn't, then I had an aunt, my namesake and she kept me on the straight and narrow and of course at home, I was very well disciplined. Back then, children were seen and not heard unless they were spoken to. That sounds awful, doesn't it, but that's the way it was. No I wouldn't be likely to break rules and regulations, not even now.

INTERVIEWER: What type of uniforms did you wear?

BARBEE: Ours were blue grey, sort of like the Air Force color here in this country and we wore skirts back then and tunics, buttoned down just like the man's jacket and the same type hat with the crown on the cap.

INTERVIEWER: Well, did you like them, were they comfortable?

BARBEE: Yeah, they were fine. I wouldn't have chosen that kind of outfit myself, but I had no other choice.

INTERVIEWER: We have some pictures of yourself at that time. I'm going to zoom in on them when you hold them up and that is a picture of you in your uniform. Is that like your official service photograph?

BARBEE: Yes it is except my hat. I'm missing my hat.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. And that's the uniform that you described to us minus the hat and do you have some other pictures.

BARBEE: I have one of my husband and myself. You see the difference in the uniforms, the color.

INTERVIEWER: I'm trying to zoom here when I should have...and that was taken at your air base?

BARBEE: Yes, this was taken at Lukers.

INTERVIEWER: And you also brought some other pictures, was that your squad?

BARBEE: These were girls that were in my barracks in my room. They were from all over, some from Edinborough, some from England, Newcastle, different places. 

INTERVIEWER: Was this when you were training?

BARBEE: No, this was after, when I was at Lukers. 

INTERVIEWER: And you also brought a pay book with you. Let me zoom in on that so I can get that on our camera. Can you tell me a little bit about it, it's an airman service pay book.

BARBEE: That's right.

INTERVIEWER: And what happened if you lost that?

BARBEE: You wouldn't get any pay. You had to show that when you got your pay. We were usually on the parade ground and that's when they come with the checks strangely enough and they'd call out your number, LFC W. Mooney, whatever the number was and you'd have to answer.

INTERVIEWER: So it was a way to keep track of it and make sure you got your pay.

BARBEE: It wasn't nearly as casual as the American Air Force, not nearly. There's a lot more rules and regulations in the British Army. It was then, I don't know about now.

INTERVIEWER: Very disciplined?

BARBEE: Yes, it was then. Maybe like everything else, it's changed.

INTERVIEWER: Well thank you for sharing those with us.

BARBEE: You're very welcome.

INTERVIEWER: We're going to display those so our young folks can see those. What was your opinion, what kind of food did you eat? Did you get to eat in a cafeteria all the time?

BARBEE: Yes, it was a mess hall and at home, our food was pretty bland. It wasn't fancy or spiced up, didn't use spices. So when I went to eat in the mess hall, things that I hadn't been eating at home, didn't know about, I think one of them was the pickles, pickled beets and Scotch eggs. Have you ever eaten a Scotch egg?

INTERVIEWER: I don't think so.

BARBEE: It's a hard boiled egg and it's rolled in sausage on the outer part and then rolled in breadcrumbs and dropped in hot fat and they're out of this world.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, that sounds delicious.

BARBEE: If you can eat eggs, I can't eat eggs. That was something I'd learned to eat. Of course in the morning, we always had hot rolls. Everyone over there has breakfast rolls and they're really good. Some of them are like croissants that you get here and others are just soft like a baked biscuit, but all the baker shops are open about 5:00 over there and you can go get a bag of rolls and bring them home for breakfast. My dad preferred a big soup plate full of porridge, the real old-timey porridge, not the Quaker Oats that are refined, but coarse and that's what he liked and I liked rolls. And on the base, they had little shacks where civilians came in and stole the morning rolls and if we were going to mess hall, we'd stop and get a couple of rolls and go on upstairs to get breakfast and if a couple of us maybe wanted to sleep in that morning, whoever went down there always got some rolls to bring back to the gals so that was nice and they'd bring a cup of coffee back too or tea whatever it was so they were real thoughtful about that.

INTERVIEWER: So food was pretty good.

BARBEE: Oh yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Your leaders, your officers, your sergeants, what did you think of them? Were they pretty good, well-trained and hard discipline on you?

BARBEE: All of them would discipline you. I mean I told you about the hair, the women couldn't let their hair touch the collar of their uniform, not ever. If you happened to be in the ______, we were inspected every morning. You'd get one that was real tight about everything and they'd go down the back and they'd be feeling the back of your neck, you know, and seeing if that had any chance of touching your collar and all like that. And then there'd be others who would just say, ah-hmmm, ah-hmmm, down the line. And one night, always when I'd go home, I'd shampoo my hair and take a bath. When I was coming back from shampooing my hair, I had long hair at that time and I always kept it in a ribbon, you know, rolled it up, and from being shampooed, it was real soft and I was running to catch the train and my hair kept coming out of the ribbon. Two MPs were there and nailed me right there. There was another time, my hair was down on my collar. I can't remember, it was a light sentence, I can't remember how much now, but they got me for that too. Any little thing like that is against the rules.

INTERVIEWER: That was part of being in the military.

BARBEE: Yeah, that was good training. I look on that, they have to do that. If they just let them go willy-nilly, what kind of army would you have or air force or whatever. You've got to draw the line somewhere. It's the same in civilian life, you know, if you work for a boss. If they just keep letting them get off with things, you know, pretty soon, they're sitting down and letting somebody else do their job, can't do that with people. They're strange animals.

INTERVIEWER: Were drinking or gambling or anything like that ever a problem on your base or in your unit that you ever heard of or knew of.

BARBEE: Yes, I didn't gamble. I can't play cards to this day. My brother used to try and show me how to play Whist____ which is basically Bridge and I could play the night he told me, but the next time I went back, I had forgotten, I'm just not a card shark, but yeah, there were a lot of people. Now my husband was a poker player, quite often, and one time he sent me an envelope home and I opened it up. It was just a normal sized envelope. It was a package of money and I took it out and it looked like all brand new bills and my mother and dad were there and my dad said, "Humph, it looks like somebody just made that money". I didn't know what to do with it. Well then I got a letter. He had been in a poker game somewhere and was lucky so he sent it to me, but people were always suspicious of other people coming to their country. They always have something on them. But there was quite a bit of drinking too. Of course, they had the bars on the base so they could drink at the officers' mess hall and the sergeants or the enlisted men, no, they didn't have one, but they could go to the village and get all they wanted.

INTERVIEWER: After duty.

BARBEE: Yes, sure.

INTERVIEWER: You and your fellow service members, how did you get along with the civilians off base?

BARBEE: Oh we got along fine because most all the girls except for a few English girls, were on their home territory, you know, they were Scottish girls, a lot of them. And the English girls, of course, it didn't bother them either. I mean you know that was close enough to home where they could go home if they wanted to and had the time, you know, had permission to go, but it wasn't a problem. We had Italian prisoners of war on the base once you know when I was there, but everybody spoiled them. I felt sorry for them myself. They worked around the mess hall and all the different places where they could use them. They were prisoners, but they got to work there and gosh they were living it up better than they'd ever done in their lives. They had good food and they had time off and everybody was good to them and kind to them, you know, they had a good time there. 

INTERVIEWER: Were there ever any German prisoners of war?

BARBEE: No, no.

INTERVIEWER: What was the attitude towards them?

BARBEE: Oh I imagine they'd be target practice because that was our main focus on Germany.

INTERVIEWER: And that's who was doing all the bombing and attacking and things.

BARBEE: Right, right. And the Italians were into it, not on a large basis, not when, it was much later in the war when they got involved in it and I can't remember any animosity to the prisoners there. Everybody just spoke to them like they were one of the gang and they seemed to be happy there. Of course, they were, like I said, being well-fed and well cared for and I'm sure they wanted to go home, and they probably eventually did. That was it, no Jerries. Well I hesitate to say these words, a lot of people called them Krauts cause they ate a lot of sauerkraut you know, but they usually just called them Jerries. I think Boyce came in contact with some. There was a plane downed on their base one time and some of them got killed and he had some mementos from that. I wouldn't have wanted mementos myself, not from something like that. And one of my best friends is a German. When I lived in Columbia, South Carolina, I was working, we had just moved down there and I went to work at a factory. I met this German girl and we used to sit at tables beside each other and it was a constant argument about what they did to Britain and what Britain did to them and the hard times she had growing up. Her mother ran off with an American soldier who was stationed in Germany. He came to America and left her and her two brothers and her grandparents had to take care of them and they had no food or anything and she said, the way we survived, she said there was a farmer up there who had a large orchard and she said he used to bring the basket of apple peelings, not the apples, the apple peelings down so we could have something to eat and she said my grandma would cook it and that's what we had to eat. And her dad was about the third man from the top in Hitler's outfit and he was in prison in France and she had been trained in the Hitler youth movement and she was pro-German all the way. And I had my citizenship then and she was asking about getting it and she said, what do you have to do, and I was telling her, of course, you have to swear that if your country went to war with this country, you would swear allegiance to stand by the American flag against your country. You had to take an oath like that. She said, I'd tell them to keep it (laughter). She said she wouldn't, I would never do that, but she was just well trained, you know, but she got out of touch. We were very good friends. I thought the world of Margaret. We argued all day long, but when we got out of work, we were okay, we were friends. She moved away. Her husband was in the Army and they moved away. He was from Vidalia, Georgia, so I don't know if they went back there. He was a full time service staff so I don't know what happened to them. I tried to trace them down, but I couldn't find them. But anyway, that was another experience.

INTERVIEWER: Well we're lucky that you, to have you as an American.

BARBEE: Well thank you. I try my best to be a good citizen, I really do. I've worked hard at it and I'm the only one in my immediate family that does any community work or anything. Boyce or either of my two kids don't, but I've always worked at elections, been a registrar and done all that just to help out.

INTERVIEWER: Well I think that's all the questions, but just as maybe an ending note, if you could just share with us a summary of if you had to do it all over again, your service, would you trade anything, if you could trade any of your experiences and anything that you would say to any young people, young students that would view your video tape, just to be able to summarize your experiences during the war and anything else that you would like to share.

BARBEE: Well, it was one of those experiences if you were having a choice, you wouldn't choose to do it, but all through life, things happen that make us, you know, will make us go in some direction we would normally not choose and often time, we get more out of it than anyone else and I'm glad I had the experience, I really am. I miss having time at home with my family and I have a lot of qualms about being over here and being separated from my family. That's a hard thing to do because I gave up my family, my religion, my country to come over here and I don't have any regrets, but it is very difficult to do that and it never completely leaves. You always have twangs coming back to our mind, you know, about it, but as far as the military and everything else, I think that we should all be of a mind to do anything that would help a cause in our country that if you enjoyed the freedoms and protection of the country, you should feel obligated to return that by supporting that country and I only gave three years to my country, but I'm glad I did, very glad. I had lots of great experiences, wouldn't take anything away. I don't think they'd have me now and I don't know if I'd volunteer, but anyway, it was good. I would have to say it was a great experience and nowadays you can go in the service and come out with a Ph.D. if you have a mind to because you have opportunities to go to school and do all kinds of good things if you would apply yourself. So I think that's an excellent thing for people to do, young people, if they haven't already planned out their future. I think the service is great, I really do.

INTERVIEWER: Well great, I just want to thank you again, Ms. Barbee, for participating in the interview process and I think it's been a great interview and I think our young people could really learn from your example, so I just thank you again.

BARBEE: Oh you're very welcome, I was glad to do it.