[intro music]
My name is Ilene Hall, and I served in the military,
the Women’s Army Corps—which is called the WACs—from 1943 to 45.
And I served in the European Theater.
I was a driver for a postal battalion in England and the personal driver of a major,
and I was eligible to drive up to a 2 ½ ton truck.
I enlisted in the Army on my twentieth birthday.
I was married when I went in. My husband was stationed in Italy.
After he went over, that’s when I enlisted. It took me two years to catch up with my husband—
I got a letter from him when I was in Paris—and as I said, my quarters were above the officer’s quarters—
and I cried for about an hour. And she came up and she said,
“If you’ll stop crying, I’ll see if I can—what I can do about getting you orders to go see your husband in Italy.”
She made arrangements for me—for ten days I was a member of Mark Clark’s Fifth Army,
but I’m sure he didn’t know about it. And they dropped me off at Orly Airport.
I bummed a ride on a plane that was just taking off.
They opened up the palm bay doors, pulled me up—one on one side and one on the other—
and I sat in the gun turret, all the way to Italy.
We landed in Naples, and I had to bum another ride from Naples to Leghorn—
I wasn’t sure where he was—and in Leghorn they dropped me off—the plane dropped me off.
And I went out on the highway, on the road, and started hitchhiking.
And I was standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa—and really didn’t know it,
because I thought it was bigger—and some British soldiers in a truck picked me up.
And uh…they said they were heading for Rome and I said well that was alright,
‘cuz I didn’t know exactly where he was anyway.
And on—they had a soldier that had been hurt.
I - I don’t know if he was hurt in an accident or what, but they were in whites, all whites.
And uh, they formed a thing around the soldier that was hurt and were taking care of him.
On the way to Rome, we stopped in an Italian village where they—
in the center of the city they had a big fountain where you stopped and get water.
They wouldn’t let me get out because they said, “If you get out and these Italian people see you,
they’ll come rushing up to you because they probably never seen an American woman G.I.”
So I had to stay on the truck while they got water for me.
Then we went in to Rome, to the Red Cross, and they put me up for the night.
And the next morning—it was a Sunday—and it was a church service.
And I sat in the church service and a fella came and sat beside me, and my patch was different.
He said, “What are you doing here?”  And I told him my story.
And he went to his commanding officer, got permission to take me by Jeep to Milan.
And that’s where my husband was—at the 5th Army rest camp in Milan.
And that’s how I find him.  He knew about a half hour before I got there that I was coming.
So I had eight days there. We spent 4th of July on Lake Como.
We stayed at the Villa d’Este, at that time where Winston Churchill spent his summers.
And at that time it was the 5th Army rest camp.
And right next door, connected to it was a ten room villa.
And we had the 10 room villa all to ourselves for eight days.
When you’re 20 years old you can do about anything.
[laughter]
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