Women in War

Veteran's group remembers women's contribution to America's armed forces through the years

By Gary M. Pinkston Originally published in the Record Gazette, March, 2001.       SAN GORGONIO PASS - The Pass Women's Vets Club meets on the second Monday of each month at the San Gorgonio Inn to share the experiences of having been military women.       "We pay no dues, elect no officers and do no work," says group founder Mona Benson. "We're strictly a social organization that gets together for camaraderie, to meet new friends and to share the special bond of having served in the armed forces."       Women possessing military related experience such as having served in the USO are also welcome, as are women from all branches of foreign military service from all eras.       "We have women here from WWII all the way through Korean and Vietnam era service," says Benson. "We also have one member who served in the British Army signal Corps during WWII and we welcome women from foreign military services."       Women in the group represent every branch of the U.S. military and held ranks from enlisted level to Lt. Colonel. Benson is a Navy W.AV.E. from the Korean War era. Lillian Foucault served in the Army Nurse Corps in the European theater of WWII. Marian Beanston was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII. Vivian Bolton served the Women's Marines from 1943 to 1945. Mary Rasmussen served the Women's Army Air Corp for 15 months in 1944 and '45. Marjorie Googe served in the United States Air Force for more than 20 years from the mid-fifties through the Vietnam War and into the late seventies.       "We're the women who laid the ground work for all the advances women have made in the military," says Benson. "Women have far more opportunity in the armed forces today than they had in my era. It was our service that proved women could do more and the women in the service today are reaping the rewards of our service."       Lillian Foucault (maiden name Lillian Fay at the time) of Sun Lakes was just out of nursing school and working at Hackensack Memorial Hospital in New Jersey when WWII broke out.       "I wanted to go," says Foucault. "As a nurse, joining the Army at that time just seemed the right thing to do." Assigned to the 347th Station Hospital unit, Foucault found herself working with wounded soldiers from North Africa and Italy at England General Hospital in Atlantic City. Before the war the building had been a huge hotel. It is now the Resorts International Hotel and Gambling Casino.       "Our offices and administration department were on the ground floor that is now the casino," laughs Foucault. "But the big hotel really did make a good hospital."       In early 1944 the 347th was transferred to England in preparation for the invasion of Europe.       "We setup in a tent city at Marlborough," says Foucault. "We were the precursor of the first M.A.S.H. units. Two days after D-Day the casualties started coming in. At first we tried to keep track of how many there were but we gave up counting after the first hundred on the first night. Records show that we treated an average of 800 to a 1000 wounded every night for nine months. By the time we made it to VE-Day we had taken care of more than 74,000 boys."       According to Foucault, the 347th had setup camp in Southern England months before D-Day and the Luftwaffe had greeted them by bombing the encampment on an almost nightly basis.       "The air raids were scary at first," she says, "but, like anything else, you got used to it after awhile, just like you did the black outs; it was just part of the job. Besides, it's not like there was anything you could do about it. We didn't get to go hide in the shelters when the bombs came, anyway. Our job was to run from our huts to the hospital tents and protect the patients."       Foucault calls the 347th a triage hospital where wounded soldiers stayed only a few hours or overnight.       "We would do emergency medicine and surgery and stabilize them, then get them ready for evacuation to long term care facilities," says Foucault. "They left every night by either train or ambulance so I never got to know any of the thousands of boys I treated. I've never seen one of them since."       After VE-Day the 347th began receiving repatriated POWs as they were released from the German camps.       "That was almost as bad as treating the wounded had been,' says Foucault. "Some of those guys, the flyers, mostly, had been POWs for years. They were so skinny you could see all their bones."       After working with the POWs the 347th began training for the Pacific theater but the dropping of the atomic bomb ended the need for them there. In November 1945 they were returned to the states and Foucault was discharged in early 1946.       "I both went to and returned from Europe on the Queen Mary," she says. "I shared a stateroom with five other girls both ways. That was something to remember, but then so was the whole experience. I thought about staying in the Army after the war but I ended up getting married, instead."       Since the war Foucault has worked most of her life as civilian surgical nurse; taking time off only to raise children. Her old 347th Hospital unit has held a reunion every year since 1950. Lillian goes to as many as she can.       "There're getting to be fewer and fewer of us at the reunions," she says. "Maybe that's why I enjoy the Pass Women Vet's group so much. That was the most exciting time of my life. I don't want to forget it."       Patricia and Derick Packwood of Highlands Springs Estates are naturalized citizens who came to America in the mid-sixties. In their homeland of England, during WWII, service in either the military or the defense industry or home guard was mandatory once one reached the age of 17 1/2.       "I chose to go into the British Royal Corp of Signals, A.T.S. in 1942 because that's where my father was serving," Patricia says. "He had been called up in '38 as soon as the fighting started in Southern Europe. We all knew from the beginning we would end up fighting against the Germans and the Italians."       Packwood worked as both a radio and teleprinter operator sending and receiving signals (messages) from June of 1942 until December 1945. Derick served first in the home guard and eventually on the continent.       "Mostly we sent signals by the teleprinter," says Patricia. "I liked using the teletype the most anyway so that was all right with me."       Patricia worked in the British Southern Command most of her tour; first for the 105th Ack-Ack (anti-aircraft) battalion and later for the American Control Command the last few months of the war. She did do one fateful stint in the north, however, at Camp Saffren Waldon. There, she met and fell in love with a handsome young British soldier named Derick Packwood.       "But, in the winter of '45," says Derick, "they sent me off to Germany; a place called Goche. I came back with only one arm but she married me anyway."       "We were grateful to the Americans for being there,' says Patricia. "We were fighting for our lives, after all. And the children especially loved the yanks because they always had food, and chocolate. But they did take some getting used to because the Americans were so casual about everything compared to the more formal ways we were accustomed to."       The Packwoods came across the pond first to Canada in 1963 when Derick joined the RCA Corporation. In '65 he had the chance to transfer to the U.S. at the RCA facility in New Jersey.       "I figured we might as well give the states a try," says Patricia, "so we came. In 1967 Derick went to work for the Bourns Electronic Company in Riverside and we've been right around here ever since."       Patricia spent most of her American working life as a secretary for the old American Motors Company before it was taken over by Chrysler.       "I discovered the Pass Women Vet's Club quite by accident," says Patricia. "The founder of the club, Mona Benson, lives here in Highland Springs just a couple of blocks away. We had known each other socially for awhile when one day I happened to mention my having served in the British Signal Corps. That's when she told me about the group and invited me to become an "honorary" member, but I just feel like one of the girls now. It's been very nice. I've enjoyed it. It's good to be able to talk to other women who've had similar experiences in their lives. When we get together one of us will tell a story and we all just nod our heads knowingly in agreement, having been through what they're talking about ourselves.