Iowa Old Press
Ottumwa Daily Courier
July 17, 1943
TODAY—Saturday, July 17.
BIRTHS:
~July 10, to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Strohman, of Montrose, Calif., a daughter, Susan Ann; Mrs. Strohman is the former Helen Bibb of Ottumwa.
~July 16, to Mr. and Mrs. Weldon Hawk, Hedrick, a son, at the St. Joseph hospital;
~July 16, to Capt. and Mrs. Raymond Smith, Albin, a son, at the St. Joseph hospital.
~July 17, to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Helmick, Belknap route 1, a daughter at the Selix maternity home;
~July 17, to Pvt. and Mrs. Alex Davis, a daughter, Margie Kay, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Crickhaum on South Wapello street.
[transcribed by LZ, Mar 2021]
Courier
Ottumwa, Wapello co., Iowa
Monday, July 19, 1943
[Photo Included] Aviation Mechanic Helen Talcott poses with
wrench and airplane motor, the kind she helps fix at the naval
air station. And it’s a far cry from the typewriter she used
to operate on a Webster City newspaper.
Iowa Girl Helps Keep ‘Em Flying—As A Navy
Mechanic At Ottumwa
By Helen Jean Talcott
(Aviation Machinist Mate, third class)
U.S. Naval Air Station, Ottumwa
This is the navy: Looking back after seven months in the
women’s reserve of the United States navy, these are the
things I remember.
The way my knees shook while I took the oath…..the suspense
of a ride through an Iowa snow storm in a navy station wagon to
the boot school at Iowa State Teachers College on December
15…..Indoctrination—which included a little bit of
learning to sleep in an upper: a little mastery of navy rules and
regulations, and a lot of just plain getting “salty,”
which includes a small understanding of the navy way of doing and
saying things.
What Is A Wrench?
My assignment to a navy school…..aviation machinist school
in Memphis. I felt like rushing down to the corner drugstore to
buy all the latest literature on “The Fine Art of Using a
Wrench,” but I had to find out what a wrench was first
…..The first weeks in A. M. M. school—studying the
principals of mechanics by day and having mechanical nightmares
at night, working harder than I ever intended to work in my life
and yet finding time to enjoy a sailor’s pastime, going
ashore.
Graduation with the first class of women mechs in navy
history…..sewing my first petty officer rating badge on my
sleeve—slightly crooked. The five months I’d spent
learning to repair planes from empennage to engine—five
months of dirt under my fingernails and grease in my
hair—were rewarded when I heard a real navy man say,
“Don’t let anybody kid you. You girls can do a
man’s barracks…..swabbing , sheets tied in knots, navy
songs, amateur shows, and beans for breakfast….This is the
lighter side of life in the navy, the side we’ll spin yarns
about and tell our children and grandchildren; the side
we’ll remember when we’ve forgotten long hours, aching
feet, and hard jobs that it seemed would never be completed.
Seven months in the navy, and I’m still a “boot”
learning to keep navy planes in the air. Learning and looking
forward for the duration and six months ahead of rising at 6,
eating navy chow, sleeping in bunks, working every day for a boss
I chose myself—Uncle Sam. I have one ambition in
life—to shake hands some day with the man who could do a
mech’s job at sea or an advanced base because I took his
place ashore.
Editor’s Note.
This story of Helen Jean Talcott was written by herself and
explains a little of the life of a WAVE in training and
immediately following her arrival at a base.
Miss Talcott was born in Illinois, but her family moved to
Dubuque later and Helen Jean attended grade school there. She was
graduated from Webster City high, and later went to work as a
reporter for the Webster City Freeman-Journal, covering general
news and some society.
Her boyfriend is an aviation machinist’s mate in the navy,
but when Miss Talcott enlisted she had no idea she’d be
placed in the “mech” school at Memphis, Tenn.
She was graduated in the first class of women “mechs”
in the history of the U.S. naval air station at Ottumwa.
The story is her own.
OLLIE:
Pfc. and Mrs. Everett Chandler left Saturday for Gibson
to spend the rest of Private Chandler’s 15-day furlough with
his parents.
Janice and Joan Dickey of Martinsburg visited Thursday with their
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Moore.
[transcribed by L.Z., March 2018]