They Also Served: American Women in World War II

by Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt

This is the first book of its kind - examining the crucial role these women played in World War II. Here are the intimate accounts of twenty-eight servicewomen, many of whom risked their lives during the war. These and others were the pioneers of what decades later would become the Women's Revolution. Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt contacted hundreds of organizations, veterans groups, and individual women who told their stories in interviews, letters, and accounts written especially for this important book. These women came from farms, universities, small-town America, and big cities.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction

299 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Betty Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars and I finished it in one day - after my volunteer stint at the library. Uplifting stories of women serving during WWII . . . the four stars is just a statement on the fact that it could be a much better book if the author had all the resources at her fingertips that other authors have - and I give them higher ratings. I played piano for dance classes during the '50s - taught by a woman who had served in the Marines. The stigma was so great against females in the military - still - that I never asked her any details about where she served.

[Olivia Plasencia · Rating 3 out of 5]

They Also Served is a book that covers the many branches of the armed services during the war and the roles women filled in them. It's very hard to settle into this book since it is just all too brief accounts of women recalling their duties during the war. No branch is left unexplored, including the OSS, Red Cross and the Waves, as well as the Navy, and Air Force. Each woman was interviewed but the retelling of their tales is done so in a lazy manner. There were times I wanted to throw the book across the room because the writer did not ask questions that came to mind. A few of the women had such amazing stories they should have had books all to their own on their experiences from the WWII.

I would have given this book only two stars but the wealth of knowledge in between the pages are too rich and not well known to dismiss this book altogether. Reading about the women who flew plans, taught classes, cracked codes, and nursed soldiers was interesting and amazing. One woman even wrote of her time as being capture by the Germans who treated her shockingly well. However, another woman was taken by the Japanese in Manila. Her story ended sort with her capture and no talk of her time as a POW. That was frustrating. I would suggest this book but warn that at times you have to force yourself to keep going, and that doesn't mean that the women's stories are not adventurous, or heroic but the writing just flat. The pace of the book is very up and down, but again the history presented here, it should be read. So read this book but do so with a strong cup of coffee.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the stories of these women, most of them in their own words about what life was like from the day that they enlisted until the day that they where able to be discharged.

[Graceann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many thousands of women from the Greatest Generation served in the armed forces, doing dirty, dangerous work. They faced most of the dangers the men faced, along with the dangers the men themselves presented. If they weren't harassed, they tended to be anonymous.

The unfortunate thing about "They Also Served" is that not all of these ladies' stories are interesting, at least, not as they are edited here. There is an excellent piece on a woman who served the top brass during the peace talks in 1945. There is another from a woman who just barely made her landing in a mostly-destroyed plane. Then there are countless tales of it being hot, or cold, or muddy, or otherwise miserable. These last are, of course, features of military life; they are not particularly unusual or compelling.

I'm not sure how it was put together, but it would seem that most of the veterans wrote down or dictated their memories, and then those memories were fashioned into the text. Each woman got her own segment or chapter, with a small section at the end telling what she did after the War. What happened with this, however, is that we ended up reading the same material, such as who Jacqueline Cochran was and why she was important to the WASP, over and over.

Perhaps this book should be read in small doses, because when you read the chapters all together over the course of a couple of days, they become "samey" and the stories run together. Ultimately, many of the stories are immediately forgettable, and I can't think of anything I want less for these brave women.

[Raving Redcoat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the different experiences that women had serving in the Second World War. Well worth reading!

[Reeds]

I was hoping for a book that would show me how it felt to live then. This is not that.
This is a lot of different ladies who give a bare-bones outline of where they were during the war.
Bless them for their service, but I was looking for something that would make me feel like I was right there with them.