Veteran, 101, recalls service in WWII

WWII Veteran Miriam Woolever, 101, is a parent and a grandparent who has memories and stories to tell. Her trip to Europe wasn’t filled with things she wanted to see and do. It was what she felt she needed to do.

She was about to turn 20 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. She watched as her friends signed up for the draft. In May 1942, Congress approved the creation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). When the first WAAC training center was located in her hometown, she knew she needed to do her part.

Woolever received training to serve as a clerk typist. Then, Congress approved the formation of the Women’s Army Corps, making her and all the other members of the WAAC the first enlisted women to officially serve in the Army.

“Our country was at war on two continents at the same time for the first time in history. The men were sent off to do the fighting. They needed help, so I joined the WAAC,” she said.

Woolever was assigned to Supreme Headquarters in England. She and others boarded the RMS Queen Mary for the voyage across the Atlantic. She recalled that, at times, the seas got very rough and she got motion sickness.

As part of Gen. Eisenhower’s staff, working with a group of secretaries, she would regularly see him walking through the office but very rarely directly interacted with him.

She did enjoy the camaraderie that she had with her fellow soldiers. Some of the women she worked with would get transferred out and new ones would come in. “You get really good at what you do then all of the sudden they ship you off to do something different. I made good friends, but sometimes it was hard and we worked long hours,” she recalled.

“Grateful I was able to do a small part in the big effort.”

As the war came to a close, she looked forward to returning home to her family. “It is very sad to think of the thousands of young men who fought and died to preserve our freedom. I was grateful when the war in Europe was over and I was able to go back home, but I was also grateful that I was able to do a small part in the big effort,” she said.

After the war, she married her sweetheart Russell Woolever, a Navy officer during the war. Many years later, after their children were grown, Russell’s hearing began to fail.

“They didn’t even think of going to VA,” her daughter Wendy recalled. “He was getting his hearing aids from some other place, and the hearing aids were aways beeping and ringing and making noise. It was not a good situation, and it didn’t dawn on me that he should be going to VA.”

After Russell died, Miriam’s hearing started to go, too, so her daughter took her to VA. “I’ve been very impressed with them. They are right on it with taking care of those hearing aids,” Miriam said.

Teleaudiology appointments are “wonderful”

Miriam received hearing aids from Carl T. Hayden VA in Phoenix. However, the distance Wendy had to drive her mother for each audiology appointment was becoming a strain. So, Miriam’s doctor referred her to another clinic where she now receives teleaudiology services.

“These appointments are wonderful. The doctor there on the screen is very helpful, and the two technicians are in the room fitting her and working with the doctor,” she said.

“She always has a great demeanor and has been a successful hearing aid user,” said Dr. Cara Mack, Woolever’s audiologist. “I’m currently seeing her through our teleaudiology service. She is a great patient and I am amazed at her stamina at 101.”

“The service has been really good in the audiology department,” added Wendy. “They have really kept her in touch with life.”