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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton 
May 7, 1993 
Cassette 4, Side 1 
 
 
Barbara Wright  00:08 
Testing, 1-2-3, testing, testing. This is the second tape of the second interview on May 7, 1993, 
Olive Carlton's home. Alright, um, where were we? Also too in your-- you sort of started writing 
your own, your diary, you mentioned a carbine. What is a carbine?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  00:32 
That's a rifle.  
 
Barbara Wright  00:33 
Okay, gotcha. Were-- how long were-- like, what would-- how long would you have to be doing 
office work? How long would you be working in the office typically? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  00:43 
All day, sometimes all night.  
 
Barbara Wright  00:44 
So we're talking an eight hour day or 12 hour day? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  00:45 
Oh, 12, 24 hours, yes, with no sleep sometimes.  
 
Barbara Wright  00:48 
What were the-- 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  00:48 
They had a lot of boys that would come in, that were there, and were kind of troubled, and they 
come in and talk to the chaplain. And sometimes they talk to me too, they just seem to need to-- 
a uplift.  
 
Barbara Wright  01:09 
And what would you do to console some of these men?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  01:13 
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Talk to them and let them talk. Sometimes it's a good idea to be a good listener. That's as far as it 
goes. I mean, sometimes it's best not to give advice. I was told that a father that I worked for, 
Catholic chaplain. I worked with all denominations too, by the way. Jews and-- Jew, Protestant, 
all kind of Protestants, and Catholic as well. Help them out. 
 
Barbara Wright  01:49 
Also, too, you mentioned in the article that sometimes you would entertain at night? So, tell me 
about that. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  01:56 
Oh, yes, so our office was-- our office was open constantly. We never closed the office. 
Somebody would be there, even a chaplain would be there, because you never knew when 
somebody needed you, just to talk. So what we did--sometimes it'd be one of the guys would 
have a-- how they ever did it, I'll never know-- to carry a guitar with them. I never-- haven't 
figured out how they ever did it with all their stuff they had to carry. But sometimes we had one 
that come to the office, and we had a little organ. I don't know if you've ever seen them, a little 
portable. They stand about, oh, this high, about this big. It's just like a big suitcase. And it's about 
this big. I can't remember how many octaves it got, not very many, but I used to go out and carry 
it around with me when we went, and when we were in the office at night, we have that going. 
And before we got one of the guys that was an organist come, I used to do it. I used to play the 
organ, and we used to sing hymns. We used to sing songs, all kinds of songs, country music. 
That's where I first learned my country music, was in that office. I'd never sung it before, never 
even heard of it, because my father, as I said, was just all classical. That's all the kind of music I 
was raised with. So-- oh, we used to have a ball. It was great, and everybody-- and sometimes 
we'd end up, there was hardly any room to move in the office. It was just so packed with 
different-- well, some of our women would come and join in, whoever was free, and it just-- we 
had a great time. 
 
Barbara Wright  04:02 
Do you mind if I shut the door? Perfect. Okay. Can you remember any of the names of the songs 
that you sang? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  04:13 
I know that-- I know what they always requested me to sing, was I'll See You Again, and another 
one, Irish Eyes. That was another one they-- because, as I think I told you, they named me Irish 
as soon as I entered the service. Irish was tacked on to me right away. And I don't think I spoke 
Irish, but that's what they did. So Irish Eyes and all those kind of things. Amazing Grace was 
another one. I think Amazing Grace was then? I'm sure it was, I'm sure it was. I can't-- Smoke 
Gets In Your Eyes [inaudible]. Tea for Two. I don't know, but I can't. Not coming, I'm sorry.  
 
Barbara Wright  05:26 
Oh, that's alright. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  05:28 
Especially Christmas time, all the carols, every carol that you knew, that they were sung. And 
Easter time, I think that was the best time when we all got together. 
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Barbara Wright  05:45 
Yeah, how would holidays-- because obviously, holidays bring up a lot of emotion, so how 
would you guys spend holidays there? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  05:53 
Working. 
 
Barbara Wright  05:54 
Was it-- 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  05:55 
We didn't have any time off. 
 
Barbara Wright  05:58 
Was it a festive time, or was it sort of a melancholy time, or just a-- 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  06:02 
Melancholy, I would say. You'd care for your families more then and that's what the young men 
wanted, to think of their families, their wives, and their mums and their dad. So it was kind of-- I 
don't know, yeah, kind of sad, but memories too. 
 
Barbara Wright  06:22 
What was your wage? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  06:31 
Oh, my-- I have no idea. I cannot remember. It wasn't very much. I'm sure Chuck could tell me. 
Do you want me to ask him? 
 
Barbara Wright  06:45 
Yeah, just find out for next time, that's fine. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  06:44 
Oh, for the next time. Because we had the same, I think.  
 
Barbara Wright  06:46 
Did you get any sort of a military rank? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:01 
Oh, no. They started off at PF. Well, they said, PFC, but one stripe.  
 
Barbara Wright  07:14 
And did you stay that rank or? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:16 
No, I ended up being what we called a tech staff sergeant. 
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Barbara Wright  07:22 
Okay.  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:22 
That's what I was. 
 
Barbara Wright  07:32 
What was brought about promotions with women within the military? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:36 
Just if it was available. And [?jolly?] there was a lot available, so most of got our promotions 
pretty quick. 
 
Barbara Wright  07:48 
VO-- 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:48 
We didn't have that many women, you see, that-- so it made a difference. 
 
Barbara Wright  07:55 
How did the other women occupy their time? Would they just go down the chaplain's office and 
kind of-- 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  07:59 
No, they'd-- they work the same as I did, maybe 48 hours. You know, as I said, you got very 
little time off. You were lucky if you got two hours sleep, because there's things going on 
constantly. I mean, nothing shuts down. It keeps going. 
 
Barbara Wright  08:17 
Did it ever reach a time for you, or first you, or maybe you can think of someone else, where it 
just got to be too much,  and, you know, for instance, you broke a nail and you just-- or stubbed a 
toe and you just broke down in tears? You know, where you just kind of, whether it be from 
fatigue or from emotions-- you know what I mean? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  08:38 
I know what you're meaning, and I'm-- I honestly can't think of any time that I ever saw any of 
us... I just... Only time I can remember is a lot of crying, but there was crying and laughing, and 
that's when the war stopped. But then the war still hung on, so you still-- but at least it was 
supposed to be to stop fighting, but of course, it still went on until word got around to the right 
places. 
 
Barbara Wright  09:23 
Right. One of the things that, being in Women Studies, that we talked a lot about is, for instance, 
one of the things that is, I can't remember the exact name of it, but when, sometimes, when, for 
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instance, like roommates or girls in a dorm room together, they'll start getting on the same 
menstrual cycle. Did that happen with the women at all, okay? Or was it not talked about? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  09:45 
Was not even talked about. 
 
Barbara Wright  09:53 
Okay. You mentioned that you met a lot of interesting people, like when you entertained with the 
chaplain. Tell me a little bit about that.  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  10:03 
Well, we had one that was very well known. Dr. Poling. He was the head of the Baptist church, 
and he was a lovely man. I wrote about him in there, and he came-- that was while we were in 
Cherbourg. He had lost-- about a month before-- I'm not-- or maybe it was-- well anyway, it 
hadn't been too long when he came to visit us in our office, and we happened to be singing, he 
came in one night, somebody had told him, I guess, about-- he should go over to the chaplain's 
office, and he might be surprised at what was going on. So he didn't know exactly what he was 
coming to hear, but we were singing, and we were having such a good time, he just stood there. 
We didn't even know he was there. He come in, he sat down, and nobody-- we just saw another 
person there. We didn't take any notice. We sang, we talked, and he started talking, and then he 
left. And the next day, this gentleman came in, and the chaplain started grinning. He said, You 
know who this gentleman is? And I said, No. He said, Well, this is a very special gentleman. 
And he told me who he was. Well, I had never heard of him living over where I've been, you 
know, in Ireland. I hadn't known all these people, so he started telling us that he just lost two 
brothers and a son on a ship that was being torpedoed. And he thanked, because I was the only 
girl there then, my roommate had been with us during the night, and we'd been singing duets and 
quartets and stuff like that. So I was by myself when we start talking, and he wanted to know 
where Jean came from, and we told him. So he said, Do you think like an interviewer? So we got 
another meeting together, and he took all the information from us, and he sent every one of our 
parents to say that we were sa-- because our parents-- nobody knew where we were, I mean, it 
was-- you didn't know where you were, everything that was secret. So he told him that he'd met 
us and we were fine, and how he had been entertained. He started writing to my mother. He got 
interested in Dad, because the organ part, and they started corresponding quite a bit after that. I 
don't know if he got over to Ireland or not. I don't know. Can't remember if Dad said he did, but 
he was a real nice guy. And then another one, because I met all kind of generals being with the 
chaplain-- I mean, they associated with chaplains a lot. You worked kind of hand with them. Ike. 
You know, I met Ike and Mrs. Roosevelt. She came over, met her, and there was a actress. I 
can't-- [inaudible] think who she was.  
 
Barbara Wright  13:45 
Do you remember what she was in? Like, what movie? Or what she looks like?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  13:49 
No, I can't, but I know she was an actress, but I can't think of... I want to say Betty Hutton, but I 
don't know. 
 
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Barbara Wright  14:03 
Betty Grable? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  14:04 
It was one of those, she was blonde and-- [inaudible] all I remember.  
 
Barbara Wright  14:04 
So you couldn't write your parents at all? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  14:11 
Oh, you could write to them, but you can't tell them what you're doing, or where you are. Just 
you kind of-- [inaudible] with life and that you're doing-- what you're doing, like, I could tell her 
that I've been singing for the troops, but I couldn't tell her where, and if there was-- the-- was it 
called the USO at that time? Because it was partly the Red Cross had their hands in it too, and 
they come over and entertain the troops. And I always had to sing the national anthem. So I 
could do that. I was always asked to do that. And then I got to know all those people. But don't 
ask who they were, I don't know.  
 
Barbara Wright  15:05 
So then you would sing the national anthem at these USO big shows? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:09 
Yeah. And I'll See You Again. 
 
Barbara Wright  15:10 
Okay. How big would you say the crowd was?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:15 
Oh my, 5, 600. 
 
Barbara Wright  15:19 
Were any of these with Bob Hope? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:22 
I don't think so. I think I would remember him. No, because he wasn't even starting doing those 
things then. 
 
Barbara Wright  15:50 
Mm-hmm. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:50 
In World War Two? 
 
Barbara Wright  15:51 
Mm-hmm.  
 
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Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:51 
Oh, after, yeah, but I don't think when I was over there though he was.  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  15:54 
It's funny how I can remember certain things, and never things like this. 
 
Barbara Wright  15:54 
Okay. 
 
Barbara Wright  15:58 
Looking back on, you know, on that era, can you determine any sort of sex discrimination that 
went on, or any sort of-- what about sexism? Were you ever called babe or nice gams, or? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  16:14 
Oh, I was called babe. Oh yeah, I remember that.  
 
Barbara Wright  16:20 
What-- in what context would you be called babe?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  16:24 
Hi, babe. Nothing wrong with that. Song like that, isn't it? There's a song like that, it goes by 
"hey babe" [Inaudible]. But I know there was. I don't know. I don't think we were so uptight 
about it, about everything they are now. Sure, we got called names, so? Didn't hurt us. Words 
don't hurt you. What about boys being called G.I.s? And that's what they were called, 
government issue [laughs]. 
 
Barbara Wright  17:27 
How would the soldiers treat you when they-- whether-- for instance, was there like a sort of 
social area there in the compound? Okay, there's no time for it.  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  17:39 
No time for it at all. Never had time to think about it. And I was treated like a queen. No matter 
where I went. I couldn't have been treated more lady-like. They never got-- forgot who I was, 
what I was, never, not once-- oh, actually [inaudible]. I guess one guy-- I didn't know anything 
about it, but I was told about it. Some guy started being a smart aleck, I guess. And he said 
something-- they never did tell me what he said either, but I guess it was a real good fight. I got a 
little upset because I don't think it was fighting over something. I guess he never had any 
problem after that. In fact, he became quite a follower. I guess he got the wrong idea. I was a 
character, I know that. I would tell a lot of jokes, and-- not bad jokes, you know, but I was 
always a live wire. I had this girl, she's still my friend, we still-- she lives in Oregon. We write to 
each other. We have ever since day 1, '44, and she kept good track of me, and she had to slow me 
down quite a bit. She acted like a big sister. And I just took everything for fun, and thankful that 
I was alive and able to do it. Came true. So I did. But there's no sex in it. [?Nothing right?], we 
didn't even think about it.  
 
Barbara Wright  19:30 
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Just too busy? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  19:29 
Just too busy, yeah. Oh, we had-- I had friends-- you know, boyfriends. We just go out and-- 
around the countryside. Sometimes we get hold of a bicycle and we'd take a-- we weren't 
supposed to, but we did, and look at the countryside. Even had-- Well, that was so-- that was 
later on, when we got to Deauville. 
 
Barbara Wright  20:02 
Okay, and what about Deauville? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  20:03 
Oh, well-- Oh, we're going to skip over it [laughs].  
 
Barbara Wright  20:07 
Sure, why not? We're in Deauville now. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  20:10 
That used to be, and still is to this day, a very exclusive gambling-- they have a casino there. I'm 
sure you've heard of it, Deauville, France, and that's where we were. That's where we had our 
headquarters when we moved there. We did the same thing there. The only thing was, I'm sure 
you read about it in reports, but they still had bombs on the beach. Couldn't go down on the 
beach because they had hidden bombs until it got them cleared up-- well, they never did get the 
whole thing cleared up while we were there, except for one little-- we were in-- our headquarters 
was in a place called Deauville, but they had confiscated a beautiful hotel in Trouville, which 
was about four miles. And we either had to march from there to Deauville, or we find bicycles. 
But we confiscated, and we'd ride bicycles. It was good, though. It was nice, and we were there 
during the nice weather. That was the best part of it. We were there during the summer. And so 
we-- they cleared out this one little beach that was right in front of the hotel and-- had been a 
hotel, and they cleared that all out for us, and we could use that beach. So the GIs then, would 
come-- we'd, you know, all be together. Not too many of us paired off, right? We just wanted a 
happy family, because there was only 20, think between 20 and 30 women that lived there, so we 
did invite-- and as I said, we have cooks that cooked great. Well then, they went and got stuff off 
the-- some of the wa-- well, the French didn't have much of anything anyway [clears throat], but 
they maybe were able to pick up something too. Oh, we had great meals, and then we'd eat-- 
invite the boys over-- or guys over. We'd just have a good time for any group. I say, we didn't do 
it too often, because we were working. 
 
Barbara Wright  22:42 
How often would it-- could you have, like, a social time? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  22:44 
You did it whenever you could. And we had wonderful mess sergeant-- uh, yeah, the mess 
sergeant cooked, that helped us out that way. I mean, they cooked all the time. It's-- we'd say, 
Well, because we have these little field telephones, you know, so you could call, and they'd as, Is 
there any food around, can I bring so-and-so? And say, Yeah sure, come on, we'll fix up 
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something. And this is what I've had all my service: people working together. So I've been very 
fortunate. I can't ever say that I've seen anything or heard anything degrading. I must have, but I 
just-- if I did, I didn't take any notice of it. 
 
Barbara Wright  23:36 
When did you learn how to drive? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  23:37 
[?Fall?]. I put in the Jeep, told what to do. That was it. 1, 2, 3, 4, and reverse [laughs]. 
 
Barbara Wright  23:50 
How long did you stall out before you finally drove two feet? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  23:55 
Well, the chaplain had to go to the-- we had to go to the front line and give a service, and none of 
the guys was available, because we generally had one guy that could come and drive, but there 
was no guys available. So Chaplain says, All right, you got to get in there and we do it. So, he 
showed me what to do, and he put me in it, and he sat there beside me, and we started off, so I 
was learning while I was going to the front line [laughs]. I never looked back. 
 
Barbara Wright  24:30 
But that was a good distraction [?if you get in fire?]. 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  24:34 
Yep! And then, the only funny part [?one?] though was, I was driving a chaplain, and the roads 
were so slick, there was snow up the air. And I got in that truck and I said, Okay. Let's go. We 
were driving, and I was doing beautifully. Oh, this is great. [Inaudible]. This is not hard. And all 
of su-- I turned the wheel for something-- oh, I know we were turning a corner [inaudible]. I 
must have been going too fast, I don't-- but there was this tree right in front, and it was kind of 
leaning. And so that's where we landed: up the tree. I just sat there not-- I remember I was just 
laughing, and then we said, Well, we better do something about it. So he got out and he helped 
me down. We couldn't believe how I got that thing up that tree. And they came and took pictures, 
not put anywhere, but just make sure everybody knew-- I don't-- I never got a picture of it. I wish 
I have, because that was funny [laughs]. 
 
Barbara Wright  25:58 
You mentioned how one evening, you ate dinner at one of the local French countrymen's home, 
and-- but you mentioned how it was sort of your first taste of champagne, [in a French accent] 
champagne, but just kind of brought in something else in my mind just regarding alcohol in 
general. Was there a lot of alcohol consumption? 
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  26:22 
Oh, there might have been amongst the men, I don't know. I never heard or saw, because there 
wasn't any. Well, they-- we had ration, you know, so he-- if they brought enough ration of beer, 
that's about all they had. But this particular-- this is where I-- lucky or unlucky, I know where 
you want to put it, but I'd never drunk anything like that, wine or anything. And the chaplains, 
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when they were invited out anywhere, they always had me tag along. To this day, I don't know 
why, but I did-- I think whether they've been good to me or whether they felt better, I mean, 
somebody with them, I don't know, but [?Joanie?] I was always invited. And it was the Catholic 
father, Father Foley, that had been invited to this French family, and they had buried all their 
champagne. I guess they must have grown the grapes, you know, made champagne, but the 
Germans had stripped everything, but they had hid some of it. So it was years old, and it-- it was 
delicious. I knew I loved it, but I didn't know you just didn't drink it down, you know? I didn't 
know you just sipped it. I don't remember anything, but I know we had a good meal, though.  
 
Barbara Wright  27:48 
Do you remember what you had?  
 
Olive Mary Milbourne Carlton  27:50 
Yes, as I told you, they didn't have nothing, you know, in the way of food. But this lady had 
made a potato soup. And I have never tasted anything like it, then or since. What she put in it, I 
do not know, but it was delicious. I've tried it, you know, since, it's nothing like I remember. 
Unless it was because it was something different, but I enjoyed it. I don't know, but we visited 
them and they loved to have us there. And I spoke French [inaudible]. 
 
Barbara Wright  28:33 
That is the end of side one, part two of the second interview. We're switching tapes-- well, 
switching sides right now. 