Watching America change, decade by decade

When asked to describe her time serving in the Women’s Army Corps, Barbara Byrne responded with a rhetorical question. “Have you ever seen ‘Forrest Gump?’”

Byrne served at the Fifth Army Headquarters in Chicago from October 1961 to October 1963. Her duties involved administrative work and setting up meetings between Army officials.

Concurrently, Freedom Riders were taking a stand against segregation, San Francisco was getting recognition for the emergence of the LGBT community and words like “domino theory” and “containment” were being introduced into every American’s vocabulary to describe our strife to stop communism from spreading.

Barbara compared her experiences to a recurring motif used in the renowned 90s film, “Forrest Gump,” in which the protagonist was constantly in the framework of key moments in American history.

“I felt like I was in the background,” she said. “It was as if everything important was happening around me.”

The decision to contribute

After graduating high school, Barbara planned to go to college and mused over the idea of becoming a nurse. After her father got sick, however, she stayed home to take care of him and worked at an insurance company. There was a lot of talk in the media at the time about “problems with Germany” and many of her male friends were being drafted to serve in the Army. When she was 19, Barbara made the decision to contribute herself and volunteered to serve in the Women’s Army Corps.

According to the WAC Veterans Association, Congress approved the creation of the organization in 1943 after Massachusetts Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers introduced a bill to enlist and appoint women in the U.S. Army. Within its first year, the WAC had set up five training centers in United States. While they were still not allowed to fight alongside men, members of the WAC served in fields such as communications and administration.

America on the brink of nuclear war

Barbara began her journey at Fort McClellan in Alabama, where she attended basic training and went to clerical school. Next, she was stationed in Chicago while the American government started to keep an eye on Vietnam. One October day in 1962, Barbara had to cancel every meeting she arranged. “Everyone said they had the flu,” she explained, “And I’m thinking, ‘How does everyone come down with the flu at the same time?’ ” That day would soon be written about in textbooks and referred to as the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Racism in the sixties

“When I voted for Obama I had tears in my eyes,” Barbara recalled, explaining how far America had come from the racism it was mired in when she served in the war. While soldiers were fighting overseas, citizens were fighting on domestic soil for their civil liberties. The slogan, “Double V” was being used to describe a victory abroad and a victory at home. Barbara recalled a black friend returning from the dentist after getting a tooth pulled. She was clutching her face in agony and said her doctor, a white woman from the south, had refused give her novacaine.

A stand against homophobia

Barbara went back to her “Forrest Gump” reference to explain the naivete with which she understood the LGBT movement at the time. In Chicago everyone she came in contact with were women. There was little need for communication with anyone else. Barbara noticed two women who were really close and it fascinated her. One day she asked someone about it and was immediately brought to her colonel.

The colonel asked Barbara, who was still unsure what to make of the previous events, if she had ever been to Greenwich Village.

“She said that the people I see there are just like those two women. And that if I talk about it they would get into huge trouble,” Barbara said.

Barbara’s life after war

In October 1963, Barbara ended her service with the WAC. Soon after, troops were deployed into Vietnam, and in America, the Civil Rights movement was in full swing. Barbara worked for American Airlines where the shadow of war still loomed overhead— The company was responsible for shipping the bodies of lost soldiers back home.

After meeting her husband, John Byrne, Barbara joined him in settling down in Merrick, where they had a baby boy named Michael. Barbara stayed at home to raise him before working at Old Mill Elementary School for 31 years, retiring in 2015.

Barbara’s new home: the American Legion.

Twenty years ago Barbara was at a street fair in Merrick when she met Tom Riordan, the Commander at American Legion Post 1282 in Merrick. She joined to be the post’s only female veteran and in 2008 was named Legionnaire of the Year.

After the elimination of the draft in 1973 the WAC experienced a boom in enrollment. In 1978 effort was made to assimilate and the WAC was discontinued because it was no longer necessary to separate women in the Army.

When asked if she could go back in time and go to college instead, Barbara said yes. Then she said no. Then she paused and expressed how grateful she was to have been a part of history.