The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Ms. Adams: Fargo: Ms. Adams:
Well, I sat in on a couple of Court Martials. I remember investigating a matter involving a kitchen group of blacks that were complaining that the work was too hard and pots too heavy. So, I investigated that and in doing so I lifted one of the pots and it was so heavy that I almost fell down. I also investigated the VD (Venereal Disease) rate among the enlisted blacks. I had to call my husband, because I was so innocent that I didn't know what VD was. That is about all I can remember. Do you recall any of the particulars of the Court Martial, you sit in on? On one of them, a girl said that this man had raped her. What she did, she went out with him and later on they went up to his hotel room. In those days if you did this, you were just asking for it. I did not think that she had been raped. I might think differently now. They did not convict the man involved.
As remember, the Inspector's General's Office was pretty tough.
5
Yes, for about a year and a half. It was July of 1943 when they changed it over. You had to put your hand up and resign. I was engaged to a gentleman who was stationed in Trinidad and we had discussed getting married after the war was over. Then I was transferred to Washington, D.C. This was 1943. There I went to class for six weeks, to become an Inspector General. Where was this? The Pentagon? Yes. I served under Oveta Culp Hobby. I also served under General Stacy who was the Army Colonel in charge of that. My husband returned to the States and we decided to get married then. So, we did. Soon after, he was transferred to California. So, I asked General Stacy if I could get transferred to California. He said, "Jean you know we don't transfer people around for their own convenience." I said, "If I can't, I am not going to put my hand up and re-enlist." Soon afterward they said that I was going to be transferred and that I was going to be promoted. I told them that I had already told my husband that I was going to join him. I have always kind of regretted it as I felt like I should have stayed in. Later on, they changed things and wives could be transferred to be with their husbands. Tell me something about your tour of duty with the Inspector General's Office.
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jean Adams. Adams was born in Washington, DC. Her father served in the military as well as her two brothers. She attended an all-girls school in Washington and graduated from a women’s college in Philadelphia. In 1940 she joined her brother in the Philippines but was evacuated in 1941. She joined the second class of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WACs) in 1942. She was assigned to the Office of Inspector General and tells of several investigations in which she was involved. She resigned from WACs soon after getting married in 1943.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.