This is Mike Zambrano. Today is January 26,
2015. I'm interviewing Mrs. Bernice Isabel
Pratt at her home at Highland Estates in Cedar
Park, Texas. This interview is in support
of the Nimitz Education and Research Center,
Archives for the National Museum of the Pacific
War, Texas, Historical Commission for the
Preservation of Historical Information Related
to this site. Hello.
Yeah, all right.
Can you tell me when and where you were born?
Where I was born, in Donna, Texas, way down the valley.
And when were you born? 1922.
What month?
September 8th
What were your parents names?
Knute, Watsby and Anna
Was there Anna Watsby
Did you have any brothers or sisters?
I had three brothers, no sisters
What were their names?
Well, they're crazy. H-O-E-G-I-L.
He's dead now.
And Gordon, he's also dead. Clarence.
That's my three brothers.
No sisters.
Were they all older than you? Huh?
Were they all older than you?
I was the second one, Angel, and then me, and
then Gordon, and then Clarence.
What did your father do for a living?
Well, mainly farm. He raised vegetables and
things, and that's the way he made a living.
And your mother was a homekeeper? Yeah.
Since you were born in 1922, you lived through
the Depression.
Can you tell me how that was for your family?
Well, we just lived on what we made.
We made out pretty good.
We had cows, so we had milk, and mainly we
raised everything we ate, mostly.
So, do you think you fared pretty well during
that time?
Yeah, I think so, considering. True.
Let's see, 18, 19, 40.
And so, did you go to school, did you live your
whole life before age 18 in Donna, Texas?
Yes, that's right. I went to Donna's high
school, Donna's schools all the way through
from first through graduation. I graduated from
high school there.
What did you do when you graduated?
Well, after I graduated, I joined the N.Y.A.
school, and they sent me to Corpus Christi,
and I learned to do sheet metal work and I made
all kinds of little things.
Then when I finished that school, I went to
work at the Naval Base repairing airplanes
on the PBYs.
I was a Rosie the Riveter.
And this is at Corpus Christi?
Corpus Christi.
I interviewed a Navy Wave the other day that
worked at Corpus Christi, working on PBY.
I wasn't in the Waves.
Oh yeah, no, no, I know.
But I worked for the Navy.
You said the N.Y.A. school.
What was...
Youth Association. I don't think they have such
a thing anymore.
No, I don't think so, you went to the N.Y.A.
while you were in Donna or you went
to Corpus Christi?
No, I went to Corpus Christi. I joined them and
they sent me to Corpus Christi. That's
how I got to Corpus Christi.
Do you recall where you were or what you might
have been doing when you heard about Pearl Harbor?
No, I can't remember any of that.
I remember hearing it, but I don't remember
where I was.
Do you maybe remember how people felt when they
heard about it?
Were they angry?
Were they anxious?
or? Probably anxious. I don't think angry. I
forgot to ask, um, why, why did you go to
sheep, uh, why did you take this, this, this
job? Well I thought it'd be interesting. Yeah?
It was. I really enjoyed it. I made all kinds
of little things. I made a cookie sheet for
I gave it to my daughter and I think she still
has it.
Oh really?
And I made her all kinds of little boxes out of
metal, any kind of metal we could get a
hold of.
We used cans from all kinds of things, mainly
light metal, sheet metal.
By working with the sheet metal, how does that
apply to your work on the PBYs?
Well, because the airplanes when they land on
water they bust the bottom out and we had
to cut them up and fit it and then rivet it on.
So, you're working in Corpus Christi, you've
got this job working sheet metal, at what
point do you decide that you want to go into
the service?
Well, a friend of mine, we were working
together and all of a sudden we decided, why don't
we do something else?
So we decided to go there and join the service.
Of course I got in and she didn't.
Why didn't she get in?
Because she couldn't pass the test or didn't.
Was it a... Anyway.
A physical?
A physical or something.
Anyway, I got in.
Why did you choose the Army? Huh?
Why did you choose the Army?
I really don't know.
That's the first thing that came along, I guess.
It's what we heard of mostly.
What year was that?
It must have been, I think, 1942.
I don't know if it's 42 or 43, somewhere along
in there, 43 maybe.
So you joined the Army and is that in Corpus Christi?
I joined from there and they sent me to, well,
to take my training from Corpus Christi to
-where did it-all of a sudden I lost it.
Was it here in Texas where you took your masonry?
No, it was in Florida. I think it was Georgia
or Florida.
I knew it just as well as I did, but I can't remember.
Well, I'll ask you later. Maybe you'll remember.
I'll start on it.
Did you take a train to get there?
Yeah, I took my training there, my basic training.
Well, I mean, did you take a train or rail car
to get there?
went by train over there from here.
And so at this point, it's just you, your
friends not with you anymore.
That's right.
I was by myself.
My parents weren't even there.
My parents were down in the valley and I was in
Corpus Christi.
They didn't even know about it.
Oh, really? No.
What did they say when they found out that you
had enlisted?
I don't know.
I wasn't there.
I just told them I lifted and I guess they took
it pretty good.
Well, that was pretty brave, I mean being on
your own.
Yeah, I was pretty young.
So you take your train, you go to basic training.
Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.
Fort Oglethorpe? Uh-huh.
Can you tell me a little bit of what it's like
for-what's basic training like for
a WAC?
Well, we did most of the things the men did.
Like what?
Well, like what?
We went on all the...
The obstacle courses?
Obstacle courses.
We did that.
Did you deal with any...
We did a lot of walking and we did a lot of marching.
Was there a lot of physical fitness?
Yes, all that kind of stuff is about the same
as the guys, most of it.
But of course, I was with a group of women at
that time, and a bunch of us joined together.
I mean, finally got together.
Did they show you a rifle and a handgun, was
there any kind of weapons training?
No, nothing with weapons.
That part we didn't, didn't do anything with those.
So it sounds like it's kind of a getting you
ready and maybe a little bit of an introduction
into what military life is like?
Well, you'd go to work the same as you did
anyplace else.
You had your job and you had to do it.
What were your living conditions like in basic training?
Well, we lived in a big dorm with a bunch
of-there must have been fifteen of us.
fifty or a hundred in a dorm together, and
everybody shared the bathrooms and stuff.
It wasn't bad.
What did you think about the Army food?
I enjoyed it.
I would work, and then after work, we had some
free time.
What would you do with your free time?
Well, I finally met...
We went to the movies, a whole bunch of us
together, and finally met some guys, and they
went with us.
movies and ballgames and stuff and they had
some girls softball teams and so I got joined
in one of those and I played softball.
What position did you play?
I played pitcher.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
I have a picture of that but I don't know where
it is.
I'm a big softball fan. Huh?
I like softball.
Oh, I like it a lot.
I haven't played in a few years, but I like it
a lot.
I haven't either.
Well, when you're done with your basic training,
do you get any type of advanced training after that?
No, they sent me to
Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Antonio. Really? So they send you right back to
Texas? That's Texas. San Antonio, Texas.
Okay, so they send you back here. Yeah. And
what do you do? Well when I first got in
I just drove a Jeep and I drove officers
around, anybody that needed a ride, any
officer that needed to go someplace, I'd take them.
And what kind of uniform would you wear while
you were doing this?
What kind of uniform would you wear while
you're a driver?
Army uniform, just a dress uniform.
Okay, the dress uniform. And it was a jeep?
The jeep, the army jeep.
And so you got, who did you get assigned to drive?
Well, who were you assigned to drive?
Not any special people, anybody that needed to
go somewhere.
I kind of stayed in the office and when
somebody needed to go somewhere, I'd take them.
You don't remember-do you remember the name of
the unit that you were with at this time?
No, I sure don't.
It's been too long ago.
So, you were just basically assigned to drive
different people around the base? Mm-Hmm.
And how long did you do that?
In between, I worked in the office.
And what would you do in the office?
Mainly filing, running errands and stuff.
What did you think of that?
Well, I kind of enjoyed it.
Did you enjoy it more than your sheet metal job?
Yeah, I missed that.
I couldn't do anything with my hands much
except jive.
Yeah, I liked working with my hands.
You can tell I made all this ceramic stuff.
Oh, you did?
up here? Uh-huh.
Well, you're pretty creative.
I like to work with my hands.
So how long were you at Kelly Air Force Base?
About, I don't know if it's about two or three years.
I don't remember.
And then they sent me to Maxwell Air Force Base
in Alabama after that.
And the war is still going on?
Is the war still going on when they transfer
you to Maxwell?
At Maxwell, yes.
I was there during World War II.
All right, and what did you do at Maxwell?
Mainly work in the office.
Anything they wanted me to do.
Office work.
You know going, enlisting in the Army generally
was like a
man thing to do. So, you know, you're when you
Enlist did, um, how did men treat you?
Like anybody else. Yeah?
They treated me real good.
So nobody gave you any trouble?
No. I got along with everybody. It was good.
Let's say when you were at Kelly Air Force
Base, what were your living conditions there?
Well, we lived on a, we had a building, all the
women had a building way out by itself
and there was a bunch of women living together.
We all got along real good.
Did you make some good friends while you were
in the service? Yeah.
What are the names of some of them?
the names of some of your friends that you made?
And there, I can't remember any of them. I
can't remember nothing anymore.
That's okay. What else? I had some close
friends, but I can't remember
their names anymore. I recall that you got out
of the service as
a sergeant, is that right? Yeah.
Okay, how did you get to become a sergeant
after a while?
Well, I got to be a sergeant after I got to
Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
Just working in the office, I guess.
I don't know.
I didn't do anything special that I know of.
Were you ever in charge of anybody else as a sergeant?
Just held that off.
That's all.
Do you happen to remember any of your bosses in
the military? Huh?
Do you remember the names of any of your bosses
in the military?
Not a single one.
I don't know, had a lot of them, but I can't
remember the names of any of them anymore.
Let's see, what do you remember most about
serving in the Army?
What, do I what?
What do you remember most about serving in the Army?
Well, meeting all the different people, for one
thing, and helping others, it was interesting.
Did you miss your family while you were in?
My family was down in the valley.
I was a long ways from them.
Did you write home a lot?
Not very much, once in a while, I guess they
were happy for me.
Did any of your brothers go into the service? None.
So you were the only one?
Yeah, that I know of.
I haven't seen any more since.
Was there anything that you missed most of all
while you were in the service?
I haven't any idea.
I don't know what I missed.
Well being with my family for one thing.
I wasn't with my family very much.
Do you have any memories that really stand out
about your time in service?
Anything really funny happen or just anything
that really stands out that you always remember?
I can't think of anything that really stands out.
Did you ever see any USO shows?
Yeah, we went to shows like that and we went to
the movies quite a bit and enjoyed all
of that.
I like playing softball. That's the main thing.
I did that more than anything.
I like being outside. Yeah. Because when I was
growing up, I worked out in the farm and I
worked out in the field all the time and I
got used to working with my hands. Well, that's
pretty different from working in an office though.
Yeah, it's quite a bit different, but I had to
work with papers.
So other than filing, what would you do in the office?
Well, just move boxes and file papers in them mainly.
And I think I might have worked in the post
office giving out mail to the officers when
they came in.
I did that for a little bit, more or less odd jobs.
So after Maxwell Air Force Base, did you go
anywhere else? No.
I met my husband while we were in Maxwell Air
Force Base.
He was in the Army too.
And so we were together quite a bit, and then
we decided to get married.
We were married on the base.
How did you meet him?
Because he went to the ball games and stuff and
we went and finally got together.
Was he on the other team?
No, he never did play, he just watched.
What was his name?
Robert Pratt.
And what was he doing at Maxwell Air Force Base?
Litzinger What was he doing?
She was-he had just come back from overseas, I
think, shortly, and I don't know what
he was doing after that.
You never did tell me.
So you got married while you were still in the service?
And you stayed in the service after that or did
you have to get out?
Yeah, for a while, and then I got pregnant and
had a kid, and then they made me get out.
When you have babies, you can't stay in any
longer, so I got out.
And so this is before the war ends?
No, this was after.
Oh, okay.
The war ended before I got out.
I got out in 49.
Oh, so you stayed in for a few more years. Yes.
Did you like the service? Yes.
Did you think of maybe making it a career or
anything like that? Huh?
Did you think of making it a career?
No, I didn't even think so.
And was your husband in the service, too, at
the same time, in 1949?
We were both there together.
Until after we had the baby, then about shortly
after that, he got out of the service, too.
He said, if you're out of the service, I'm
going to go, too.
So then we went back to the valley.
We went to West Lico, Texas.
That was in 40, probably 50, 1950.
Now how does it work?
You're pregnant, I guess you must have had to
report it to your, like your supervisor,
and then from that point on they start
processing you out?
Well, I was in about four months, I guess,
before I got out.
I worked while I was pregnant for about four months.
And then about four months or so you got out of
the service? Mm-Hmm.
Well, that must have been different.
That was different.
Yeah, I mean, being pregnant and in the service
back then, I mean, today, women get pregnant
and they don't.
Well, you can stay in and take care of the
baby, but back there you couldn't.
They'd kick you out right away.
Yeah, it was a different time.
So we went down the valley and, of course, had
some more kids after that.
I had four altogether, three girls and one boy.
They all went to school in West Lico, Texas.
They all graduated from West Lico and attended
all the schools there.
When they got out of high school, they decided
to go to college, so they went, they picked
Southwest Texas University, that's in San
Marcos, Texas.
You know where that is?
It's Texas State now, I think, or something.
They were all up here, and when they graduated,
some of them got married.
They were all up here, and my husband got sick
in 1990.
He got sick in the late 80s, I guess,
1980-something, and he died in 93.
And then I was down there all by myself, and my
kids were all up here, so the kids decided
And they'd bring me up this way.
Of course, they were all stationed around Austin.
So I lived in Austin at the RBJ Retirement
Center for twenty-three years.
And then my daughter, she's a schoolteacher
now, and she said it's too hard to drive
in Austin, so she found this place for me, and
I moved in here.
I have a daughter in Fort Worth, she's a
teacher also, and she has a daughter that's
a teacher, and my daughter here has a daughter
that's a teacher, so there's four teachers
in the family.
Well, my daughter here, she kind of looks after
me now.
Reifeldt That's good.
A little bit back to the war.
Do you remember when President Roosevelt died?
Steele What?
Reifelt Do you remember when President Roosevelt died?
I remember I heard about it, I remember hearing
about it, but I couldn't tell you just when
it was.
Oh, no, that's fine.
When you heard it, do you recall what you might
have felt?
I liked him, so nothing I could do about it.
Didn't care for it very much, but it happened.
Do you remember hearing about the atomic bombs
when they dropped them?
Yeah, I've heard about them.
I said, more power to them if they work in the
right places.
Do you remember where you were when you heard
that the war was over?
When the war was over, I was still at Maxwell
Air Force Base and everybody was real happy
about it.
There was a lot of celebrating going on.
Yeah, it was a long war.
I can imagine there being a lot of celebrating. Yeah.
A lot of things going on.
Now, when you get out of the service, did you
try to utilize the GI Bill at all?
No, I didn't.
I wished I had.
My husband was in it.
He used it?
He stayed in the reserves until he died.
Did he end up going to Korea, your husband?
Well, he got out in 1950, I guess, a little bit
later than I did, and then we went back
to the valley, of course.
And then he joined the Reserves when we were
down there, he was in the Reserves all those years.
What do you think about your time in the service?
Oh, what do you think about your time in the Army?
my time. Well, I guess I enjoyed it. I had a
good time while I was there.
Did you feel you were contributing? Yeah, I
feel like I did. What do you think
about women in the military today? Huh? What do
you think about women in the
military today? I don't know. It's different, I
think. Yeah? What do you think
about some women wanting to go into combat?
I don't know. I've never given it a thought.
I've been busy otherwise.
All right, well, I think that pretty much
covers just about everything. Is there anything
you'd like to add that maybe I didn't ask or a
story you want to tell or anything?
I don't know, nothing really happened that was exciting.
I played a lot of softball there, worked in the
office, just took care of the guys when
they needed something.
Your work hours, was this just Monday through Friday?
And just regular office hours, like evening? Uh-huh.
Just like any place else.
And you had a lot of free time.
We played a lot of softball.
We had a team and we'd go play other teams in
other towns and we'd go on the airplane
and they'd take us to different places.
Oh, so you had gotten on an airplane? Yeah.
They flew us to different stations where they
had softball players and teams and we'd play.
So, the softball team that you were on, the
team that you were on, was it just for like
your section, or did it represent the entire base?
It didn't represent the entire base, but it was
all women, all women on the team.
So they would fly you around to different bases
to go play different-oh, all right.
Was it just in-well, did you play softball at
Kelly Air Force Base and Maxwell?
Not at Kelly, just Maxwell.
So then they would fly you around what, around
the state to play?
Around Alabama and Georgia, we even went into Florida.
And your team was pretty good? Yeah.
did it have a name? They took us oh when I was
in basic we went up on top of the mountain
uh what is it
can't remember the mountain. Anyway we could
see four different states at one
one place up there when I was in basic
I can't remember what the mountain was, anyway
it was fun.
Did your team have a name?
I guess it was, I can't remember the name, it
came from Maxwell, I guess we called it
Maxwell Air Force Base Team, it's the only
thing I knew.
And you said you were the pitcher, or you were
a pitcher.
I was a pitcher.
And you were pretty good?
I was.
We won a lot of games.
Okay, so is there anything else that you recall
that you want to share?
Can't remember.
If I could remember, my memory is shot.
It would have been better.
But it was an interesting life, something to
think back on.