"Star-Spangled Hearts": American Women Veterans of World War II - by Jeffrey S. Suchanek with Jeanne Ontko Suchanek
Foreword by Melissa A. McEuen
WINNER OF THE 2012 KENTUCKY HISTORY AWARD FROM THE KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Publication Date: November 7, 2011
Clothbound
ISBN: 978-0-9802117-8-8
Also available in paperback
During World War II well over a quarter of a million American women volunteered for military service, participating in all branches of the armed forces (Army, Navy, Marines Corps, and Coast Guard). However, until recently their contribution to the war effort has been largely absent from the histories of that conflict, overshadowed by the attention to the iconic “Rosie the Riveter” representing women’s service on the home front and in industry.
In “Star-Spangled Hearts”: American Women Veterans of World War II, oral historian Jeffrey S. Suchanek at last accords these women the front-and-center attention their service merits. Based on first-hand interviews he conducted with women veterans from all of the service branches, he presents here the memoirs of twenty women who collectively demonstrate that the honor of “Greatest Generation” does not belong to their male counterparts alone.
Along with amusing accounts of olive-drab underwear and other adaptations of the military to women and vice versa, and tales of the rigors of basic training and the hard work and play of military life that will be familiar to male and female veterans alike, these accounts probe serious issues of sexual harassment and homosexuality that are matters of current debate regarding military service. Most importantly, these women speak to what it means to serve one’s country in time of war, a duty and privilege for which they were the trailblazers for today’s servicewomen.
Praise for “Star-Spangled Hearts”
Every historians responsibility is to find meaning in the past and to bring it to life. Suchanek accomplished this with ‘Star-Spangled Hearts.’ Among its many strengths, this thoughtful primary source collection includes interviewees’ frank opinions on sensitive topics often glossed over or omitted altogether in ‘Greatest Generation’ anthologies and interview compilations.
From the Foreword by Melissa A. McEuen, author of Making War, Making Women: Femininity and Duty on the American Home Front, 1941-1945
“Star-Spangled Hearts” is an excellent addition to the fields of American women's history and social military history of World War II. Suchanek, a gifted oral historian, interviewed servicewomen who served in the all-female units of the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, and in the Army Nurse Corps, and provides memoirs based on twenty of the interviews. The stories are vivid reminders of how the nation employed all its resources to win the war. This book is an excellent starting place for students of the war or of women to come to appreciate the wealth and range of women's experiences and the impact war had in shaping their lives.
D'Ann Campbell, author of Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era
Jeffrey Suchanek’s captivating collection of interviews reminds us not only that American women played vital roles in U.S. military efforts during World War II, but also that wartime personnel needs allowed women to challenge and break out of normative gender roles and social positions. Yet, the women veterans’ stories show us that even while wartime service expanded career paths and educational opportunities for women, assumptions about gender roles and sexuality limited their advancement and, in the worst cases, led to harassment and character attacks. This anthology is a fine example of how home front culture and wartime imperatives become intertwined, and a needed contribution to the vast body of literature on the American experience in World War II.
Heather Marie Stur, author of Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era
In this book, Jeff Suchanek brilliantly captures the captivating stories of young, sheltered women who wanted adventure and wanted to help in the WWII war effort, joined the military services and accomplished their goals.
Col. (Ret.) Arthur L. Kelly, author of BattleFire!: Combat Stories from World War II
This book is a very readable account of women in the military during World War II. An introduction sets the scene of the war and creation of the women contingents while an epilogue covers the developments of women in the service up to the present. The core of the book consists of interviews with women from all of the services. Although the major focus was on these women’s military experience, they also deal with the differences in society and the culture in which these women grew up during the Twenties and Thirties and through their wartime service, compared to that of recent years: small town isolation, the discipline that parents maintained, the great spirit of support for the war effort, as well the attitude most had about sex.
Edward M. Coffman, military historian and author, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 and The Regulars: the American Army, 1898-1941
Jeffrey S. Suchanek is head of the Public Policy Archives at the University of Kentucky and an oral historian. He is the author of Time on Target, a World War II memoir of Gen. William R. Buster, and a member of the Society of American Archivists, Kentucky Council on Archives, and the Midwest Archives Conference. Originally from northeastern Ohio, Suchanek currently lives in Frankfort, Kentucky with his wife Jeanne Ontko Suchanek, who collaborated with him on “Star-Spangled Hearts.”