McIntyre, Bernadine Oral History

mcintyre_Bernadine_02202001 edited

Bernadine Meyer McIntyre was born in Lexington, Ill and before joining the military during WWII she received special training to learn how to fix aircraft gyroscopes. She worked at Wright-Patterson Air Base until the end of the war. After the war she went to Washington D.C where she worked in the payroll department of the national headquarters of the American Red Cross. In Washington D.C. she contracted pneumonia and returned home to where her family was living in Marshfield, WI. In 1949, when she was 23, she joined the Army Air Force. Bernadine attended basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and was sent to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha upon graduation. When the Korean War broke out she worked on payroll cards and eventually volunteered to go to Japan. She was stationed at Nagoya Japan at an office in town where she did accounting work. After 18 months in Nagoya, she and all the other women were sent back to the United States where she was sent to March AFB. Bernadine's first enlistment ended in 1952 when she re-enlisted for 6 years. She was stationed in California from 1954-1958. Bernadine married in 1954, her husband was a career Air Force man who worked in computers. Bernadine and her husband went to the Philippines, him in 1957 and her in 1958, where they were stationed at Clark Air Force Base outside of Manila. Bernadine contracted health problems when the climate aggravated her asthma and left the phillipines after a year and a half. She reported to Colorado Springs and continued to have medical issues where she received a medical disharge in 1960. After leaving the service she went to night school on her G.I. Bill and did bookkeeping for an international corporation. Her and her husband divorced and had no children.