Janet Ann Kite graduated from the Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing in Dayton, Ohio in 1943 and joined the Army Nurse Corp. that same year. She was stationed at the 122 General Hospital just outside of London England where she reached the rank of 1st Lieutenant and served there until the end of the war. She worked with all the injured soldiers, sailors and airmen that were sent there from the battles raging across the English Channel but spent much of her time taking care of burn patients. She spoke of the bombings that were going on around her and remembered one German pilot that they had named "bed check Charlie" due to the time that he always seemed to fly over.
William A. Makley was working at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio as a welder when the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. On the night of December 7th 1941, they called a meeting of all employees in one of the hangers on the base and asked for volunteers to go to Hawaii to help with repairs at the air bases there. He was employed as a senior welder for civilian defense at Hickham Field on the Island of Oahu. While stationed at Hickham Field, he also worked to repair aircraft that was damaged during missions flown in the Pacific theater. He was a member of the Hawaiian Air Depot Volunteer Corps., one of at least six such units formed by the Army on Oahu as Organized Defense Volunteers.
These men were civilian workers who trained in their off-time, and would pull guard duty at various locations on Hickam.
William was stationed at Hickham Field from 1941 to the end of the war in 1945.
I am proud to call them my parents.
Celina, OH
