Margaret, from Cropsey, IL, enlisted in the Navy in March of 1944 at Bloomington, IL. She was a WAVE who took completed basic training in Bronx, NY, and further training at Midshipman's School at Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN. 

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This was from her journal on her first day in the Navy: "This was MY DAY - the day I was sworn into the WAVES. It all happened so fast that for days it was hard to believe that I was really in. On a dark, dreary cold morning on March 2nd I life for Chicago. I can still see my folks standing on the platform of the Alton Station in Bloomington."