DOROTHY MATSON

By Rachel Morgan

As I walked through the rain and up the steps to Dorothy Matson's house, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  All I knew was that I was there to listen to her stories about World War II and compile them into writing.  Her dog Nelson greeted me and then I met Dorothy.  As I took a step back into the past, little did I realize just how much I would learn.

Dorothy Matson was born in Pullman in 1920.  Pioneering, her parents came to the Pullman area early in their lives.  She says her dad came  "riding a horse and carrying his double barrel shotgun."  The "honest to by gosh barn" that she grew up in stood where her garage stands today.  She attended Pullman High School and went to beautician school in Spokane.  She used the skills she learned for a few years after she graduated until she joined the WAVES.

In just a few days, her life was changed forever.  With three other women, Dorothy headed east on a train that would take them from Spokane to New York to boot camp in the Bronx.  She told the story of her friend Nellie walking through the train saying, "We are crossing the Mississippi River" to let them know where they were. 

When they arrived at the Bronx, they were issued clothing, but Dorothy said they were able to keep their own civilian underwear, for which I'm sure they were very grateful.  "We learned to drill," Dorothy stated.  She quoted one person as saying, "We were drilled into a mud puddle and then he gave us hell." 

Her drill instructors were very strict she remembers, and she got into trouble once for talking in line.  Her punishment?  To clean the dust bunnies off the floor of one of the lady officers.  "There were dust bunnies everywhere," she remembers. 

Dorothy was stationed in Washington D.C. in the WAVES, which was the women's division of the Navy.  She says D.C. was "an interesting town." 

Dorothy went into the service soon after the war started and served until it was over.  A piece of information that I found interesting was the fact that diesel engines weren't allowed in the city of Washington D.C. because it would stain the marble of the buildings.  So she said they rode in vehicles or busses that weren't powered by diesel, or they walked.  While in D.C., they slept in barracks.  There were four to a cubicle, but she said they had the "nicest bunks with the latest movies."  They were given a clean sheet and pillow case every week, but they had to do their personal laundry by hand.  Dorothy even claims that the food was good.

Even though Dorothy went to beautician school after High School, she didn't use those skills in the service.  She went into communications, which she described as "very primitive."  The girls were called electricians and their work was very secretive.  They couldn't talk about what they were doing for close to two years. 

So what were they in charge of?  Dorothy says they just did what they were told.  They made spools of information for secret communication purposes.  She said the enemy would have had to have a spool to transcribe what the message was from ship to shore and shore to shore.  So the enemy didn't know where the allies were because of their secret code, but Dorothy and her people could figure out where the enemy was because they had a cryptologist decode the enemy's codes.  She said they sent the spools "especially to England."  Dorothy talked a lot about a woman named Miss Dillion who was in charge of getting these spools ready to send off to allied countries. 

What an exciting position to be in!  I can't imagine what it must have felt like to be a part of sending vital information about decoding to other countries and to not even have a full grasp on what you were even actually doing!  They had three shifts working every day and Dorothy said that they didn't leave their post until they were relieved by the next shift or they'd get in trouble.  She said they could talk more freely about what they were doing when their commander explained how everything worked.  Dorothy noted that once they started using tapes instead of spools, their work went much faster.  They then could tape ship to shore and shore to ship. 

They had to learn how to solder for their work and a man by the name of Eddy taught them how.  He was very dedicated to his work and when he died Dorothy thought, seeing him in his casket, that he should have been holding his soldering iron in his hands instead of his rosary beads. 

I was interested to know what they did for fun on the time they had off.  Dorothy said they often went to the small town of Friendship.  When they first got to D.C., she exclaimed, "We was poor."   Back then their favorite hang out was the "Pepsi Cola Place" as she called it.  There, they made records, bought a hamburger for twenty-five cents, and got a Pepsi free. 

One time, her friend Mary and she got off work at midnight and they decided they were just going to go downtown.  They ended up meeting up with a sailor and a soldier and walked around D.C. all night.  Dorothy said in the morning they all went to breakfast, put the boys on the bus, went back to the barracks, and never saw them again, but that was typical during wartime.  A fun time they had she says, and she'll probably never forget that night. 

Dorothy and her bunkmates spent a lot of time together and always got along great.  They went to restaurants and the Smithsonian Institute.  Once they even went to a Burlesque show.  She talked a lot about the seasons and the weather.  Springtime was "beautiful, just absolutely beautiful" with all the cherry blossoms and dogwood trees in bloom.  Everywhere they went they saw the sights and smells of a "glorious" spring.  In the winter, the streets and roads would get slick, sometimes with a skiff of snow over them.  Dorothy said it was cold a lot of the time. 

She told the story of when she and a friend were walking along and all the sudden, two Marines who were drunk that were walking in front of them just rolled off the slick sidewalk and down the bank.  She said it was pretty funny.  Some other boys came along and retrieved them, but I can just see them laughing at the guys.  What a sight!

Dorothy was able to stand across the street from the White House during President Roosevelt's funeral.  That was as close as you could get to the President's home during the war.  She said she liked the president and his wife and naturally felt sad when he died.  She thought they were "splendid people," and Dorothy believed he did the best he could while he was the President.  When asked how she dealt with it, she responded, "You just took it in your stride.  You went on."

Trying to do something fun every weekend was part of the routine in Dorothy's life at the time.  Once they visited George Washington's home and they even went to a Notre Dame football game.  She recalled it being a fun experience.  The group of six of them found the stadium to be very crowded, but once they found some seats, they rooted for Notre Dame all the way!

I asked her where she was when the war was over.  She said in D.C., and they heard about it over the radio.  So they all went into town, laid newspapers out on the curb, sat down and watched people get sloppy.  I was quite amused at that term but I didn't know what she was talking about.  She said it meant people unbuttoned and took off their uniform jackets, untucked their shirts, and threw their hats in the air.  In other words, they were allowed to look sloppy.  I can picture hundreds of people having a big party enjoying the end of war on the streets of D.C.  What a time of celebration - to get sloppy!

Dorothy, who was a Second Class Petty Officer when she retired from the Navy, is also very proud of her brother, Dale Henry Sevier.  Dale was an automobile mechanic for many years when he came home from the war.  He served in North Africa and was at the landing at Normandy.  Dale was a tank mechanic.  He kept the tanks' motors running and also kept them moving off of the barges when they landed.  He went clear through the war without a scratch in spite of being shot at while landing tanks. 

Dorothy said she'd never forget something he once told her.  "If you've fixed one motor, you can fix them all no matter what the size."

She also told me her favorite story of his.  When he was in Europe he had a Czechoslovakian girlfriend.  The men on the base often put on dances for the G.I.s and the girls in the area, and Dale was charged with providing transportation for the young ladies.  One evening when he was getting ready to leave to pick up the girls, he discovered the only available jeep and truck were both in use.  There was nothing to do but to transport the girls to the dance on a tank.  Can you just picture a whole bunch of girls trying to find a place to sit somewhere on that tank?  It must have been quite a sight.

Dorothy laughed as she told me what an officer later told her brother.  "Sevier," he said, "I don't care, but the Captain said not to get out on the highway with a tank anymore."

Dale Sevier was awarded the Bronze Star.  The Citation he received with the medal reads, "For meritorious service in connection with military operations against an armed enemy from 18 November 1942 to 1 May 1945, in North Africa, Sicily, England, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.  The technical skill, ingenuity, and alacrity with which Staff Sergeant Sevier discharged his responsibilities as Motor Mechanic and Motor Sergeant, despite hazardous combat conditions and lack of repair parts, contributed materially to the efficiency of his organization throughout the North African and Sicilian Campaigns, during planning and training periods, and in operations on the continent of Europe.  His unswerving devotion to duty exemplifies the finest traditions of the service.  Entered military service from Pullman, Washington."

I was privileged to see his Bronze Star up close along with his dog tag and other medals.  As I looked at those pieces, thoughts ran through my head.  So many people sacrificed so much during World War II and now I take my freedom for granted too often.  How truly grateful I am for the men and women that served our country.

As my time with Dorothy came to a close, I asked if she had any advice for young women going into the service.  "It's an experience," she said.  "It depends whether you want to go to college or join the service." 

Dorothy still happily resides in Pullman with her dog Nelson.  As I look back on the stories of Dorothy's life, I am grateful that I was able to be a part of hearing about her life.  There's so much of the war that is forgotten and yet there's so much that we need to remember.  I am thankful for people like Dorothy who are willing to serve their country and share their stories with others.  I hope these stories are never lost and I am so grateful for being a part of this writing project.  Thank you Dorothy for the things you have learned and shared with the rest of us.  May your story and your brother's never be forgotten!