Affidavit of Helen Bixby Moore - 1977

Affidavit of Helen Bixby Moore, Recognition of VA Benefits, 1977. GGA Image ID # 19a7cc7f09

Affidavit of Helen Bixby Moore
State of North Carolina,
Polk County, ss:

Helen Bixby Moore, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and states as follows:

1. I presently reside at 215 Broadway, Apartment 3, Polk County, Tryon, North Carolina, 28782.

2. In 1918, I was Chief of the Telephone Order Board at L. S. Ayres, Indianapolis, Indiana, when a public notice came out from the General of The Army, John J. Pershing, for French-speaking telephone operators to serve in the US Army Signal Corps in France.

Sixth Unit Shares in Telephone Work in France. Telephone Operators Doing Overseas Service in France "Plug In" for Victory. Left to Right — Back Row: Miss Ellen Disbrowe, Mrs. Mary Steele, Miss Jane E. Conroy, Miss Elizabeth Anne Brown, Miss Anna M. Ostrander, Miss Mabel Lapp, Miss Anna Campbell, Miss Louise Gordon, Miss Helma Greenlund, Miss Corah Bartlett, Miss M. Beryl Broderick, Miss Lydia E. Erickson, Miss Rosemary de Montauzan, Miss Abbie Mitchell, Miss Agnes Houley, Miss Helen Bixby, Miss Hazel Hammond, Miss Anna Swanson. Left to Right — Front Row: Miss Delta Hagan, Miss Eliz. Horsman, Miss Maude Johnson, Miss Margaret Olker, Miss Mary Story, Miss Frances Laney, Miss Isabelle Macdonald, Miss Oleda Joure, Miss Marion C. Swan, Miss Mae Ganley, Miss Hortense Levy, Miss Elsie Wolloff, Miss Bernadette Doucette, Miss Minnie Goldman, Miss Ruth Boucher, Miss Stella Russell, Miss Celia Grimeke. The Telephone Review, October 1918. GGA Image ID # 192443f5fd

I speak French, German and Italian, having been educated in Europe for several years, so I passed my speaking exam over the long-distance telephone line with the French consul in Chicago and was accepted for telephone service in France and went to Chicago, where I had trained over the Chicago long-distance board for three months and then was sent to Camp Dix, New Jersey (now Fort Dix) for duty for three months with troops.

Before going to France, I stayed for a couple of weeks at the Prince George Hotel in New York City while being sworn into the Army and getting necessary supplies and clothing. Attached are photographs in uniform.

I still have one of the Army uniform buttons off of my uniform, also the patches Signal Corps, SOS (Service of Supply), and the Fleur de Lys, as I served six months in Tours at Embarkations Section and six months in Paris at General Pershing’s Headquarters. I operated General Pershing’s and Herbert Hoover’s switchboards as a part-time supervisor in Paris.

It is interesting to remember that our unit (the 5th unit) crossed the English Channel to Le Havre on a Red Cross hospital ship. We were delayed in leaving England for Le Havre because the ship picked up a bomb on the anchor, and the crew members needed to go down in the water and untangle the anchor (while we all waited on board and held our breath).

We were subject at all times to Army rules and regulations, also discipline, including court-martials, the same as governed male Army personnel. We handled all telephone calls, and because of ray knowledge of French, I occasionally handled the French switchboard position, both at Tours and in Paris.

On my return, I joined the American Legion but had to give up that membership because I did not have the official Army discharge. Later, when the Citizens Military Training Camps (commonly known as the CMTC) were organized, I was asked by one of the generals under whom I had served in France to come to the CMTC camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, to come to the post in the summers when the camp was in session as hostess, because of my previous military experience.

I served at Fort Benjamin Harrison for five summers; then, when World War II broke out, I was appointed Chief Hostess for 7th Service Command until the Service Clubs were organized and personnel appointed.

During this period, I had duty at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Warren, Wyoming, and the posts in Arkansas and St. Louis, Missouri, and at Camp Crowder, Missouri.

After World War II, when the Army posts in the United States were closing, I was asked to go to the Pacific Area, and, crossing the Pacific in an Army transport, I served a year in Korea as supervisor of twelve Service Clubs between Seoul and Inch’on, then, as I had fifteen years teaching experience here and there between Army assignments, I was transferred to Okinawa, where I ran the Air Force School at 51st Fighter Wing for two years. So altogether, I have eighteen years of service with the US Army.

I have attached to this affidavit four copies of pictures of me in the Signal Corps uniform, taken at Camp Dix, New Jersey, in 1918, with two other Signal Corps members.

Helen Bixby Moore.
Subscribed and Sworn To before me this 20th day of May 1977.
Peggy Carswell, 10-18-80 9
Notary Public in and for the State of
North Carolina, Polk County, residing at Columbia, NC.

"Appendix B: Affidavit of Hellen Bixby Moore," in Recognition for Purposes of VA Benefits, Hearing before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Unted States Senate, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session on S. 247, S. 1414, S. 129, and Related Bills. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 25 May 1977. p. 381