A Coast Guard Couple: An interview with Jean and Bob Nordstrom

We met with Jean and Bob Nordstrom at their home in Meriden, Connecticut, on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon. When we arrived, Jean was trying on her old Coast Guard uniform that still fits after 60 years! After pouring large glasses of root beer to go with the homemade chocolate chip cookies we brought, Jean and Bob sat together on the couch, while we asked about their experiences during WWII. They both served in the U.S Coast Guard between 1942 and 1945. They first met when they were stationed together in Salem, Massachusetts.

Meg: what war were you in?

Bob: The Second World War.

Jean: World War II.

Laura: O.K. Did you enlist or were you drafted?

Bob: I enlisted.

Meg: Did both of you enlist?

Jean: I was in the Navy and Coast Guard …Navy for 3 months, and then they started the “SPARS” and then I went into the Coast Guard…this is in ‘42, 1942. I was a yeoman, which is a secretary.

Meg: What was the SPARS?

Jean: Semper Peratis American Reserves

Laura: What did your family think when you enlisted?

Bob: What did my family think?

Meg: Did they think it was a good idea, did they support you?

Bob: They were delighted with the news that I was leaving home.

[Laughter,]

Jean: My family was very supportive.

Laura: Um…what did you do to prep for the war…training?

Bob: I went to Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn…I was transferred with my gear to 32 Wall Street. In the CG business…public relations; and I was there until the Spars announced that they were coming in to take over the office…. So, the captain was very good and asked us where we all wanted to go ‘cause we were going to be replaced by the women. I said I’d like to learn to fly so, “well”, he says, I’ll get you an appointment with the Navy. They had their own training program. So I went over and passed all the tests and found out I had an amblyopic eye, which means it cannot be corrected…it will always be the same. “So”, he said, “what will you do now?” “So” I said, if I can’t get that..I’ll go to the flight engineers school out in SanDiego. So I went first class across the country. This is a horrible war story… [Laughter.]

Meg: It’s O.K. go on

Bob: It was a beautiful trip because I saw all the U.S. from New York right down to San Diego and, uh, I was there for about three weeks.

Jean: No, honey, it was more than 3 weeks. You were there for quite a while.

Bob: I hung around as long as I could because I enjoyed it. But ‘east is east’ and ‘west is west’; and so since I was from the East, I decided I’d better go back.

Laura: So you came back and joined the Coast Guard?

Bob: Yes, I went to Salem, Massachusetts.

Jean: He was still in the Coast Guard because the Navy wouldn’t take him.

Bob: Because of my eyes.

Meg: And what about you, Jean?

Jean: I went through basic training in, of all places, Sillwater ,Oklahoma. From there, I went to…I was transferred to Washington, D.C. Pennsylvania Avenue. I became a yeoman. Do you want the part when I went to the Coast Guard Academy? Because my commanding officer, he recommended I go take the exam for the Coast Guard Academy, which I did.

Laura: So you have to pass a test to get in?

Jean: I had to take it twice because…this is very interesting…because the scoring was done on a entirely chauvinistic manner, because the men had to pass the exam with about 70% and the women needed at least 95%. So I had to take it again. And then I went right to the CG Academy. I think we were there about 2 and 1/2 to 3 months. I graduated as an Ensign from the Academy and went to headquarters in Boston…..

[Later in the interview]

Meg: How did you two meet?

Bob: We were on the dogwatch shift.

Meg: What’s that?

Jean: the night shift.

Bob: I had to walk around the parachute loft and the operations offices, and that’s where I first saw Jean while she was on duty in the Operations Office.

Meg: So did you two date?

Bob: No, your grandmother was an officer.

Jean: Lieutenant Junior Grade.

Bob: So, we weren’t allowed to socialize, it was against the rules. The officer’s even had their own lounge.

Meg: So what did you do after you got out of the coast guard?

Bob: I thought about going to work for Pan Am airlines as a flight engineer, but I decided to stay closer to my home, and your grandmother wanted to get married in her hometown in New Hampshire.

Jean: We got married on August 31, 1946, in Durham, where my folks lived.