Bernice Williams was born in March 1921 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She had a normal life. Her father worked for an insurance company. Her mother died when Williams was almost 14. She had four younger brothers. For the first year, they had a housekeeper, but it did not work out. She quit school and stayed home with the boys for the next year. She went to night and summer school to keep up with her class. Her father remarried and Williams finished high school, winning three college scholarships. She did not take them because of the war situation being critical. She worked for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company for a short time. She then went to work for the Milwaukee Police Department. The war broke out and she decided to enter the service. Three of her four brothers had enlisted. She was interested in the Marines who opened their ranks to women in 1943 [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Women's Reserve]. She and two other friends decided to enlist. Milwaukee did not have a recruiting office, so they went to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] in May 1943.

After enlisting, Bernice Williams was called to Camp LeJeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina] for basic training [Annotator's Note: in the US Marine Corps Women's Reserve]. It was a whole new experience and was exciting. Her father had remarried [Annotator's Note: her mother died when Williams was around 14], and her brothers were in the service. In those days, women did not get an apartment of their own. They stayed home until they got married. She decided to be a Marine. She and two friends went for six weeks of basic training. She asked to be assigned on the East Coast and got the West Coast. Williams went to San Diego, California on a troop train with no air conditioning for three days. She was assigned to Camp Elliot near San Diego. It was a man's base and typical of male surroundings. It had male bathrooms and no privacy. They were not allowed to have cars, although the men were. They would hang their clothing outside to dry and the men would steal their unmentionables [Annotator's Note: slang for underwear]. After a few months, she was assigned to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] which was not ready for women. She was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion. She was a stenographer and secretary. They got up about five-thirty and had breakfast. They then did platoon exercises and then go to their jobs around eight-thirty or nine o'clock.

Bernice Williams [Annotator's Note: in the US Marine Corps Women's Reserve at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] was secretary to Major Owens [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], Colonel Frisbie [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Colonel, later Brigadier General, Julian Neil Frisbie], and General Kingman [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Brigadier General Matthew Henry Kingman]. She took shorthand and typed everything, making ten copies using carbon paper. It was quite a job. Sometimes she had weekend and nighttime duty due to the time difference with the South Pacific. While there, a lot of men were being lost in the invasion of Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943 at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. The women had to take over many of the jobs that the male Marines had done. Sometimes she would have to get on the telephone when the officers were talking with units in the South Pacific. She was told to get everything letter perfect because it was Top Secret. That was exciting. The officers were so kind to the women. If they had to go to a luncheon or meeting in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] or San Diego, they might ask her to come along. They would go to their meeting and tell her to go to lunch or a show or do whatever she wanted. Williams went up in an airplane with paratroopers. She had a parachute. The men sat across from her. The side door opened, the men lined up, and jumped out yelling "Geronimo" [Annotator's Note: the name of Native American, Chiricahua Apache leader used as an exclamation of exhilaration, particularly when jumping from a great height]. The pilot told her she was next. She laughed because she knew better. Williams and the other Marine women did everything the men did. The men were not too happy because it meant that they had to go overseas. She and her friends worked very hard to be good examples to the Marines. She worked with women who had held exciting jobs all over the United States. They gave everything they could to help the Marine Corps. It was a special group.

Bernice Williams chose the Marine Corps [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Women's Reserve] because she did not want the WACs [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the US Army, 1942 to 1978], WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve)], or SPARS [Annotator's Note: United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve; SPARS is an acronym for "Semper Paratus-Always Ready"]. She wanted something special. She wanted the commandant to open the Marine Corps to women. She had a good job and wanted to get out on her own. It was time for her to leave the nest. She read about the different organizations, and she was enamored with the Marines. Her family was proud of her. Her father had remarried [Annotator's Note: her mother died when Williams was around 14], and her youngest brother was still at home. One brother died in the service. Another brother joined the Strategic Air Command [Annotator's Note: established in the US Army Air Forces, March 1946] and flew all over the world. He recently died [Annotator's Note: the week before this interview] and she watched his service over Zoom [Annotator's Note: Zoom Meetings, proprietary video teleconferencing software by Zoom Video Communications]. The Marines had a special attraction for her. The men looked so good in their uniforms. She married a Marine she met in November 1943. He came to a party at her barracks. He asked her on a date, and she never dated anyone else. He had just returned from the South Pacific. That following April [Annotator's Note: April 1944], he was sent back overseas. She told one of the officers about it and asked if he could do anything about it. He said no because the ship was beyond the three-mile limit and could not come back. Her future husband returned in December 1945, and they were married in January 1946. They used V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] to keep in touch. Williams enjoyed and learned so much in the Marine Corps. She learned patience and cooperation.

Bernice Williams was in Milwaukee [Annotator's Note: Milwaukee, Wisconsin] and heard about the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on the radio. Right after that, her brother enlisted. Williams could not believe it was happening. She read about the things that were happening. There is a town in Germany that has her maiden name, so she was interested in what was going on there. She started looking at enlisting. Shortly afterwards, rationing started and they could not buy things normally. The patriotism and enthusiasm was unbelievable. They could not do enough and did not complain. She hopes others never have to go through anything like that, but it did help her make decisions and plan for your life. She started figuring out what is patriotic and what is not and how to help your fellow man. It was a time of sacrifice. Before they had basic training for women Marines [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Women's Reserve] at Camp LeJeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina], they trained at Hunter College [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. They ran out of space there. It was kind of a fun experience [Annotator's Note: boot camp]. She enjoyed learning new things. They taught her everything including how to land and take-off in an airplane. They did not have to crawl on their bellies under barbed wire. They had fun times at USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organizations, Inc.] shows and dances. Hedy Lamarr [Annotator's Note: born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; Austrian-born American actress, inventor, and film producer] came. They had bulletin boards that they used to keep up with the war. They would even list how many were injured and killed. They were kept aware of the seriousness of the war. Her future husband must have liked her being a Marine. They were married for 66 years; that was plenty of time for him to make up his mind.

Bernice Williams' experience as woman Marine [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Women's Reserve] in World War 2 has made her aware of many things that were not important to her before like patience, cooperation, and religion. It made her a better person. She learned to give more of herself. She had members of her own family in the war. One was killed. She is glad she did it. It made her more selective as far as a husband was concerned. She was very precise about what she wanted in a husband, and she got it. It made her aware of what she could do, both during the war and after the war. Even now she talks to grade school children about women in the service. She was honored on Memorial Day [Annotator's Note: federal American holiday to honor and mourn United States military personnel who died in the performance of duty] by them. It makes her very proud, but she feels that she should not be honored when there were so many more who so much more than she did. Williams does not think a lot about paving the way for women to be Marines. She feels that today they are not as enthusiastic as when they were at war, but it is great character-building. There was never a Black [Annotator's Note: African-American] woman in her battalion [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California], so we [Annotator's Note: the United States] have come a long way since then. In those days, if you became pregnant, you were automatically out. At boot camp, they had to scrub the floors of the barracks. The beds had to be made so tightly that a coin would bounce off the top sheet. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Williams how she feels about her photograph being part of a display at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.] She is so proud of it but does not feel it belongs there. Future generations should know everything about the war and should be taught Civics in school. Statues should not be toppled as they are part of history. Future generations should know about the war because it changed history for everybody. The war made her more aware of the veterans' associations and she contributes to all of them. She was going to wear her Marine cap for this interview as she still has her whole uniform.