Blanche Marie (Gregory) Barnes Gangwere was born in 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up near Northeast High School there. After graduating from that high school, she was married and moved away from her hometown. Her husband was killed during the war and she moved back with her parents. She has remained in what was her parent's home ever since. She studied music at the age of nine and stayed with it. She attended music school at Northwestern University. She graduated with two degrees. She began teaching but found she did not particularly enjoy the profession. Her first husband attended the same university as she did. They also belonged to the same church. They met while they were in the choir together. They would eventually be married. When the war started, knowing he would be drafted, her future husband studied intensely so that he could be selected as an officer. That, with his two years of college, allowed him to become a second lieutenant in the Army. The couple dated two years. He did his basic training in California. He was transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was teaching in Kansas City when she received a telephone call from him on 1 April [Annotator's Note: 1 April 1942] and he suggested that they get together for a weekend and get married. Gangwere thought he was joking, but he drove nearly a whole day to get to her in Kansas City. Family and friends gathered as they were wedded in their church. While getting married and having their honeymoon, an FBI or Secret Service man constantly tailed them. He even stood outside their hotel room door. Her new husband knew about the new bombsight. He had been sworn to secrecy, and the escort was going to make sure that the secret was protected. Although her husband had returned home without leave, he successfully made it back to base in time. He returned with the escort still accompanying him. Shortly afterward, her husband was told he was going overseas. He returned home to visit with his parents and his in-laws. The newlyweds then drove to West Palm Beach, Florida where they stayed with a group of people in a hotel. The man in charge of the group was John "Killer" Kane [Annotator's Note: USAAF, then USAF, olonel John R. Kane, also known as Killer Kane, was the commanding officer of the 98th Bombardment Group]. Gangwere and her husband drove Kane to the airport when he could not find transportation there. The men were to begin deployment to Africa. That was the last time Gangwere saw her husband. She drove back to Kansas City and stayed with her parents. Her husband was a bombardier in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He had told his new wife on that last drive together that he was concerned about the ineptitude of the navigator on his plane. While over Africa, the navigator made a course error and flew them into the side of a mountain. Her husband was dead before Gangwere reached Kansas City. She was notified within a week that he was missing, but it took two to three months to confirm that he was dead. Gangwere had a hard time with the loss. People were always reminding her of her loss. Her father recommended she take a teaching job in another city. She contacted a gentleman at Northwestern who was familiar with her school record. She asked him for a suggestion for a teaching job. She went to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and took a job as a junior high teacher. With all the male teachers drafted into the service, the class sizes were huge. She had 100 students in her class. She taught music to pupils who were not interested. The experience was awful. She decided she was not going to be a teacher. She looked young and some of the male students were fairly big. They would ask her if she wanted to join them at the corner drug store after school for a soda. She had no control of the class. [Annotator's Note: She laughs.] That was about the last of her teaching days. She decided she wanted to be part of the Red Cross while watching a newsreel in Milwaukee. It told of what the Red Cross was doing overseas to aid the war effort. Everyone wanted to help win the war in some way. She decided to join the American Red Cross to support the soldiers fighting the war. She was not seeking a husband. She was still grieving for the loss of her husband. She still wore her wedding rings. Nonetheless, she would go on to meet the man who would become her second husband.

Blanche Gangwere thought of joining the WASPs [Annotator's Note: Women Airforce Service Pilots] as her first option to personally help the war effort. She went to the Pewaukee airport where she took flight instructions from a pilot who had been in World War 1. Women were being trained there as pilots for the WASP organization. She took all the training and learned navigation and thought she would be able to join the service. She was prevented from doing so because she was too short. She looked for other options as a result. She completed her flight training and successfully performed her solo flight. There was a significant amount of air traffic in the area because of a nearby Navy flight school. When she was given the plane to fly by herself, she was provided specific instructions about where to go and where not to go to prevent interference. She did so without incident. Prior to her first solo, her instructor landed with her and got out of the airplane and told her to take it up. She did so but noticed when she crossed over a creek; the airplane reacted to the cooler air and dropped on her. When she had to land, she was required to thread a course between the tower and another building. Accomplishing that, she found the airplane had no brakes and just kept on rolling. [Annotator's Note: She laughs.] It was quite an experience being in the air by herself. While aloft, the wind direction changed and caused some unpredictability during her first solo landing. That was partially the reason the aircraft kept rolling on the ground. Gangwere worked on her master's degree at Northwestern while she took flight lessons. It was not too long after she had her solo flight that she graduated from Northwestern and returned to Kansas City. It was then that she decided to join the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: American Red Cross].

Blanche Gangwere was 26 and over the minimum age of 24 when she joined the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: American Red Cross]. She was interviewed and asked about various things before being accepted. They wanted to be assured that she was a college graduate. It was important that the volunteer could do more than just hand out coffee and donuts. She was questioned about losing her husband. She explained that she was able to handle the loss because of her strong religious faith. She had to assure the interviewer that she would not attempt to influence others because of her beliefs. To her, religion was a private thing. It was important for the Red Cross workers to get along with people. Having good character was necessary. After the interview and acceptance, she was sent to Washington, D.C. and billeted with other girls who had joined the organization. They had instructions on what to expect and training by various groups. Some would be trained to go into clubs in the cities and others would go into clubs in the field. Others, like Gangwere, were chosen to be Clubmobile girls. She was trained to drive a truck and given the requisite license. She was shown how to make donuts in the machine. There was a brief training assignment in a club in Richmond, but that was not what she was going to be doing. She went to New York City where she prepared for deployment overseas. She voyaged on the Queen Elizabeth. The ship was a troopship. About halfway across, the passengers were told to come up on deck wearing their life preservers. They were told the engines would be cut, and all personnel should remain silent. No one told the passengers that there were not enough lifeboats for all. An enemy submarine had been sighted but had passed them. They were sitting quietly so as not to be detected. After the submarine scare, the ship pressed on to land at the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. They remained in the staging area there for a week or two. Then, they took a train to London. While aboard, they heard a buzz bomb [Annotator's Note: a German V-1 rocket propelled bomb]. The motor stopped and it dropped. The explosion was nearby. Arriving in London, they had more training about their new assignments. An English lady gave a speech about the trials that the people of England had withstood. It was very difficult for them. The Red Cross girls were told that they would be billeted in an English home. That was good for the homeowners because the Air Force provided extra food for them to feed their guests. The food in England was very tightly rationed. The girls were divided and three were sent to Kettering where they were billeted in an English home there.

Blanche Gangwere would leave each morning in a Clubmobile [Annotator's Note: she was billeted with an English family in Kettering, England near a series of airbases with several other American Red Cross volunteers]. The vehicle was a Green Liner Truck custom built to serve the situation. An English driver picked up the three girls to drive them to a different airfield each day. Upon entry to the airfield, the driver found a power pole to provide the vehicle with electricity. The donut machine was hooked up and the preparation of the dough began. The preparation consisted of combining the mix with water in a large bowl. The GIs liked to help. When the dough was at the right consistency, it was put into the machine which made the donuts. Water was also needed, not only for the dough mix but to make coffee. One girl made the mix while a second located water. The third woman would be on the back of the Clubmobile where there were magazines and popular music records for the men to enjoy. The girls visited with the servicemen and often got out of the truck and danced with them. In the afternoon, the sides of the truck were opened and the prepared donuts and coffee were distributed to long line of GIs waiting their time in queue. It was obvious they loved seeing an American girl offering them coffee and donuts. They liked it. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere smiles and chuckles while recounting the process and the reaction of the GIs to the Red Cross girls.] The girls wore their Red Cross outfits, including a little hat. Their footwear was GI boots and they danced in them. [Annotator's Note: She laughs.] Gangwere thought the slacks with blouse one-piece uniforms were very good looking. At Molesworth, she served the "Hell's Angels" [Annotator's Note: the 303rd Bombardment Group] which had the record for the most successful missions in World War 2. She also went to Harrington Airfield where there were aircraft that flew at night and dropped soldiers behind the enemy lines. The girls also moved to other bases with different bomb groups. Typically, the GIs did not want to discuss the war. They preferred to talk about the girls and family they left behind when they went to war. They talked of previous experiences back in the United States and what their hopes had been prior to service. The girls would be asked to reciprocate with their experiences. That was the type of conversations they had. Gangwere went to Molesworth twice a week to either go to a dance or the officers' club there. She could get food there and sit and talk and do things. She met a gentleman there and had fun with him. Discussion of the war was off-limits. One night after the dance, she and her gentleman friend went into the kitchen and cooked up some scrambled eggs and coffee. She was driven home afterward. She was dating Major Schulstead [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] at the time. He was a real gentleman. They met at a dance while he was in charge of operations at Molesworth. He would invite her to the base all the time. He even flew an airplane to Kettering to pick up Gangwere and fly her back to the officers' club at Molesworth. They dated for about six months. A pilot, the Major flew over 40 missions over Germany and France. He was ill for one flight and had to miss the assignment. His normal bomber, named "It Beats Me," was shot down by the Germans. He was lucky to avoid that. There were restrictions on the Red Cross girls dating. They could only date officers, not GIs. That was because they were given officer status. They had been provided with a card that was to be shown to the enemy should they be captured. It stated that they were officers and should be treated as such. Gangwere entered the Red Cross in July 1944. She ended her service in September 1945.

Blanche Gangwere was sent to France in February 1945. The Army had advanced far enough along that Red Cross girls could be sent over there. The girls were first sent to a staging area near Rouen. They were billeted in a three story building that dated back to the 16th century. It likely was a highway inn for travelers back in the day. It had no plumbing, only round holes in the floor. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere laughs.] There was no electricity. It was rugged. The girls went out every day to serve donuts. The newly arrived troops were in pup tents there. George Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] came up to give a pep talk to the men and the few girls. Patton's language was very colorful. It was a bit embarrassing to the girls with all the men around them. She was glad that she had a chance to listen to Patton. In order to get water, the girls alternated driving the truck 20 miles at night along a narrow road to a place that had water. The headlamps were masked because of the blackout. Only a small slit allowed diminished light to shine in front of the vehicle. Drivers were warned that the land off the road was likely to be mined. The vehicle had to be kept on the road. When Gangwere was driving one night on the narrow road, a large truck transporting tanks came toward her from the opposite direction. She was concerned about leaving the road so she drove as close to the edge as she could and hoped she would miss the big vehicle. She did miss the large truck and acquired the water. She returned after the roughly 50 mile roundtrip. She was in the general area from February to April 1945. She did not have much of a chance to visit with the GIs because they were being prepared to send to the front. One day when it rained hard, she and the other girls walked from one pup tent to another talking with the men. Her next move was to Bad Neuenahr [Annotator's Note: in Germany] where a sentry shot at her while she was attempting to serve donuts to him.

Blanche Gangwere and two other Red Cross girls served coffee and donuts to a tank group. The tankers offered to let the girls drive a tank. Gangwere sat in the driver's position in the armored vehicle with the girl above her placing her feet on Gangwere's shoulders to let her know which direction to head in. Gangwere could not see anything from her position so she had to depend on the directions given to her. When the tank started up, the tankers jokingly warned everyone to watch out because a woman was driving the tank. It was dangerous, but fun, to drive it around the field a bit. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere laughs.] She was shot at by an American sentry late at night when the Red Cross girls were near a camp close to the front. The girls took turns providing coffee and donuts to the sentries. It was necessary to know the password when a sentry challenged them. When Gangwere brought refreshments to the sentry, he appeared to be nervous. He forgot to ask for the password and fired a shot at her instead. The bullet went right past her ear. She did not take cover but calmly told the soldier that he should ask for the password. She then offered him coffee and donuts. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere laughs.] Gangwere served coffee and donuts near the destroyed Remagen Bridge. A pontoon bridge had been established. The girls went about halfway across when the vehicle's brakes locked up. The GIs came to help. They tried to push the Clubmobile off the bridge, but that did not work because the wheels were locked up completely. It took all afternoon to find someone to fix the brakes. That roadway was a part of the Red Ball Highway with all the traffic going up to the front with supplies. If George Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] had been there, he would have had the stalled vehicle pushed off the bridge and into the river. Instead, the girls got their record player out and danced on the pontoon bridge. They finally reached the opposite side of the river to serve the coffee and donuts and then got back. The thing that caused the most fear for the girls was the potential for German snipers in the towns. She never did receive any enemy fire though. The enemy aircraft did not worry them much at that point in the war.

Blanche Gangwere received a leave to go to Paris. She did not have to wear her uniform during that time. She wore civilian clothes and could avoid being stopped frequently as she would have been in her uniform. She went to a movie and was ushered to her seat. The usher would not leave her but was jabbering something in French. Someone said to Gangwere that the usher wanted a tip. She replied that she did not realize that. When the theater full of servicemen discovered that an American girl was in the movie with them, the feature had to be stopped so they could converse with her. They were excited and whistled at her. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere laughs.] Gangwere also went to Versailles for a tour. She met a young woman who spoke English and took several of the Americans on the tour. Afterward, she invited them to go to Paris where she lived in the former residence of Maurice Chevalier who was in Vichy. When the girls had dinner with her in Paris, the girl's parents asked many questions about where the America soldiers were located. It was odd so when the Red Cross girls returned to their base, they informed the officers what had happened. They were to learn later that the girl and her parents were informants and were trying to gather information from Gangwere and the American girls. Gangwere never found out what happened to those people. She went back to England and saw the Major [Annotator's Note: an officer she dated while in England]. It was a nice time but she had to return to Paris. She had no way to get there so the officer sent a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] to transport her. She sat up in the copilot's seat beside the pilot. It was interesting up above the clouds. The pilot found out she had learned to fly. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere had attempted to join the WASPs, Women Airforce Service Pilots, but was not accepted after successfully completing examinations and flight lessons because she was too short.] The pilot asked Gangwere if she wanted to fly the aircraft. She did and flew across the English Channel. It was a much larger and more powerful plane than she had flown before. She enjoyed the experience. Meanwhile, the copilot was livid since a woman had flown his plane. Nevertheless, she enjoyed flying the huge B-17 and could well understand why she was thought to be too small.

Blanche Gangwere went to Bad Neuenahr, Germany on the Danube River near Cologne. She always wanted to make it to Bonn because it was the home of Beethoven. She never made it there because of the prevalence of disease resulting from the extensive bombing of the city. Coblenz was near, but it had been completely leveled. The Remagen Bridge was there. Gangwere and another girl had two weeks before they had to report to Regensburg. The maps they had been given were actually maps given by the Germans to the Americans intending to confuse them. That succeeded. The girls were confused. They drove south to Heidelberg and stopped there while they did some sightseeing. They then headed southeast and reached Bad Tolz, Germany. They had dinner with the staff of the 1st Army Group. The girls had been looking for the 12th Army but were lost. There were only a few officers there but dinner was prepared and General Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General of the Army Omar Bradley] attended. Gangwere struck up a conversation with the General when he learned she was also from Missouri. He was a nice gentleman and very down to earth. She enjoyed the visit. From there, the lost girls were directed to go to Munich and then further to Regensburg to reach the 12th Army Group. On the way, she passed Dachau with the liberated prisoners still in the former concentration camp. The memory of one of the skeletal survivors looking through the fence has never left her. In route through Munich to Regensburg, she ran into a German army unit that still had their weapons. She did not realize the war was over and immediately searched for her card that indicated that she had officer status in case she was captured. They kept going and hoped for the best. Gangwere found out about the end of the war after it had become old news. They drove into Regensburg and reached an ancient hotel where she would be billeted. Upon arriving in Regensburg, an officer named McClung told his buddy that a cute Red Cross girl had arrived. The man who received the word would eventually meet and marry the young Red Cross girl. His named was George Gangwere. He was there as a liaison officer with Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] 3rd Army. He also had the job of coordinating efforts for the performers such as Ingrid Bergman, Bing Crosby and others who came over to entertain the troops. He told her about those times and showed her photographs of some of the people he met. They started dating. They would go to the officers club and dance to a German band which attempted to play American music. They danced every night. George told his new girlfriend that he was in charge of finding a piano for a liberated concentration camp concert pianist to play for a general. George had found an upright but Gangwere said that would never do. A grand piano was eventually found. Gangwere said if it was handled badly, it would not be in tune for the pianist. George made sure that the prisoners who transported it did not mishandle it. The concert went off very well so Gangwere thought she probably saved the day. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere points out a watercolor painting on the wall of her home that depicts where she and George were at Regensburg. She also talks of the picnic they had on a beach there as well as some other good times they had there.]

Blanche Gangwere was sent to Passau, Germany where she was billeted in an old castle on a hill. The castle was accessible for their truck only by a narrow road. They reached an ancient Roman archway that prevented the truck from passing. They had to back all the way down the hill and find another route up to the castle. While at Passau, Glenn Miller's band arrived in town to play a concert. The Red Cross girls were taken on a tank to listen to the concert. After the performance, they talked to some of the musicians. Inquiring as to whether the girls could help the band in anyway, the band members told the girls that no one was taking care of them. They requested that the girls visit with them. Later in conversation, the members of the band invited the young ladies to go swimming with them. Luckily, the Red Cross had advised the girls to bring along some civilian clothes so Gangwere had her swimming suit. When the girls joined the young men the next day for a swim, none of the males had swim suits. They had to swim in their Army skivvies. [Annotator's Note: Gangwere laughs.] It was fun swimming with the Glenn Miller band. General Giraud [Annotator's Note: French General Henri Giraud] was in charge of the area. He took a liking to Gangwere. He kept asking for a date even though he was married. Gangwere tried to avoid him. One day, the General sent a GI to pick her up and escort her to his location. When she refused the offer, the GI told her to please agree to accompany him or he would be in big trouble. She consented on that basis but was very careful about the whole thing. When General Giraud invited her to go with him on Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] yacht, she agreed only if the other Red Cross girls could go with them. He acknowledged that they could. The group sailed the Danube River from Passau to Hitler's birthplace in Austria. The yacht was very fancy. That would be the last Gangwere saw of General Giraud.

Blanche Gangwere maintained contact with only one Red Cross girl she worked with during the war. Her name was Elizabeth Hardys [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. She has passed like most people that Gangwere knew during that period. Gangwere was pleased with her personal efforts with the Red Cross. Unlike some elements of the Red Cross, the Clubmobile girls never charged the GIs for anything they provided. The Army insisted that the Red Cross charge the GIs for items in the clubs because it was felt the soldiers would not want a handout. That requirement gave the Red Cross a bad name. The supplies in the Clubmobile were handed out without expectation of payment. The Red Cross was very good to Gangwere. The Clubmobile seemed to mean a lot to the GIs. They liked to see an American girl and even have a chance to dance with one. It was a morale booster for the servicemen. Gangwere was proud of her contribution to the war effort. It is important that people remember history and what happened and why. That is how to learn not to make the same mistakes. People are not keeping up with history or even current events in the world. Mistakes could be avoided if more thought was given to what happened in the past. There were women making valuable contributions to the victory in many types of ways during the war. Women Airforce Service Pilots [Annotator's Note: also referred to as WASPs], Red Cross girls and nurses, factory workers, secretaries, and other females played a major role in the war. The women in the factories built airplanes, munitions and other important equipment and supplies. The WASPs flew aircraft overseas to replace those that had been lost. Gangwere's experience overseas was wonderful despite her occasional doubts while she was there. She is glad she did it. The men were so wonderful. Her only follow up contact with any of the GIs she met overseas was with her husband she met while there and Major Schulstead [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling, the Major and Gangwere dated for six months while Gangwere and her Clubmobile supported his airbase in Molesworth, England]. Her son had found the Major on an internet webpage. Gangwere had many conversations with him over the internet until he died. He was a remarkable man. He overcame the alcoholism he developed overseas. He established an organization to help military personnel who also suffered from the addiction. Gangwere did a fine job in her interview with the help of Robert [Annotator's Note: her son who is off camera].