[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with Emma Keulegan already in conversation with the interviewer who then asks her to describe her life during the war.] Keulegan lived in Washington, DC. Her father [Annotator's Note: Doctor Garbis Hovannes Keulegan] was in the Army and was an engineer. They were there when Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] happened. He was one of the three that planned when to invade Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They planned for 4 June 1944, but there was a storm that delayed the invasion. Keulegan started school in Washington. The children were given dog tags and the FBI [Annotator's Note: United States Federal Bureau of Investigation] fingerprinted all the children. They had air raid drills. The school system sent a letter home telling the parents the children would be evacuated and not to go to the school. Keulegan was seven years old at the time. They had to have black curtains. Her father was doing secret work, so the FBI had tapped their phone. The FBI asked them many questions about her father. They had to keep a suitcase packed at all times for her father. When she was in high school President Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] gave her father a medal for his work.

People would come to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, DC] to have bond [Annotator's Note: war bonds; debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war] rallies. Hollywood [Annotator's Note: nickname for movie actors and celebrities based on Hollywood, California] did not interest Emma Keulegan at the time. The movie stars would come to do the bond rallies. The Memphis Belle [Annotator's Note: the name of a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress heavy bomber that was one of the first to complete 25 combat mission] came to Washington. Keulegan and her mother went to watch the plane land. The Memphis Belle came in low over the people. The plane landed and the people rushed out angry. The pilot came out laughing. She shook the pilot's hand and then got to go into the plane. The Memphis Belle is being restored and preserved [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview. It went on display at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio in May 2018].

During the war, Washington, DC was crowded. They had food rationing and gasoline rationing. Emma Keulegan and her family only went to the grocery and to church. Sugar and butter were in the ration books. They would buy the sugar for her grandmother and send it to her. The meat was rationed. Rubber was scarce. They used their car very little. They walked to church. They did not buy shoes because they were scarce. Her mother was a seamstress. She was at her grandmother's house watching a movie when her father [Annotator's Note: Doctor Garbis Hovannes Keulegan] came to get her because Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] had been bombed. The Sullivans [Annotator's Note: five brothers killed in action on the USS Juneau (CL-52), 13 November 1942] lived in her neighborhood. She saw them the last time they were home. It was a shock when they all passed. Then they passed the law that brothers could not be on the same ship. At the end of the war fireworks and guns were going off. Her father had come home. They did not sleep that night. Her father fought in France during World War 1, but stayed in the country for World War 2. The end of the war was all over the radio. There was dancing in the streets. Her cousins that served were stationed in Alaska.

Things were still hard at the end of the war. Rationing continued for about three months. Materials started coming back. The meat was slowly coming into the store. Emma Keulegan's father [Annotator's Note: Doctor Garbis Hovannes Keulegan] would not talk about the war. During the height of the Cold War Annotator's Note: a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies from 1945 to 1991], her father told her not to worry about Russia. He told her not to worry about China. Her father said the Muslims [Annotator's Note: name for the followers of Islam] would be the next problem. Her father was Armenian, and the Muslims came to take over their country while he was studying in the United States. His family was killed by them. After that, he became an American citizen. Keulegan worked on a textbook committee and saw they were not teaching enough about history. When she was a teacher, she taught more than what was in the history books. Young students need to know what the United States went through during the war.