Fredi Van Pelt was born in July 1923 in Alameda, California. She has two sisters. Van Pelt was the baby in the family. Her sister Marion was 11 years older than her and helped raise her. She grew up in Alameda. She was there until she got married in 1950. Her mother was born in Springfield, Illinois. Her father was born in Amsterdam, Holland. He was 17 years old when he came to America with his family. Her father was a painter. Her mother was a telephone operator. Van Pelt used to play hide and seek and baseball out in the street. She had a good childhood. Her father gave her an allowance. Every Saturday, Van Pelt and a friend would go to Oakland [Annotator’s Note: Oakland, California] and eat at a Chinese restaurant and then go to a show. Alameda had a Naval Air Station across from San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. She thinks she was at home when she heard about the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on the radio. It was a shock, but she was 18 years old and did not care. They used to joke around about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and walk around saying, Heil Hitler. After high school, she went to work for an insurance company. She changed jobs a lot.

Fredi Van Pelt went through basic training in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina]. She went to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] train station then to Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. At every stop they made them get out and learn to march. Her friend went into the Marine Corps and so she thought she should join. She joined in November 1944 and was out in May 1946. She was discharged at Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] at San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] instead of at Camp Lejeune. She stayed at Camp Lejeune the whole time. They had recreation halls. They would bus them to the beach. There were movie houses. The food was not bad. They had them go by train to Camp Pendleton. They stopped in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and had to spend the night. This was in 1946. She went to war to release a man to go and fight. Van Pelt got a lower bunk at Camp Lejeune and the girl on the top bunk was hefty. She worried the girl would come through. Her boot camp was all female. Her drill sergeant was male. The men were taught to shoot guns, but the women were not. She saw a flamethrower [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] get shot down into a foxhole as a demonstration. Her job in the quartermaster corps was as a freight checker. She checked off all the boxes as they came out. They would sit around in the warehouse and play cards or read. She liked the age she grew up in compared to the technology today. The boxes came on trains and big trucks. She cannot remember what was in them.

Fredi Van Pelt was on furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Wilmington, North Carolina when the bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. She was in a hotel room when they heard about it. When she signed up she wanted to go to Hawaii. She did not want to be a career Marine. Her final rank was corporal. In May 1946 she was sent home. She used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. She went to art school after the war. She got married in 1950. Her daughter was born in 1951. She had one daughter and two sons. She had a government job, but it was boring. Her husband was in the Merchant Marine during the war. She retired at 80 years old.

To Fredi Van Pelt, once a Marine always a Marine. They were trained they were the best. If she had her uniform she would still fit into it. Her favorite president was Franklin D. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. He did so much for the country. He started social security [Annotator's Note: United States Social Security Administration]. If she did not have it now she does not know where she would live. She does not think the Marines changed her. She is well organized. She has good kids. She has not been to the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. She used to live in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Pensacola, Florida] and Alabama. It was a kinder and gentler nation. She could go out and play, her kids could go out and play and she did not have to worry about them. Nowadays kids cannot do that.