Joyce Sherman was born August 1921 in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] at the Women's Homeopathic Hospital. Her father owned a drugstore. He lost the store during the Great Depression. They went to live with her grandmother for a while. She graduated from high school and went into training at the Jewish Hospital [Annotator's Note: Jewish Hospital for the Aged, Infirmed and Destitute] of Philadelphia, which is now Albert Einstein Medical Center. She lived with her parents until she married. She had one brother who was a physician. He was a corpsman in the Navy. Her father went to work for Nevins, which became Sunray Drugs, and he worked for them until he died. Education was a priority, but because of money, they were not sure she could go on. Her parents borrowed money to put her in nursing school. She graduated in 1942. The RNs [Annotator's Note: registered nurse] did everything back then. It was a lot different than today. When she was finishing training, nurses started working eight-hour shifts. Until then, they had worked 12-hour shifts. As students, they had night duty and then classes during the day. The hours were the same. In her senior year, the Red Cross came in and recruited nurses for the service. There were 25 in her class. One went into the Navy and 19 went into the Army in 1942. She went in [Annotator's Note: into the Army] on 1 June 1943.

[Annotator's Note: Joyce Sherman completed Nurses training and enlisted in the Army on 1 June 1943.] It was wartime and she was patriotic. Everyone was going in [Annotator's Note: in the military]. Her father was a volunteer in the Navy in World War 1. Her brother had their parents sign for him while in high school and he went on active duty when he graduated. Her parents were supportive but not thrilled that she went. It was a good experience. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks the interviewee if she remembers where she was when she learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Sherman was at home on break and heard about it on the radio. When she went back to work, young men in uniform there seeing the young mothers, were being called back to their bases. She was single but she later married her pen pal. Her roommate all through training was her roommate all through the service, Nancy Spark. They went to Aberdeen, Maryland. In October [Annotator's Note: October 1943], they left from the Charleston Port of Embarkation [Annotator's Note: Charleston, South Carolina] on the SS Del Ayers [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], a small ship. There were ten nurses and five doctors and troops. They spent two weeks going to Takoradi, British West Africa [Annotator’s Note: Takoradi, Gold Coast, now Ghana]. They did not know where they were going. They gave them woolen outfits. They zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] back and forth with no escort. They had a Navy gunnery crew on ship. They had two staterooms with five bunks each. They had blackouts at night. It was an experience having five girls in a little stateroom. They could not fraternize with the men, other than officers. When they got to Accra [Annotator's Note: Accra, Gold Coast; now Ghana] on the coast, there was a beach where they spent their off hours. At the beach, they did not have rank so they could be friendly with the men there. It was an adventure. She went to places she never would have gotten to like Cyprus [Annotator's Note: Republic of Cyprus], Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], Lagos [Annotator's Note: Lagos, Nigeria] on a day trip to get permanent waves [Annotator's Note: hairstyle]. On the base in Accra, there were ten Red Cross Girls, 20 nurses, and no WACS [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the Army, 1942 to 1978]. They were the only females on the base. In Dakar [Annotator's Note: Dakar, Senegal], there were no WACS, but there were when she got to Cairo [Annotator's Note: Cairo, Egypt].

Joyce Sherman formed some close friendships and they kept in touch. Most were from Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: like her]. Two that she went overseas with came from Fort Eustis, Virginia. She got very little Army training. She was at a base hospital in Aberdeen [Annotator's Note: Aberdeen, Maryland]. She only remembers being taken out to drill. The sergeant went to the girl in front of Sherman, put his hat in her right hand, and told her that when he says to go right, turn to the hand that has the hat. They really did not get any training at all. At the hospital, they just did what nurses do. Every base she was at was an Air Transport Base [Annotator's Note: Air Transport Command Base]. In Accra [Annotator's Note: Accra, Gold Coast; now Ghana], the hospital was really great. It was air-conditioned. They had screened-in verandas due to malaria. That was the 67th Station Hospital. She was there from November 1943 until Spring of 1944. She then went to Dakar, Senegal, French West Africa. That was an old hospital. They were not permitted outside the walls unless they were in a government vehicle going to the main base. She went to Cairo [Annotator's Note: Cairo, Egypt] in early Spring 1945 and went home in December 1945. Cairo was the 38th General Hospital. It was big but spread out in the desert. The Germans and Italians were out of North Africa by then. There was a big Italian POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war camp] camp there. Those men were happy to be there. An Italian prisoner was a tailor who did work for them. In Accra, they had native houseman who did everything for them. Cairo was nice. Her room was air conditioned. The patients were mainly from the air base. They did get a lot of casualties from China-Burma-India [Annotator's Note: China-Burma-India Theater or CBI] in Accra. They would stay overnight then go the Azores [Annotator's Note: Azores Islands, Portugal], and then to Florida.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks the interviewee what the military nurses did for socializing during their war duty.] Joyce Sherman attended outdoor movies in Accra [Annotator's Note: Accra, Gold Coast; now Ghana]. They had to wear mosquito boots. They had dances and would go to the beach. If they had a date, they went to clubs. Once a week they would go to the Accra Club which was a British club. They did not have ice for drinks. They took day trips into Accra. In Dakar [Annotator's Note: Dakar, Senegal], they were very careful because they were in the middle of the native quarters. They never treated the native populations. In Cairo [Annotator's Note: Cairo, Egypt], they had non-American patients due to marriages between Egyptians and Americans. Swatting away flies was called "the Egyptian salute." On days off, they would have tea at the Shepheard's Hotel or they would go to the Pyramids. The poverty was terrible. When she went to Lagos [Annotator's Note: Lagos, Nigeria] for a day trip, she went to a hospital on the pediatric floor. The mothers were chewing food and then putting it in the babies' mouths. It was astounding. She would write home and they would not believe it. It was an unfortunate but wonderful experience. They were all so young then it did not hit them as much as it would now. They got news of the war through the Stars and Stripes [Annotator's Note: American military newspaper]. She remembers being in Cairo on the morning that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States; died 12 April 1945] died. She walked into the mess hall and the local newspaper was there. In the lower righthand corner, was the news of his death. They did not get it on the radio. They did not even hear of D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] when it happened. The Stars and Stripes informed them about everything really. She got a portable radio in Cairo. She had it for years after she was married. She would go to the PX [Annotator's Note: Post Exchange, or commissary] to get Hershey's chocolate [Annotator's Note: candy bar]. It had a lot of wax in it, to keep it from melting. They were allotted a certain amount of Coke [Annotator's Note: Coca-Cola]. They could get one bottle of liquor per month. They could not eat fresh fruit unless it was in the mess hall. They could eat bananas. No vegetables unless they were cleared. She went to an Egyptian wedding in Cairo. She ate fresh strawberries and ended up with bacillary dysentery [Annotator's Note: severe infection of the intestines].

Joyce Sherman had a pen pal. She had a cousin who was an Army nurse stationed in Italy and was corresponding with a person whose family she knew. Sherman also knew his family. He was stationed in the Aleutians [Annotator's Note: Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. His unit was in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], so he was lucky he had been transferred out. Her cousin was corresponding with him, Herb Sherman. The cousin told her she should correspond with him. She did in 1943. She could not understand his handwriting. They wrote until they came home. He was in a cab with a girl who knew Sherman and got her phone number. They lived a mile away from each other. That was December 1945. They were married in September 1946. In his letters, he described what he was doing. They would write about their families. He had a good sense of humor and they sent each other pictures. They were married for 40 years. Her husband told her not to tap him on the shoulder after he came home from the war. He was very emotional. He was not in Europe at all. They were at the movies and they showed a newsreel of the concentration camps. He became hysterical and she had to walk him out. When he got to the Aleutians, he went to Adak [Annotator's Note: Adak Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska] and not Attu [Annotator's Note: Attu, Aleutian Islands], so he did not see any Japanese. He talked about how cold it was and how desolate. On Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], he got there right after or right before the bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], so there were no Japanese there. He talked about the weather and things of that sort.

Joyce Sherman was not aware of the Holocaust, but she knew about what was going on. She was in high school when she heard about Kristallnacht [Annotator's Note: Night of Broken Glass; November Pogrom; 9 to 10 November 1938, Germany]. She does not remember where or how she heard about it. She remembers Poland being invaded in September 1942. She was in her bedroom and heard the news boys yelling it on the streets. Her grandparents were already in the United States before World War 1. They all lost somebody, but she does not know who. She knows some of them came from Kiev [Annotator's Note: Kiev, Ukraine] and some from Riga [Annotator's Note: Riga, Latvia]. Her father-in-law's family came from the Soviet Union to England and then to the United States. He was born in England and her mother-in-law was born in Warsaw, Poland. Sherman's parents were born in the United States. Religious services were available to her [Annotator's Note: in the military in Africa]. There was a Jewish chaplain in Accra [Annotator's Note: Accra, Gold Coast; now Ghana]. She went to Hanukkah [Annotator's Note: Jewish festival also known as The Festival of Lights] in Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. There was a French restaurant where they gathered. The Chaplain started to talk, and Sherman thought he sounded like he was from Philadelphia. He was from a synagogue there. Once when she was on the beach in Accra, a young pilot started talking to her. She found out his father was a pharmacist who knew her father.

Joyce Sherman left the service and got married. She does not think she was really any different due to the war. Maybe if she had had a lot of hardships, if would have been different. She did become very independent. She lost three very important years of developing as an adult. She has no regrets. Her parents knew she was coming home but not when. She flew home. When she got to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], she could make phone calls. It was right before Christmas and her parents were working. She could not reach them but called a cousin. She called again when she got to Washington and they came down. She had to go to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: Fort Dix, New Jersey]. Her brother was still in the Pacific. When she was away, her father had surgery and she could not reach them. Her brother did not write them much. Sherman wrote home every day. At the hospital, they teased her about being the Post Office's darling. Her father would send her packages. You had to make requests in order to get a package. She would send those to her father. He would keep them supplied. She was always asked what kind of food she got. Her uncle would get certain chocolates, pack them in dry ice, and send them to her. A pilot she met, said he was going home but would be coming back. He met her father and brought her back a package with tomatoes and salami. The package had been rerouted and it was all spoiled. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks about service women being independent.] Sherman says that goes away as you get older, but only because you worry about something happening when you are alone. When the WACS [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the US Army, 1942 to 1978] came into the picture, the PX [Annotator's Note: Post Exchange, or commissary] finally started getting supplied with things that women needed for their health and other things. She never felt second-class though. Some fellas thought they could do what they wanted with them, but she let them know that they could not.