Lorraine Doroff was born in December 1918 on a family farm near Long Prairie, Minnesota in a log cabin. She liked growing up on the farm. When she was four, her dad built a frame house. She went to school for grades one through eight. She was at home on a Sunday when she heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941. She started thinking about what was ahead. She had no life plans. She liked farming but most of the young people were gone. She joined the service in March 1942. She was 22 years old. The Army needed help and her mother encouraged her to join. She had an uncle who had been in the First World War in the Army.

Lorraine Doroff signed up for the Women Auxiliary Army [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Auxiliary Army Corps or WAAC; became the Women's Army Corps or WAC; women's branch of the US Army, from 1942 to 1978]. She went home and waited for orders that came in April 1943. She went to Fort De Moines [Annotator's Note: in Des Moines, Iowa] for basic training. She then went to Motor Transport School for six weeks. She learned to take care of cars. She was assigned to a specific car to take care of. She drove a Plymouth [Annotator's Note: brand of American automobile] most of the time. Her father had taught her to drive previously. After training, she went to Fort Myer, Virginia [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base-Myer-Henderson All in Arlington County, Virginia]. Many of the Pentagon [Annotator's Note: headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia] workers lived there. There were about 30 barracks with roughly finished beds. They used coal heaters. All the drivers were WACs. There were three girls from Minnesota and Michigan, and they were friends and more like family. She made lifelong friendships.

Lorraine Doroff drove for the War Department [Annotator's Note: as a member of the Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the Army from 1942 to 1978]. She drove officers and sometimes enlisted people. Most of the driving was to Washington, D.C. from Fort Myer [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base-Myer-Henderson all in Arlington County, Virginia]. She got to see the interesting places in Washington. The officers were very respectful to her. Her uniform was the same as the men wore. They had a fatigue dress they could wear off duty at the barracks. In her free time, she and her friends would do a lot of sightseeing. They had passes [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went to Quebec [Annotator's Note: Quebec, Canada] once. They could ride for free in cargo planes. One Sunday, they got a plane to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and spent the day. They returned by train. There were a lot of service people in D.C. Some were nice and some were not so nice with remarks and whistling. She did not pay attention to them.

Lorraine Doroff [Annotator's Note: while serving in the Women's Army Corps or WAC; women's branch of the Army from 1942 to 1978] kept in touch with an officer overseas for a little while. He got interested in somebody else and that ended. She dated a few times but did not like how wolfish the men were. She liked her work very much. She drove some of the men regularly. Some would ask questions and they would have great conversations. Others did not say much. Usually they talked about where she was from. They did not talk about the war very much. She and the other WACs listened to the news. Some had boyfriends from before who were overseas, and they would talk more about it. She has lots of memories of Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] and her friends. Washington has changed a lot. She and some friends would picnic along the Potomac [Annotator's Note: Potomac River] on a day off.

When the war ended, Lorraine Doroff [Annotator's Note: while serving in the Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the Army from 1942 to 1978] and everyone went downtown in Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.]. It was wild. The streets were filled with people. She was grabbed and kissed by some soldiers, and she did not like that too well. She was very relieved the war was over. She had signed up for the duration. It took until January [Annotator's Note: January 1946] for her to be discharged. She had mixed feelings. She did not really want to be but was glad the war ended. It was good to be home even though she had been home on furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] during the war. She got to visit her farmer friends. She could reenlist but figured her folks needed her. She joined in March [Annotator's Note: March 1943] and the Army took over in April [Annotator's Note: she was called to active duty in April 1943]. She does not think she could join today. Back then, they did not have to go overseas unless they volunteered. They did not have gun training to fight with the men. They relieved the men in jobs that let them go fight. The only men left were 4F [Annotator's Note: Selective Service classification for individuals who are not fit for service in the Armed Forces].

Lorraine Doroff's most memorable experience of World War 2 is signing up and training [Annotator's Note: with the Womens Army Corps or WAC; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978]. She got to use 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] to help with her education. She became an elementary teacher. Doroff thinks it is important to teach the war to future generations and not to change history. She has not thought of a lot of these things for a lot of years. She started out teaching third grade and then taught several grades over the years. Her service was a great experience. She did a lot of traveling, made a lot of friends, and got educated. That is a lot.