Mary T. Heany was born in July 1923 in Detroit, Michigan. They had a nice house. She walked to school with her brother. Saturdays were five-cent movie days. With admission, they would get free tap dancing lessons. Her mother was a stay-at-home mother. Her father worked for Ford Motor Company. She lived in an ideal neighborhood where everyone knew each other and it was safe. She did not know there was a depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. Her mother was a wonderful cook. They cut back on some things, but she did not notice. At that time, a student could take a smaller student to school with them. Her brother took her to school with him. She started kindergarten at age four. She graduated high school at 16 years old. She wanted to get a job. Her neighbor was a waitress at the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] in Fort Lewis [Annotator’s Note: Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington]. She lasted two weeks. She was fired. She had 13 different jobs. She met a GI [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] at the restaurant who asked to call on her. She married him. They lived with her parents. He was a private. She was married in October 1940. He was Irish and good-looking. He was romantic. She did not have a permanent job. When the war broke out, her husband was transferred to California. That Sunday [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], she and her husband went to a movie. The movie stopped and an announcement was made for all GIs to report to their base. Her husband left. It was exciting. Her husband was sent to Casablanca [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco] for African desert duty. Her husband was shot in Casablanca and was sent to Tennessee to recover. She asked him to get a divorce. She was single when she joined the Army. She was working at the Boeing wing shop in Tacoma, Washington. It was a defense job.

Mary T. Heany applied for and got the job. [Annotator’s Note: She worked in the wing shop at Boeing] She wore a jumpsuit and worked five days a week. She cut rivets every day. Her brother was declined by all military branches because of a heart condition. She told her brother she would go for him. She was close to her brother who was four years older than her. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WAC) [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978]. The WACs had a bad reputation because the only requirement to get in was the right age. Her parents knew the WACs stayed in the United States and had office jobs. She was sent to Des Moines, Iowa for basic training. The clothes were terrible and uncomfortable. They had a regular physical. She got a hundred shots while she was in. Basic training was fun. They learned to march. She got a medal for being good with a rifle. They went on a 10-mile hike. She got to go horseback riding. It was cold in Iowa. Then she was sent to Nashville [Annotator’s Note: Nashville, Tennessee].

Mary T. Heany was excited to be sent to Nashville [Annotator’s Note: Nashville, Tennessee]. She was asked to go on a recruiting trip. Heany and her roommate signed up for a new assignment. They were sent to New York. Then they went to New Hampshire where Heany became an MP [Annotator's Note: military police]. She had to check the passes that the men had for leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to make sure they were legal. She also checked people on the buses. Then they took a plane to Newfoundland [Annotator’s Note: Newfoundland, Canada]. Bourbon was 25 cents a shot. Then she was sent to an Air Force base in Casablanca [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. It was hot there. They had their winter wool uniforms on and full packs. They were taken to a motel which would be their barracks. They took over the Shell Oil building in downtown Casablanca and that is where they would be working. Heany was assigned to supply and service. She was an office worker. They had orders coming in for parts. They did paperwork all day long. The government was giving them cigarettes for five cents a pack. They did not do any work on the base. The oldest girl on the base was the cook. The girl liked wine and men. She got sent home. The food was something else. They lived in a motel. They had their own room. They could not go out at night. Every once in a while they would be flown to another base for dinner and dancing.

Mary T. Heany remembers there was only one place downtown where they could hang out. It was a dangerous place [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. They were not there to make friends. If they had a date, they would come to their room to play cards or drink beer. Heany wrote letters to her parents. She sent them a postcard when she was in Rome [Annotator’s Note: Rome, Italy]. She was up to go on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and she chose to go to Rome. She knew, being Catholic, her mother would be thrilled if she went to Rome. She could pass for an Italian. She had a couple of fun nights in nightclubs. She was there for a week. She got a rosary there and the Pope blessed it. She had a good time with a pilot. She took civilian clothes with her. All the people were polite. She saw the Sistine Chapel.

Mary T. Heany was being romantic with an officer. It was against the rules for officers and enlisted people to associate with each other. The officer was transferred out of Casablanca [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco] the next day after he wanted to marry her. Then they got word that they had permission to get married. He came back to Casablanca and they got married in the officers’ club. She wore a plain white button-down dress. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] the war was over for them in Europe. Then they would be sent to the South Pacific. She went to New York, then Washington, DC. She had leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went home to Detroit [Annotator’s Note: Detroit, Michigan]. She was discharged in Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois]. She went to New York to wait for her husband to get home. She was Catholic and he was Jewish. His mother hated her. They were well-off financially. Her husband went to a refresher course at Harvard [Annotator’s Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts]. They stayed at Harvard for six months. Then they moved to Minnesota where his parents bought them a house. She became homesick. She thought she and her husband were not suited for each other. She wanted to go home. He went home and bought a house with the GI 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]. It was a brand-new house. She divorced her husband in one day by going to Idaho.

Mary T. Heany thought it was nice to be discharged [Annotator’s Note: She was discharged from the Women’s Army Corps (WAC).]. She wanted to be an individual again. She kept in contact with three or four girlfriends. She decided to join the Reserves. She only had to go out once a week with the military. She adopted a little girl. She is against women being in the military. She is not a feminist. She has never been mistreated as a woman. She did not participate in the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She does not understand why people are making big deals out of small things instead of important things. She does not know why women have to do the same things as men. She joined the military because they needed to help the men and their country.

Mary T. Heany is very proud to have served. She loves all the veterans. She fights for the treatment and care of the veterans. The veterans do not get the care they should be getting. The government should be taking care of veterans. She was 20 years old when she went in. Heany donated her Women’s Army Corps (WAC) uniform to the National World War II Museum [Annotator’s Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. Over the years, her uniform means more to her. When she first put it on she was proud and excited. They were all the same now. If you are an American, you are an American. There does not need to be an ethnic separation. She was very happy to be able to donate her uniform.