Mary Konen was born in April 1924 in New Ulm, Minnesota. Her family relocated to Pierz, Minnesota and her father opened and ran a gas station/mechanic shop. Her mother took care of Konen and her seven siblings, gardened, and sewed. Konen attend school during the day and came home and did chores around the house. She did not play much during school. Her town had a large German-descended population, including Konen’s family. Her grandmother immigrated to America when she was young. Konen had no contact any of her relations in Germany. During the summers she would often stay at her grandmother’s house to help her. As an adult, she moved to Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington] to work for The Boeing Company [Annotator’s Note: The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide] where she worked on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. She came home at one point to have her tonsils removed, and her friend gave her pamphlets on the WACs [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978]. When she returned to Seattle, she went to a recruiting officer to enlist, but was denied because she was required to have two years of high school education. However, a few weeks later, two sergeants knocked on her door and asked for her to take an aptitude test. She passed the test to qualify for the WACs. She got involved in Boeing after her mother told her she needed to find a job. When she was looking through the newspaper, she saw a Boeing ad for immediate hire. Her mother pushed her go work for Boeing because once Konen married and had kids, she would not have much opportunity to see the world. She boarded a train with only 25 dollars, and it took two days get to Seattle. She paid thirteen dollars a month for room and board and shared a double bed with another girl. She began working bucking rivets on planes. Konen took a one-week course learning how to buck rivets and earned 82 cents an hour. Konen was approached to work overtime on a secret project. Part of a four-man team, she bucked rivets on B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] under a canvas. In addition to her secret project, she worked swing shift for her regular eight hours because it paid ten cents more. She eventually moved to a bigger boarding house and had a room on the second floor. She kept the same roommate until she left to go home to Texas. Konen would either take the trolly to and from work, or get a ride from someone who had a car. Sundays were her only day off, so she and her friend often toured Seattle. They visited the zoo and fished at Puget Sound. Most of the men she worked with were not in the military because they failed their health test. She often wrote to her older brother who was a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] pilot. It was at her Boeing facility that the 5000th plane was finished. All the workers signed their names on the plane and pushed it out on the runway. The plant was divided up into sections and that it was always very noisy.

Mary Konen worked for a Jewish dentist [Annotator’s Note: named Dr. Behrman] who performed dentistry work on German POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] while she was a WAC [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. Konen was a T5 when the war ended and she was discharged. She worked in a hospital in Illinois before she was discharged from the WACs. There was an incident where her head nurse wanted to transfer her to another ward, but tried to do it secretly. She found out and confronted him. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:55:10.000.] After she received her discharge, she went to St. Louis [Annotator’s Note: St. Louis, Missouri] to visit her boyfriend and then headed home to Minnesota. She decided to leave the WACs because the military wanted to send her to China, and she did not want to go. She had no bad feelings towards the German POWs, but did hold some animosity towards the Japanese. Konen thought the atomic bomb was horrific, but it stopped the war. After she returned home, she found a job at Gamble’s Store as a clerk. Later Konen and her brother took a trip around the country to meet up with some of their friends from World War 2. She met a man named Al. They continued to write to each other, and then she took a trip to visit him in Nevada.

Mary Konen worked for a Jewish dentist who performed dentistry work on German POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] while she was a WAC Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. Konen was a T5 when the war ended, and she was discharged. She worked in a hospital in Illinois before she was discharged from the WACs. There was an incident where her head nurse wanted to transfer her to another ward but tried to do it secretly. She found out and confronted him. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:55:10.000.] After she received her discharge, she went to St. Louis [Annotator’s Note: St. Louis, Missouri] to visit her boyfriend and then headed home to Minnesota. She decided to leave the WACs because the military wanted to send her to China, and she did not want to go. She had no bad feelings towards the German POWs but did hold some animosity towards the Japanese. Konen thought the atomic bomb was horrific, but it stopped the war. After she returned home, she found a job at Gamble’s Store as a clerk. Later Konen and her brother took a trip around the country to meet up with some of their friends from their World War 2. She met a man named Al. They continued to write to each other, and then she took a trip to visit him in Nevada.

Mary Konen’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was the people she met, and learning to drink beer and whiskey at a speakeasy. At Walker Air Force Base [Annotator’s Note: in Roswell, New Mexico], she would go to the beer garden. She served as a WAC [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] because there was a war. Serving in the military changed her life because she was able to travel, meet new people, and see things she would not have otherwise seen. She felt like it was a learning experience for her. She is proud to have served in the Army during World War 2. She does not know what Americans think of the war today. The world is so different today. Konen believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations, so they understand what the world used to be like.