Violet Walsh was born in 1920 in L'anse Au Tigres, or Tiger's Cove, a small settlement between Eunice and Basile in Evangeline Parish [Annotator's Note: Evangeline Parish, Louisiana]. The older of two children in her family, she grew up during the Great Depression in Elton [Annotator's Note: Elton, Louisiana] where her father was a clerk and butcher in a grocery store. There wasn't too much money around, but her family kept a garden and livestock, so they were never hungry. Violet worked as a telephone operator while she attended Louisiana State University [Annotator's Note: in Baton Rouge, Louisiana], with the goal of becoming a French teacher. She was already teaching French and history when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Walsh was out for a ride in her father's new car when he offered a lift to two boys she knew, and they broke the news of the bombings. She recalled creating a bulletin board that mapped the islands in the Pacific Ocean for her history students, and updated the information as news developed over the ensuing months. She was not instructed to do so, but always tried to put a patriotic and positive spin on her lessons. At Walsh's school, she helped collect scrap iron, issued ration books, and did all manner of other things for the war effort. In 1942 she was prompted to join the military after reading an article announcing that the Navy was accepting women volunteers. Her younger brother was already serving in that branch of service. Walsh wrote the Navy requesting an application, and shortly after undergoing a physical examination in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], she received word that she was accepted.

In January 1943, Violet Walsh, who had never traveled north of Ruston [Annotator's Note: Ruston, Louisiana] or ridden on a Pullman train, journeyed through the snow to Mount Holyoke College [Annotator's Note: in South Hadley, Massachusetts] in Massachusetts. Once she arrived, it was clear that she was in the Navy. Walsh underwent strenuous physical education and stood four hour patrols throughout the installation. She describes life in the college, and admitts that she entertained thoughts of going back home. She was taken aback when she had to have a gynecological exam during her complete physical. Walsh noted that there were some male officers who weren't happy with being assigned to a women's training camp. But Walsh enjoyed meeting people, and made some lifelong friends while she was in the Navy, some of whom she met during boot camp. Once basic training was complete, she was sent to Smith College [Annotator's Note: in Northampton, Massachusetts] to study communications and worked on a coding machine, similar to today's computers. The girls were living in a hotel at the time and a visit from Mrs. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: then First Lady of the United States Anna Eleanor Roosevelt] was a disappointment; she came in to inspect Walsh's room, but never acknowledged her or her roommate. Although Walsh "wanted to see the world," she was assigned to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], and was happy to be on familiar ground.

Stationed in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], Violet Walsh worked for the 8th Naval District Communications Office. She and three other women lived in a rented apartment because there were no quarters for female officers. From that post she went to "doing recognition signals for the Navy," and later she was sent to the Issuing Office to set up communication manuals for Naval ships coming through the port. She learned to carry and shoot a gun, and said her worst job was taking her turn to collect all the waste paper in the office at end of the day and burn it in the building's incinerator. She had to be in uniform any time she was out and about, and once, when her brother visited, the two turned heads as they toured the city, she a lieutenant and he an ensign. Walsh thought her job was exciting and enjoyed her life in New Orleans. Although she asked for transfers, hoping to see more of the country, only one offer came through and that was to Sabine Pass, Louisiana. She turned it down and stayed in New Orleans until the end of the war.

There was a young man with whom Violet Walsh corresponded throughout the war. He was her high school pen pal from Montana, stationed somewhere in Europe. But by the end of the war, Walsh was engaged to the brother of one of her colleagues, a Merchant Mariner. She describes living on rations, which extended even to women in the Navy, and joked about cotton versus silk stocking supplies. Walsh had never intended for her armed forces career to extend beyond the war, and when it ended, all the girls in her group were anxious to get back to their former lives or move on as a civilian. She was 25 when she was discharged, and went home to plan her wedding.

Violet Walsh served in World War 2 in order to do her part in the war, and she is glad she volunteered. She knows that her service in the Navy changed her life; it brought her out into the world. She thinks the war established the United States as one of the leading countries in the world, and she is proud of her service. Walsh said that today, people look back upon that era as being "something big, and important." She feels it made a difference in women's lives, and opened opportunities for females in the workplace and otherwise. Asked if she thought it important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana], Walsh answers, "definitly." She thinks there is value in teaching the lessons of the war, because they show how much Americans went through and prevailed in the end. One last story that Walsh decides to share is to confess that she routinely exceeded her travel limit to visit her parents, arriving at a deserted station in the wee hours of the morning where her father waved the train down with a lantern; and returning to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] early on Monday morning to go strait from the train station to work at the Navy offices.