My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 20
They were told to dance with all the boys—but fall for none. Red Cross rules were clear: dating was fine, as long as the man wore officer’s stripes. Enlisted men were off-limits.
By day, the women drove from camp to camp serving donuts. By night, they danced—sometimes until midnight, then back on their feet by 3 a.m. when the troops came off the line. It was often exhausting, but it was the job.
Flo did her duty. She danced with everyone. Her diary mentions a rotating cast of names—Gus, Buzz, Captain Chaney, Pvt. Rotter, Rick, Stonie, Lt. Phillips, and a handful of Yakima boys. She even dined with Gen. O’Daniel. But her heart stayed untouched.
Until Gene.
She met him in June at the Third Division bivouac at Pozzuoli while serving the 36th Engineers. The first hint shows up in her diary on July 13:
“Date with Lt. Gustafson at 36E dinner and swimming at beach. Fun.”
From there, something shifted.
July 21:
“Too many parties tomorrow nite; am involved.”
She didn’t say his name, but by then, it was clear. She had a boyfriend.
Flo, once a secretary fluent in shorthand, sometimes switched to code in her diary. On July 23, in those secret curves and loops, she wrote:
“Gene asked me to marry him today.”
The next day:
“Gene down at 9:30. Looked at moon by the lake.”
The war made everything urgent. The ARC discouraged marriage, but love had its own rules. On July 28, she confessed:
“Hate to think of the new invasion. He wants to give me a ring.”
And then,
July 31: “Afraid I like him lots.”
August 6 in shorthand: “Decided I want to marry him.”
Flo had no shortage of admirers. She made friends easily, and turned down suitors gently. One woman joked that a soldier, refused by her, turned around and proposed to her friend—who accepted on the spot. It was that kind of war.
On August 7, as Gene prepared to ship out:
“Last date with Gene. Love him in spite of resolve.”
In a letter to her sister Ruth, she tried to make sense of it all:
“He’s big, very blonde, nice-looking, Swedish on both sides, and an engineer, as well as an Oregonian. It’s almost too perfect a set up and I don’t know just how it will materialize, but he wants to get married as soon as the army and Red Cross will let us. You would like this man and Mom especially, would approve. We’ve talked of going through Sweden before we come home but one never knows here.
“War does some peculiar things though, and we have no idea when we will get together again, or, of course, if he will survive this mess. The only thing I can do is borrow your philosophy that if it is to be, it will be!”
Ch. 21: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/04/17/she-liked-opera-they-liked-jazz/
tradeswomn musings 
Molly, oh rats…..all the cute ones are enlisted. What can you do to
correct this?…………….d
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Haha! I never understood why the women were only allowed to date officers. But in Flo’s case, at 30 she was a decade older than most of the enlisted men. So I think they saw her more as a mother figure. She did form lasting relationships with the fighting men and told me she had great regard for them.
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I was able to read the shorthand before I scrolled down. “He asked me to marry him today”. How cute! Such a lovely story, and how they interacted with the soldiers, especially dancing until all hours. That was quite an adventure for our mom! Wonderful story. Thank you! Minerva
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Minerva! Of course you can read shorthand! I could read it too, because my mother made me take typing and shorthand in high school. Those skills were how she supported herself. She wanted me to have marketable skills. How and when did you learn shorthand?
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Minerva, I see I had left off “today” from the shorthand note. I put it back.
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I excelled in shorthand and typing in high school in CT. (all A’s!) in 1947-48! I still use it a lot when I take minutes at meetings, so it’s still very useful.
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