This article researched and written by Briana Fiandt, curator, Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center.
Our WWII veterans are almost gone and we are racing to record the stories of everyone of the Greatest Generation still here. 
In March, we traveled to Park Falls, WI to visit with Marjorie Holtz who is 101 years old.
Marjorie Oilschlager was born in Port Edwards in 1924, on her grandparents farm where she grew up with her parents and one brother. When she was only 14 years old her father was killed on the job at a local paper mill. She herself went to work at the same paper mill at 17 and stayed there for 3 years. Then, when she was 20 years old in 1944, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
Men were desperately needed to fight oversees, leaving a vacuum in the civilian and military workforce of the home front. Seeing the need, President Roosevelt signed the WAC into existence “for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of women of the nation” on May 15, 1942. Despite discrimination, unequal pay, and fewer opportunities than their male counterparts, women stepped up to do their part in World War II.
Marjorie went to the WAC Training Center in Tennessee at Fort Oglethorpe for basic training and then cooking school. The training facility at Fort Oglethorpe became the Third WAC Training Center, one of the largest training sites for women soldiers during World War II The center was able to house more than 9,000 personnel.
By the end of the war, around 50,000 women went through training at the Center.
Today, the previous training center is part of the Chickamauga And Chattanooga National Military Park. The original barracks and training facilities are gone, but visitors can still see the ruins, foundations and road traces of a once enormous army camp where America’s young women answered the call of duty.
In 1943 there was an urgent need for additional military personnel to handle classified mail and records at Los Alamos, New Mexico, home of the top secret Manhattan Project. Over time, WAC personnel were placed in almost every department at the site. 
WACs worked as librarians, clerks, telephone operators, cooks, and drivers.
After graduating from training Marjorie was shipped by train to Los Alamos where she worked as a cook for her fellow female soldiers. On the weekends, the enlisted men were invited to the mess hall and her cooking duties increased exponentially.
While she was in Los Alamos, she met and married her first husband, a U.S. Army soldier. They were transferred to Sandia Base near Albuquerque.
When the war was over, she left the Army, but her husband re-enlisted. They transferred to Germany and she found herself and her young family moving around the world, including England, the United States, and a return to Germany. They adopted two boys in Germany and had one daughter when they returned to the United States.
The marriage didn’t work and when the couple divorced, she returned to Port Edwards where she worked in the paper mill. She returned to her cooking training when she bought a resort with her second husband.
After another divorce, she met her third and final companion Don Walrath. They were together for 30 years and she says, “We hit off just like that, a real match”.(1) Today Marjorie lives in Park Falls, WI. Her two sons have predeceased her, but her daughter, Donna, lives close by. It was a privilege to be able to record her story for our archives.
We are extremely grateful to Marjorie for visiting with us and sharing her memories and photographs. If you know of a WWII or Korean war era veteran who would be willing to share their military experiences, please get in touch with us at 715-718-7023 or [email protected]
Sources
- Abigail Beus, B. Y. U. (n.d.). Women in Los Alamos during the Manhattan project. Intermountain Histories. https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/756
- A century of stories. (2024, May 9). Price County Review.
- Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Manhattan Project: People > Military Organizations > WOMEN’S ARMY CORPS (WAC). (n.d.). https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/MilitaryOrgs/wac.html
- Woman’s Army Corps (WAC), Sheryl. (2015, January 23). First Day at Fort Oglethorpe. My Aunt the WAC. https://myauntthewac.com/2015/01/27/first-day-at-fort-oglethorpe/
- Autry, B. (2020, February 24). Women’s Army Corps comes to Chickamauga Battlefield. Northwest Georgia News. https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/women-s-army-corps-comes-to-chickamauga-battlefield/article_f86678d8-3623-11ea-8972-8b1e4c5bdd83.html