Sergeant Arlene Brubach was born in 1919 in Pennsylvania. She was 24 years old when she joined the military with the first group of WACs. Brubach was led to join the military by her peers. They started to enlist so she decided to join also. Sgt. Brubach was stationed in Arlington, Virginia. She said that the military was very scary. She didn't know the second, the hour, or the day when her life could be taken away from her.
Both the men and the women had to go through hours of basic training when they joined the military. First of all, they had to wake up at 6:00 AM, get dressed and make their bed. After a while the inspector would come in with a quarter, they would drop the quarter on the bed, and if it bounced you would be all right, but if it didn't, the inspector would give you a "gig". A gig is like a check mark by your name, or getting written up. Sgt. Brubach says that you can never forget basic training!
Sgt. Brubach didn't let war interfere with who she is.
Military life was not only waking up early, eating, and training. Sgt. Brubach knew a lot of prank players. One prank that she remembers that was played on her was "short sheeting". That was when someone would fold the middle sheet in the bed and make the bed back up. When she tried to get into bed, she couldn't fit her feet in.
While in the military, she was assigned to work for the signal corps. In the signal corps., Sgt. Brubach sent messages back and forth from base to base on the teletype. A teletype is a different kind of typewriter used to send signals and messages from one place to another. This lady could type 115 words a minute! Now those are some pretty fast fingers.
Sgt. Brubach said that she thought Adolf Hitler was a disgrace. She thought he was one of the most evil men in the world. She said if she had ever come face to face with Hitler she would have been terrified. "Terrified of what great power he has and how cold his heart was, and what he could or would do."
Brubach was discharged from the army in 1946. After the war, the 2nd Signal Service Battalion became,eventually, the National Security Agency (NSA). She worked for the NSA in Fort George B. Mead, Maryland until 1971.
Many of the other people we talked to said that war had changed them. Sgt. Brubach didn't let war interfere with who she is. It is a good thing she didn't because she is a really nice lady who served our country.
- Beatriz Aquiar, Santina Bryant, Corey Lucero