Soldiers in skirts

It was just a different time in history, says Ora Mae Hyatt, talking of the days leading up to the Second World War. America changed during that war. Women, especially, did things they'd never dreamed of.

They worked in factories. They joined the Marines and the Navy. "There were real changes," Hyatt said. She finds it hard to describe those changes to people who didn't live through them.

But Hyatt will try to describe those days, and she'll be wearing her WWII uniform when she does it, on Thursday in a panel discussion titled "A Salute to the Women of World War II." The event is sponsored by the University of Utah's American West Center and the Utah Humanities Council, and will feature six Utah women — three WAVES, one Marine and a woman who lived in France during the war, as well as Hyatt, a military nurse.

Hyatt, whose last name was Sorensen in those days, enrolled in nursing school in the first place because she wanted to be an "air hostess." Back then, flight attendants had to be female and they had to be registered nurses.

But in December 1941, when she was in her first year of nursing school, her plans changed. She said that after Pearl Harbor, "All the young men were going in the Armed Forces. Everyone wanted to do something to help." She decided to enlist as soon as she graduated.

Her best friend in nursing school was Elaine Spry. They been seated alphabetically next to each other in every class. The moment they graduated, the two of them headed up the hill to Fort Douglas to join the Army. When they were asked if they'd accept overseas duty, they looked at each other and said, "If we could go together." And so they did.

They were sent to Fort Lewis for basic training. There, Sorensen met Lt. Preston Hyatt. War made for short courtships, she recalls, and they were not the only couple to marry five days before the groom shipped out.

A few months later, Ora Mae Hyatt and her friend Spry shipped out, too, headed for Okinawa. They earned their battle stars working in a hospital there. When the war ended, they stayed on, caring for soldiers who had been prisoners of war and were too malnourished to be transported back to the states.

"It was satisfying to be able to help," said Hyatt. "And when we got home, there was such a wonderful homecoming. Everybody appreciated us."

Meanwhile, another Utahn, Norma Anderson Day, had quite a different experience in the war. At the "Salute to the Women of World War II" discussion, she'll talk about being a WAVE.