Oral History Archive
MAJ Beatrice (Seelav) Stecher, USAF (Ret.)
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), 1942-43
Women's Army Corps (WAC), 1943-48
US Air Force Reserve, 1948-51

	World War II recruitment letter. View larger image.

When World War II ended in August 1945, the United States celebrated the Allied victory and immediately began a massive demobilization. Its armed forces, which had expanded to record levels during the war, rapidly downsized to near prewar levels, but the nation understood that some servicemen and women would have to remain in the military, in part to field large armies of occupation in the defeated countries. World War II recruitment letter. View larger image.

Beatrice Stecher was one of those who remained. A member of the eighth officer candidate class to enter the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) at Ft. Des Moines, IA, she had spent most of World War II working for the Army Air Forces. After the war she worked in the Army's Civil Affairs Division first at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and later in Germany.

At the Pentagon Stecher reviewed the affidavits of American servicemen who had been held prisoner in Japan by the Japanese. She was the only woman in the office.

The purpose of my reading everybody's affidavit(s) was to see if they were legally sufficient to submit to the trials that were being at the Tribunal in Manila. ... Each week I got a report of ... the sentences ... and I was never happy until I got a hanging. They used to call me the "hang man" at the Pentagon.

After seven months in this assignment, Stecher was transferred in 1947 to Frankfurt, Germany where she handled repatriation of displaced persons for two Allied jails. Life in postwar Germany was spartan. Food was minimal and bartering–legal or illegal was a way of life.

You worked by the barter system there, which the army set up. You brought cans of coffee, cocoa, Crisco and you bartered with a German who brought in some food. There were times that we gave them coffee and cocoa and we would get a pocketbook ... or a vase. ... Bartering on the black market was a different story.

Stecher recalls visiting an apartment with several other WACs and two soldiers.

We had to flash a signal to them that we were on the street so that they knew and we climbed up to the third floor. When they opened the door of this apartment you couldn't see anything but silver–platters, pitchers, tea sets, coffee sets all over the floors ... they would say we want two cans of coffee and one can of Crisco. ... We hid [our purchases] in the Army car that was driving us so we could take [them] through the MP block where we lived. Then you either carried them with you [when you left] or you shipped them home with dirty clothes. ...

Stecher's repatriation duties brought her into conflict with representatives from many countries, most of whom did not abide by the Geneva Conventions. Many of these representatives would try to persuade Stecher to repatriate the prisoners to their countries even if they were not citizens. Among the worst perpetrators were the Soviets who would badger her to release prisoners to their custody.

The general called me one day and [said] ... 'The Russian Mission is complaining about you. ... That you are holding back. You are not giving them the people they are asking for'. ... So I said, 'Well ... General, there's one Russian that they are asking for. They are trying to get everybody–Greek, Chinese, anything that wasn't in the Geneva Convention. They say they want a whole list of these people and I'm not giving it to them.' He said, 'No, you are absolutely right.' So then he instructed the guys in the Department to put a tap on ... my telephone to prove to the Russian Mission that I was not holding them back.