Ernest Graves
staff jobs at that time that might in time have devolved to more junior officers. But then
they were the ones.
Q:
So it must have been an assignment with great prestige then?
A:
Yes. To get over there early to SHAPE that way. The first people went to SHAPE in
about January of '51, and Ernie went in September. So he wasn't in the very first
vanguard, but he was very early on.
Q:
How difficult was it to come to terms with this role of Army wife? Were there a lot of
surprises in there for you?
A:
Well, no. Not really. I had never been a wife before so there were lots of surprises in
that, too, I guess. I think an Army wife has to be very self-sufficient and not dependent
on her husband for her own interests.
I was dumped in Paris. I couldn't speak French. We did have one very close
friend--well, who became a very close friend. I had never met her before. She was
General Somervell's daughter [Susan]. General Brehon Somervell and my father-in-law
had been very close friends, and Ernie had known his three daughters from childhood.
She was living in Paris with her husband, who worked for General Motors France. She
was a tremendous help to me. She got me a French teacher. She got me an obstetrician.
She got me all kinds of help that put me very much at ease and made those first six
months in Paris much easier.
I think one could have gotten very depressed and felt overwhelmed. The other
Americans at SHAPE weren't my contemporaries, and we weren't living near any of
them. We were living in a hotel. Later we got a little house in Saint Cloud.
So a service wife--it isn't just Army--really must be self-sufficient and enjoy being
self-sufficient and enjoy meeting the challenges of being alone in a foreign environment.
Q:
And the French aren't exactly warm and charming, are they?
A:
Well, no, especially the fact that I couldn't talk to them at first. We had very little
intercourse, really, with our neighbors. They were friendly, but the yards have walls.
You know, you aren't on an open lawn like this. And I was very busy. When I went
over to France, I was in the early stages of pregnancy. Our son was born six months
after I got over there. So I was quite involved with being a new mother.
Q:
You were very busy?
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