I was a sophomore at the University of Washington when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The next summer (1942), I landed a job with the U.S. Army Engineers in downtown Seattle, filing maps and running errands. I did not return to college in the fall. Working in the war effort seemed more important and besides, I had an engagement ring and was making plans for a wedding the next summer.
In February 1943 the Army hired an engineering professor from the UW to teach a class of us women in drafting techniques. So many of the male draftsmen had gone into the armed services that they were short-handed. Drafting came easy for me, as I had taken art courses in school. I especially enjoyed map work and was soon swinging a contour pen (a drafting pen that swiveled and made wiggly lines) and using Leroy lettering guides that made neat, blocky letters. When I completed the course, I transferred to Alaska Operations.
The Army Engineers were fortifying the Aleutians and needed maps of the Islands. We enlarged USGS Quads using a light table that would enlarge the scale and project it onto the glass top so that we could trace it. We used tracing linen in those days. It was fine, white linen about the weight of handkerchief linen. It was highly starched, which made it stiff and shiny and pale blue in color. It was translucent, so it blueprinted well and was more durable than paper.
I drew fortifications on a couple of the Aleutians. They seem like useless little islands way out in the North Pacific, but had the Japanese managed to build an air base on one of them, they would have been within bombing range of our West Coast cities, no small concern to us Seattleites.
I was married in June 1943 and quit the next winter to start my family. That army training was wonderful preparation for future drafting jobs. I worked many years for Yakima County Planning, drafting base maps and keeping them up to date.
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