From the interview with Patricia A. Kelley of Columbus, OH conducted by Hazel Hatfield at the Fort Worden History Center on May 30, 2003. Ms. Kelley, the wife of Captain Samuel C. “Cliff” Kelley, lived in House 9W on Officers Row at Fort Worden from November 1944 to January 1946. Here she relates how the post reacted to the news of VE Day:

“ I used to go to Aldrich’s market to shop, and a woman who was working there was carrying out my groceries for me when they got the news of VE Day. She was putting them in the car and she said,’I don’t know what I’m doing this for. I quit. My husband’s coming home. I’m not going to work here anymore.’ I thought she was going to leave me stranded at the grocery.

But we had a VE Day. We had a party. We hadn’t known it was coming, so we just told everybody, we just passed the word along to our friends to bring whatever they had in the house to eat and drink and come to our house because I had the most dishes, and we’d have a party. It lasted until 5:00 o’clock or 6:00 o’clock the next morning. It was fun. I guess we had about 25 there and we had pork chops and hamburgers and steaks. They were all cooking these various things and everybody was happy.”