From the interview with Dolores Crow of Nampa, ID conducted by Tim Caldwell on December 21, 2004 by phone from the Fort Worden History Center. Mrs. Crow is the widow of Wayne T. Crow, who served in D Company, Shore Battalion of the 369th EASR at Fort Flagler from 1950 to 1952. The couple moved to the Port Townsend area as newlyweds. Here she recalls life as an Army wife:

“I thought Fort Worden was gorgeous. You drive down into this gate and the litttle chapel on the left and all these nice buildings and the big parade field out in the middle. It looked very impressive, not at all like an Army fort. It was more like a group of old Southern mansions.

Our first residence was a little place called Four Corners. There was a duplex there and we stayed in one part of that. It was right out in the forest and deer used to come up and look in the window. We stayed there a little while, then I got a job in town working for a used car dealer. There was an apartment that came with the job, it was at 634 Water Street. Downtown Port Townsend was basicaly just empty buildings, big empty buildings. The buildings across from us sat right on the bay and the seagulls flew in and out over there all the time. The whole downtown was pretty much vacated.

..My husband could leave the base and come home at night even during basic training. It was all very different because they were just opening the base. That was the only unit there, and it was just the beginning of the unit. Most of the officers were National Guard, so they weren’t regular Army. We didn’t have many regular Army people.

(The townspeople) were thrilled to death that we were there because it was a evitalization for their town. We were treated very nicely. … We didn’t have problems with people or anything. We would just go on weekends to Seattle if we had the money or take a ferry ride somewhere. We used to go to Sequim where they had Curly’s Burgers. It was the best burger spot in the whole world. …We associated with the other married couples and played cards and had dinner together. Some of the guys who didn’t have family we invited over and became good friends. It was not all that bad.”