Interview Reflection Paper

8/11/2019 Interview Reflection Paper

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Interview Reflection Paper

Born on December 12th

in 1921, my great grandmother Nancy Alonge Forté

began the life of a regular American girl in Queens New York City, during the 1900’s.

She had everything she could ask for: a brother, two sisters, two loving parents, shelter,

clothing, food, friends and more. In her late teens she met a fellow named Armand Forté

who helped shovel the coal from the coal chute into the furnace when Nancy’s father had

been sick. They built a relationship that strengthened overtime. However it was impacted

when WWII came around and he was drafted to serve overseas in the U.S. army.

The war originally started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The U.S.

didn’t get involved until 1941 after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Nancy c learly

remembers the day she heard that the United States was involved. She was in the

basement of her father’s house playing cards with her friends and listening to the radio.

All of a sudden they heard that the U.S. was now officially involved in the war due to the

bombing of Pearl Harbor. Armond was drafted after the bombing occurred and was sent

to Fort Dick’s in New Jersey. From there he was shipped to California, then overseas to

the Philippines where he worked driving the food truck.

Looking back on those days, my great grandmother reflects upon writing letters to

Armond every day. She remembers not receiving many letters back due to the checking

of mail for security reasons. She remembers sending care packages to the men involved

in the war from her neighborhood in Queens, New York. Nancy tried to convince the

other women to do the same. She said, “The heck with it. I’m doing what I think is right

and that’s what I did.” My great grandmother shares great joy in sharing about one care

package that contained ravioli along with a loaf of bread, which was known that it wasn’t



going to make it overseas, but this loaf of bread had a bottle of wine in it. She had

hollowed out the middle of the bread and stuck a wine bottle right in. Another care

package she sent to Armond contained a picture of him in a hula skirt just making a fool

of himself, being a fellow who enjoyed joking around and teasing people.

In between Christmas and New Year’s Armond was sent back to Fort Dick’s,

while he was there he snuck out with a friend from Pennsylvania to see Nancy. They

made up their beds to make it look like they were in them and everything. My great

grandmother still doesn’t know how they made it back in time, and how they avoided

being dishonorable discharged. When the war finally ended, Nancy heard of it over the

radio as she had heard it’s start for the U.S. Armond wrote her a letter in which he stated

he was coming home and would like to be married. So they got married on Tuesday,

October 12th

, 1943. They invited all their friends and family and Nancy’s father threw a

little party for her in his house. When reflecting on those hard years my great

grandmother said, “It’s a shame. They fight. They kill. What have they accomplished?

Nothing. Lose bodies. Upset families. Right? What does it do?”

It was interesting yet hard to hear about the war and it’s affect on the people

during this war. I feel that my great grandmother was one of the luckier ones. To have her

fiancé return unwounded her friends unscathed. Only 1 death from her neighborhood and

1 fellow who lost his leg. I think it was interesting to here her speak from the point of

view of a women during the war. Stuck at home, not able to help much. Preparing for the

interview I thought it would be hard to think of questions. I started off with several vague

questions that led to ones so much more involved that I didn’t have time to ask the rest of

my questions. An experience I won’t forget, and my great grandmother won’t either.

Interview Reflection Paper

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