World War II WAC

With most of the eligible boys in the Army and few to date, Helen (Kogel) Denton joined the Women's Army Corps (WAC). As secretary to the post commander, Helen immediately raised her hand to volunteer when a telegram came in asking for a person to join GEN Dwight Eisenhower's staff in England. Assigned a top secret assignment that she did not talk about for 50 years, Helen spent many days in early 1944 in a closed room, typing the orders for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, France, known as D-Day. Helen covers her experiences as a soldier and a member of the "Greatest Generation." Read on to learn about Helen's experiences dodging V-2 boms in London, meeting her future husband after she waded ashore on Utah Beach in July 1944, and her experiences as one of the first WACs to enter and work in a liberated Paris. Still going strong at 90, Helen's experiences since her retirement from Delta Airlines, working as a volunteer with the Red Cross, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Collie Club of America, the VFW, and many other organizations, is a roadmap for those preparing their own journey into their retirement years.