This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: marcenath Surnames: Stamm, Sierra Classification: biography Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.newmexico.counties.donaana/5055/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Las Crucen was one of first to serve in Women's Army Corps Posted: 12/25/2010 LAS CRUCES - Berlin, 1945. The Allies are on the offensive, closing in Hitler and his Nazi regime. Into the Russian sector of the city, an airplane of U.S. Women's Army Corps - the first women to serve as members of the Army, other than nurses - lands, and no one is there to meet them. One of the WAC service women on the plane is Lupe Sierra of Las Cruces. "Twenty Russian soldiers got on the plane, carrying guns, and just sat there and stared at us for two hours," she said. "They didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Russian." Finally, a Russian commandant who she said "had so many medals on his coat there wasn't room for any more" came and got them off the plane. Lupe Sierra Stamm, 87, said her life in the military was full of "wonderful adventures." "I was privileged to serve," she said, adding, "Once you put that uniform on, you don't know where in the heck you're going to end up." Before her tour of Berlin was over, Stamm, a clerk-typist who was part of the 101st Airborne, 78th Infantry Division, would work in the underground headquarters once used by Adolph Hitler and witness the devastation of the German people in the wake of Hitler's defeat. "We lived in a tiny house," she said, referring to herself and the other WAC service women stationed in Berlin. "Thank God for the good old duffel bag. We used them for pillows. We lived on K-rations the first three months we were there. I was down to a size 4." Stamm said she finally managed to convince an officer in the 101st Airborne to let the WACs eat with the soldiers. The U.S. Army assigned a German widow, Frau Hahn, to help out with cleaning the WAC quarters, but Stamm said the women wouldn't have it. Instead, they gave Frau Hahn chocolates, cigarettes, soap, gum and candies to sell for food. In exchange, Hahn gave them little plum tomatoes from her garden. Stamm said the WAC was there to "clean up the mess of papers" created by the war. The women worked in offices all over Berlin, she said, and her station just happened to be in the "huge cement city" that Hitler had just begun to construct under the streets of Berlin. It wasn't always work while she was in Berlin, Stamm said. She also was invited to parties and played in the 1946 WAC basketball championship in Heidelberg. Stamm said she averaged 30 points a game and was good at acting whenever she was knocked to the court. The WAC was created by an act of Congress in 1943 in recognition of the great need for non-combat work at the front in World War II. At the time, there was a fierce debate about whether women should be in the service at all, in any capacity, Stamm said. "I was there as a non-combatant," she said. "I don't think it's right that women serve in combat. I don't see how any man can concentrate with a woman standing right next to him." The WAC women wore what Stamm called an "Eisenhower jacket," a short kind of jacket that tended to make some women look like a pumpkin, she said. "Even the amount of makeup or lipstick we could have was limited by regulations," she said. "Still, it was amazing what we could get in those duffel bags." Stamm was born in Las Cruces on Oct. 14, 1923, the youngest daughter of Santiago and Maria Sierra. Her father was an Apache born in Las Cruces in 1886, she said, and her mother was from Durango, Mexico. They lived near where Thomas Branigan Memorial Library is now, she said. She and her five siblings were brought into the world by a Dr. McGee, she said, a kind gentleman who never charged the family for his services. "We were poor, but we never went hungry," she said. "Everyone helped each other and no one was on welfare. Someone had chickens, someone else had a hog, and we ate good. We chile and tortillas and tamales. I think they even put chile in my milk bottle," Stamm said with a laugh. A 1941 graduate of Las Cruces High School, she quickly found civil service work with the military, taking a job at an internment camp for German, Japanese and Italian prisoners of war that was in Lordsburg, she said. She worked there for three years, she said. At its peak, the camp had a population of 55,000, she said, prisoners, civilians and soldiers combined. Stamm said her job required her to type up 55-page documents - perfectly, no errors - sometimes on 24-hour notice. When the camp was closed, Stamm was just 20 years old. Coming back to Las Cruces, she quickly discovered that there were no boys to date - they were all overseas. Not that her mother would let her date a boy, she said. "My mother would not allow me to date a boy unless his intent was to marry me," she said. Stamm eventually did marry in 1951. While she was teaching girls' physical education at Belen High School, she met teacher Harland Stamm, who was in the first class of students to get a doctorate in education at New Mexico State University. A pioneer in the field of junior college education, Stamm was instrumental in developing the junior college system in California, she said. He passed away in 1993, she said. "He gave me 42 wonderful years," she said. "Wherever we went, he always bought me a new home." Young and eager But in 1943, things were tough in Las Cruces, and when Stamm met a recruiter for the newly formed WAC, she asked her parents to sign a waiver that allowed her to join even though she was not the required 21 years of age. Her first year with the WAC was stateside, and at that time she was given training in physical education and also in theatrical and musical productions. "At first, I was being trained in sports and education," she said. "But we were also trained to boost the morale of the troops." At a military school in Virginia, she studied with actors and producers from Hollywood, she said, including famous comedian Red Skelton. "He was silly," she said. "He got away with so much because he was a comedian. He never wore his uniform correctly." Stamm helped organize a Christmas show in which Skelton was Santa Claus and she was one of the reindeer, she said. "I was a reindeer because I was short," she said. She spent most of her stateside time at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, she said. While she was there, she performed in a show as a Hawaiian girl and wore a grass skirt. She sent a newspaper clip about the show to her mother, who was scandalized. While she was there, she had an important job rationing out gasoline, and also got involved with WAC basketball. Many of Stamm's memories revolve around food. While in Texas, she remembers being "spoiled rotten" with good food. When the orders came to go overseas, Stamm found herself with other WAC service women below decks in a merchant marine vessel. After the Atlantic crossing, they spent a month in Paris, where she remembers all the fresh fruit and good food. She had no idea that months of K-rations awaited her in Berlin. "I loved the service," she said. "I didn't care whether I ate or not." Stamm said she has always loved the pageantry of marching and music. "I was always patriotic," she said. "So was my father. He served in the New Mexico National Guard for 38 years." Many of Stamm's siblings served in World War II, including a younger brother, Santiago Jr., 82, who lives in Do a Ana. After the war, Stamm earned a bachelor's in education from New Mexico State University in 1949, and went on to work as a teacher at every grade except for kindergarten, she said. In 1961, the Stamms adopted a son, Chris, who currently works as a computer specialist at NMSU. Stamm said she was the only WAC from New Mexico among the first 300 women who were sent to Berlin, she said. She has a box full of photographs and memorabilia, including the V-mail note she sent to her mother explaining that she worked in Hitler's underground headquarters. "It was hard for my mother to see me in the military," she said. "She was against it, and she went on for days and days about it. Finally, my father said, 'she has the right to do this.'" Even so, Stamm said she never heard the end about the Hawaiian skirt. "That lecture went on for months," she said. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.

Hi Dan: This is one of the more interesting obituaries I have read. Frank ________________________________ From: "gc-gateway@rootsweb.com" <gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> To: NMDONAAN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, December 26, 2010 9:26:48 AM Subject: [NMDONAAN] Stamm Lupe Sierra in the WAC 1945 This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: marcenath Surnames: Stamm, Sierra Classification: biography Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.newmexico.counties.donaana/5055/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Las Crucen was one of first to serve in Women's Army Corps Posted: 12/25/2010  LAS CRUCES - Berlin, 1945. The Allies are on the offensive, closing in Hitler and his Nazi regime. Into the Russian sector of the city, an airplane of U.S. Women's Army Corps - the first women to serve as members of the Army, other than nurses - lands, and no one is there to meet them. One of the WAC service women on the plane is Lupe Sierra of Las Cruces. "Twenty Russian soldiers got on the plane, carrying guns, and just sat there and stared at us for two hours," she said. "They didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Russian." Finally, a Russian commandant who she said "had so many medals on his coat there wasn't room for any more" came and got them off the plane. Lupe Sierra Stamm, 87, said her life in the military was full of "wonderful adventures." "I was privileged to serve," she said, adding, "Once you put that uniform on, you don't know where in the heck you're going to end up." Before her tour of Berlin was over, Stamm, a clerk-typist who was part of the 101st Airborne, 78th Infantry Division, would work in the underground headquarters once used by Adolph Hitler and witness the devastation of the German people in the wake of Hitler's defeat. "We lived in a tiny house," she said, referring to herself and the other WAC service women stationed in Berlin. "Thank God for the good old duffel bag. We used them for pillows. We lived on K-rations the first three months we were there. I was down to a size 4." Stamm said she finally managed to convince an officer in the 101st Airborne to let the WACs eat with the soldiers. The U.S. Army assigned a German widow, Frau Hahn, to help out with cleaning the WAC quarters, but Stamm said the women wouldn't have it. Instead, they gave Frau Hahn chocolates, cigarettes, soap, gum and candies to sell for food. In exchange, Hahn gave them little plum tomatoes from her garden. Stamm said the WAC was there to "clean up the mess of papers" created by the war. The women worked in offices all over Berlin, she said, and her station just happened to be in the "huge cement city" that Hitler had just begun to construct under the streets of Berlin. It wasn't always work while she was in Berlin, Stamm said. She also was invited to parties and played in the 1946 WAC basketball championship in Heidelberg. Stamm said she averaged 30 points a game and was good at acting whenever she was knocked to the court. The WAC was created by an act of Congress in 1943 in recognition of the great need for non-combat work at the front in World War II. At the time, there was a fierce debate about whether women should be in the service at all, in any capacity, Stamm said. "I was there as a non-combatant," she said. "I don't think it's right that women serve in combat. I don't see how any man can concentrate with a woman standing right next to him." The WAC women wore what Stamm called an "Eisenhower jacket," a short kind of jacket that tended to make some women look like a pumpkin, she said. "Even the amount of makeup or lipstick we could have was limited by regulations," she said. "Still, it was amazing what we could get in those duffel bags."  Stamm was born in Las Cruces on Oct. 14, 1923, the youngest daughter of Santiago and Maria Sierra. Her father was an Apache born in Las Cruces in 1886, she said, and her mother was from Durango, Mexico. They lived near where Thomas Branigan Memorial Library is now, she said. She and her five siblings were brought into the world by a Dr. McGee, she said, a kind gentleman who never charged the family for his services. "We were poor, but we never went hungry," she said. "Everyone helped each other and no one was on welfare. Someone had chickens, someone else had a hog, and we ate good. We chile and tortillas and tamales. I think they even put chile in my milk bottle," Stamm said with a laugh. A 1941 graduate of Las Cruces High School, she quickly found civil service work with the military, taking a job at an internment camp for German, Japanese and Italian prisoners of war that was in Lordsburg, she said. She worked there for three years, she said. At its peak, the camp had a population of 55,000, she said, prisoners, civilians and soldiers combined. Stamm said her job required her to type up 55-page documents - perfectly, no errors - sometimes on 24-hour notice. When the camp was closed, Stamm was just 20 years old. Coming back to Las Cruces, she quickly discovered that there were no boys to date - they were all overseas. Not that her mother would let her date a boy, she said. "My mother would not allow me to date a boy unless his intent was to marry me," she said. Stamm eventually did marry in 1951. While she was teaching girls' physical education at Belen High School, she met teacher Harland Stamm, who was in the first class of students to get a doctorate in education at New Mexico State University. A pioneer in the field of junior college education, Stamm was instrumental in developing the junior college system in California, she said. He passed away in 1993, she said. "He gave me 42 wonderful years," she said. "Wherever we went, he always bought me a new home." Young and eager But in 1943, things were tough in Las Cruces, and when Stamm met a recruiter for the newly formed WAC, she asked her parents to sign a waiver that allowed her to join even though she was not the required 21 years of age. Her first year with the WAC was stateside, and at that time she was given training in physical education and also in theatrical and musical productions. "At first, I was being trained in sports and education," she said. "But we were also trained to boost the morale of the troops." At a military school in Virginia, she studied with actors and producers from Hollywood, she said, including famous comedian Red Skelton. "He was silly," she said. "He got away with so much because he was a comedian. He never wore his uniform correctly." Stamm helped organize a Christmas show in which Skelton was Santa Claus and she was one of the reindeer, she said. "I was a reindeer because I was short," she said. She spent most of her stateside time at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, she said. While she was there, she performed in a show as a Hawaiian girl and wore a grass skirt. She sent a newspaper clip about the show to her mother, who was scandalized. While she was there, she had an important job rationing out gasoline, and also got involved with WAC basketball. Many of Stamm's memories revolve around food. While in Texas, she remembers being "spoiled rotten" with good food. When the orders came to go overseas, Stamm found herself with other WAC service women below decks in a merchant marine vessel. After the Atlantic crossing, they spent a month in Paris, where she remembers all the fresh fruit and good food. She had no idea that months of K-rations awaited her in Berlin. "I loved the service," she said. "I didn't care whether I ate or not." Stamm said she has always loved the pageantry of marching and music. "I was always patriotic," she said. "So was my father. He served in the New Mexico National Guard for 38 years." Many of Stamm's siblings served in World War II, including a younger brother, Santiago Jr., 82, who lives in Do a Ana. After the war, Stamm earned a bachelor's in education from New Mexico State University in 1949, and went on to work as a teacher at every grade except for kindergarten, she said. In 1961, the Stamms adopted a son, Chris, who currently works as a computer specialist at NMSU. Stamm said she was the only WAC from New Mexico among the first 300 women who were sent to Berlin, she said. She has a box full of photographs and memorabilia, including the V-mail note she sent to her mother explaining that she worked in Hitler's underground headquarters. "It was hard for my mother to see me in the military," she said. "She was against it, and she went on for days and days about it. Finally, my father said, 'she has the right to do this.'" Even so, Stamm said she never heard the end about the Hawaiian skirt. "That lecture went on for months," she said. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NMDONAAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message