T. Toby Kafka was born in Kingston, New York in October 1924 and grew up in Manhattan [Annotator's Note: Manhattan is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. New York City was a strange place because people lived in their respective ethnic neighborhood even though the schools were desegregated. She grew up in a large Jewish family and raised her seven siblings as her mother spent many years in a mental institution. Her father worked as an auto mechanic for the WPA [Annotator's Note: the Works Progress Administration was a federally sponsored program that put unemployed Americans to work during the Great Depression], but overall, her family was very poor during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. She attended public school for her whole education and was a very good student. She graduated high school at 16 and attended Brooklyn College [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York] at night and worked during the day. She was politically inclined from a young age and spent many hours talking politics with her father and his friends. She was aware of the rising German and Asian hostilities. Many of her father's relatives were Hungarian Jews and were killed in the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2]. When Kafka was a child, she went to a municipal pool when a group of black children arrived to swim in the pool. The police arrived and forced the black children out of the pool. She did not understand the situation fully until years later. She was pro-war and felt it was necessary to wage war to save democracy. She did not feel the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] strongly because of the distance of the island and her lack of knowledge of it. However, she was impressed with Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] speech following the attack [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941]. Her brother entered service immediately and fought in Africa. Rationing began and she bought war bonds [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war]. Since her mother was in a mental institution often, Kafka raised her siblings, and they treated her as their mother. Her mother resented her, but Kafka never had ill-will towards her.

T. Toby Kafka enlisted in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1944 at the age of 20. Her family, particularly her brother, did not approve of her enlisting in the Army. She was part of the Wainwright Brigade [Annotator's Note: at Ladd Field, Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska] that was eventually split up. She was sent to Iowa for basic training. Kafka joined the Army because of an inferiority complex suffered by all her family. She felt as though the Army was fitting because it was the lowest of the women's service branches. There were four reasons why women entered the service during World War 2 - out of patriotism, to follow and support their husbands, seeking adventure, or to chase men. She joined out of a sense of patriotism and was sent to basic training. She had a chip on her shoulder [Annotator's Note: slang for a deeply ingrained grievance or feeling of resentment] when she first got into the WACs, but the other women fixed that quick by giving her difficult KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol] duties. The barracks were very open. They used a pot belly stove to heat the building. There were no doors anywhere including the shower stalls. She lost her modesty quickly because she had no choice. For recreation, she went to the movie house. She tested well and was assigned to Pratt Army Airfield in Pratt, Kansas. She was assigned to the Information and Education Office and set to work giving daily news briefings to soldiers, lectures on politics and civics to them, and organizing social events for the base. Kafka really grew up during her assignment and truly enjoyed military life. The WACs had many uniform codes including how women needed to wear their hair. A fellow WAC killed herself after learning her husband went missing in action. She met another woman who was from Amish country and had a nervous breakdown because of the culture shock. Another woman got pregnant while in the WACs and was discharged home. Some men treated the women like servants, what she calls "camp followers," while the majority treated them as sisters and protected them entirely.

T. Toby Kafka does not remember interacting with African Americans [Annotator's Note: while enlisted in the Women's Army Corps (WAC)]. Most women in the WACs worked as mechanics for the airplanes. They also were chauffeurs, nurses' aides, and clerical work. The purpose of the WACs were for women to replace men in these non-combat positions so the men could fight on the front lines. Most of the men she worked with treated her and her friends very well. The men and women often socialized in groups. She knew of a few that did get married. Some women were very strict, while others were loose, but most of the women joined the service for patriotism and support for the service men. Part of her assignment, while at Pratt Army Airfield in Pratt, Kansas, was giving daily news briefings to soldiers, lectures on politics and civics to them, and organizing social events for the base. Kafka did not interact with the civilians while she was stationed at the airfield. The only time she realized the seriousness of war was when airmen duffle bags were returned to the airfield because their plane was shot down or went missing. Other than that, being in the military was a wonderful experience. She was still in Pratt, Kansas when World War 2 ended. While waiting to be discharged, Kafka was stationed briefly at a military hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. This was where she realized the horrors of war when she saw wounded men with missing limbs. At the time she was discharged, she held the rank of sergeant. Kafka enjoyed her service and felt it allowed her to be more accepting to others. She grew up while in the military. She wanted to stay in the military because she felt protected. She thinks all women should go through basic training because it will give them an understanding of meeting other people from different cultures. On VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], she and her friends celebrated by going on a picnic. After she was discharged as a sergeant, Kafka reenlisted in the reserves. She was promoted to lieutenant, but never attended officer training. She had every intention to remain in the service, but she met a man and decided to marry.

After World War 2, T. Toby Kafka reenlisted into the Women's Army Corps (WAC) Reserves and was attached to an engineering group. She was promoted to lieutenant. When the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] broke out, her commander listed all the office personnel including the women. Unbeknownst to him, that the Army was not recruiting women for the Korean War at that time. When the Army realized that they had called up several enlisted women and women officers by mistake, they did not know what to do with them. They were sent to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: in Trenton, New Jersey], and she was assigned to supervise the enlisted women because she was an officer. Even though she was promoted to lieutenant, she never received officer training. The general decided to send her to officer training school in Fort Lee, Virginia [Annotator's Note: in Prince George County, Virginia] because she was not acting like a proper officer. She then was assigned to teach men and women about chemical warfare after taking a two-week course. Kafka served during the desegregation of the military and had experiences with African American servicewomen. A group of women officers went to a movie and the Black officer disappeared. When Kafka came out of the movie theater and met up with her again, the Black officer explained that she had to sit in the "colored" section. Kafka was very angry. She spent most of her assignment teaching and writing the course. She was not required to do anything else [Annotator's Note: Video break 0:57:29.000 until 0:58:27.000, and then the interview starts over from the beginning].

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