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Personal
View of Charlcia B. Rosenlund
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I worked for the Weather Bureau from the spring of 1944 to October,
1948. My assignments were at Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fairbanks, Alaska, and
Ely, Nevada. I wanted a more interesting and worthwhile occupation
than the one I had, and I had learned from my friend that the Weather
Bureau needed new employees. I was using my maiden name when hired.
In October, 1944, I left the Bureau. I married, and my husband was
working outside the Ely area so I left to be with him. My educational
background included graduation from high school and one year college.
The Weather Bureau provided training in weather observations, mapping,
and radiosonde. I was received very well by Weather Bureau employees.
I was treated great. I loved the work and associations of the people
around the airports - very exciting! As for the morale on station
- most everyone was happy, a few were grumpy.
My duties
included weather observations, balloon runs, mapping, teletype, and
radiosonde. The shifts were days, evenings, and midnights. I worked
eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. There were about fifteen other
people at my duty station - I cannot remember for sure. I cannot remember
what we were paid, but the pay was considered good. We were given
more money to work in Alaska.
The
high point of my career was getting the opportunity to go to Alaska
and work. The lowest was working the midnight shift in Ely, Nevada.
I was happy to have the opportunity to do the work. It gave me a feeling
of doing something worthwhile. I would choose to do it again because
I liked it very much. We had a lot of fun days and some that were
not so much fun. I feel that my major contribution was doing my job
as well as I could. Several times a pilot was dependent upon my weather
observation to land safely, my report was very important.
