Here's a question that's just arisen for my WIP. It's really backstory, but if I have a character refer to this I want to get it right. Back in World War II, could enlisted personnel keep their own cars on Army bases in the U. S.? I'm talking privates and non-commissioned officers. The PFC/non-com in question is the future father of my female MC, and the idea is that he goes parking with his girlfriend/fiancee, who will become her mother. The biggest thing I have to get straight is whether she travels in to see him at the base where he's stationed, or if he gets leave and goes to the city where she lives (she's not from his home town). But if he can't have his car on base, that might be awkward, since the base is midway between their hometowns. By bus or train it might not be doable on a weekend pass. And, well, I need them to park. I know love makes a way, but I want to make the situation as uncomplicated as I can. I suppose I could have it be her car, but somehow I'd like it to be his.
Where is the base and what's the situation there? Also, how did the MC (the PFC) get there? What's his military role? During WW-II, the vast majority of enlisted men were drafted in, sent somewhere stateside for training, then shipped off to foreign lands to fight. The chances of them being somewhere that they would have time or energy to own a car are slim to none. Also, the chances of him having the funds to own a car would have been similarly slim. Military pay for low-rank enlisted in WW-II was low, and remember that the world had just been in a wrecking depression less than a decade before. If he had the wherewithal to own a car, chances are good that he'd go into the military as an officer, because he either had a college education, or he had wealthy parents with influence. All that makes a steep hill to climb. Probably better just to make it her car.
IDK, might take some deep digging to find out if they could or not. Though he could always borrow/rent a car as an alternative to either of them owning one. Not completely out of the real of plausibility.
If deployed, zero chance. Unless in England or Hawaii, not likely to get off-base. If prepping to deploy, very close to zero chance. Again, not likely to get off-base. Now, if state-side in a posting not likely to deploy, then getting liberty would not be hard. Having a car, however, is still highly unlikely unless a staff sergeant or above. PFC? Forget about it. Also not sure a “girl” would have one unless she is well-off financially. Or has a good job, and I don’t mean waitressing.
I've projected him as having finished up his undergrad work (to please his father) and enlisted in June of 1943. No ROTC, though I could add that in, as he wanted to sign up right after Pearl Harbor. So getting into the ROTC program at his university would have been in character. At the moment I've got him at a camp in Indiana, but it hits me that I've already posited a US Army base not far from the fictional Midwestern base where my MCs live. But it'd be too much luck to have him stationed there. Right? For that matter, when you signed up or got drafted, where did the Army have you report to? The closest camp or base--- or somewhere else? The other thing that's in my mind concerning this is my own father's experience. From the Midwest himself, he spent time training on bases in New Jersey and in Texas, then was shipped over to Hawaii. That's where he spent the duration of the war, never getting into either theater. Oh, his unit was sent over, twice. But he was in demand as a proficient radioman and other units' C.O.s kept co-opting him. (Good thing for me, because apparently the units he'd belonged to pretty well got wiped out.) The relevant thing for my series' backstory is that I know it was possible for a soldier to go through training and wait around several months to be deployed. So, here's the basic question maybe . . . what did guys with sweethearts back home do to keep the relationship alive? And did it often happen that a couple might think, "What the heck, let's get married" even if they hadn't spent much time together since he got drafted/signed up?
The trope about draftees freaking out about going to war and marrying their new sweetheart in case they didn’t come back was a real thing, apparently. Remember that this was a time in America when arranged marriages weren’t that uncommon, and plenty of people got married because one-night-stands turned into a pregnancy, and “the right thing to do” was get married.
I really doubt that lower enlisted would have been allowed to keep cars on base at that time. I was in in the early 90s and it was relatively easy, but guys during WWII pretty much lived on their bases nearly 24/7. Home on leave, maybe, but I don't believe it was like it is now, where at 1630 you'd get sent on liberty until the following morning formation and pretty much left to your own devices. You said the base was midway between his hometown and hers. Perhaps you could have a buddy of his, maybe one who was 4F or something, be willing to drive his own car to the base and lend it to your soldier when he had a weekend pass?
