Draft:Barbara Pathe

Early Life and Education Barbara Pathe was born in Bethel, Ohio on August 13, 1918. She remained in Bethel until her family moved to Cincinnati when she was eight years old. Barbara majored in publishing at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1940. After graduating, she moved back to Cincinnati and then to New York, where she found her first job writing about the Caribbean islands for a travel agency. Pre-Military Career In December of 1941, Barbara was still working in New York when she heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She was fired the next day due to the predicted travel ban that would ensue because the United States was going to war. Barbara worked in fashion for a short stent before being recruited by the New York State Medical Society as the circulation manager for their journal. On Thursdays, after she finished working, Barabra would visit the Tiffany building, which the American Red Cross was leasing at that time, to help out by folding surgical dressings. Eventually she became the head of the Thursday night group. Pathe continued to volunteer at the Red Cross. Military Career On May 22, 1944, Barbara signed up with the American Red Cross. She went through several months of training before being sent overseas. Barbara and her fellow Red Cross recruits, however, missed the invasion of Normandy and were very disappointed1. Barbara Pathe was a member of the Red Cross Clubmobile teams that served seven bases of the 8th Army Air Force in Suffolk, England and the 42nd Bomb Wing of the 12th Air Force and the 7th Army Communications Zone in Dijon, France. She also served the 44th Infantry Division in combat in France, Germany and Austria, the 38th Anti-Aircraft Artillery in Michelstadt, Germany and the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry of the 3rd Division in Mellrichstadt, Germany. Due to the fact that she served only in the American Red Cross, she was only ever considered a civilian and not actual military personnel. Legacy After retiring in 1989, Barbara continued to volunteer for the American Red Cross creating its first online database. This database contained the names of overseas personnel and their assignments. In 2015 President Barrack Obama recognized Barbara Pathe for creating the Red Cross's online database with a lifetime achievement award.