Forget Me Not

 

Mary Jane Nelson, a veteran of World War II, isn’t resting on her well-earned laurels – she has a new campaign. She has started a memorial garden on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Miss., where she now lives. The garden is full of forget me nots and is intended as a tribute and memorial to all the women who have served in the Armed Forces. She also encourages others to plant forget me not gardens to honor women vets, and even has a Facebook page to publicize the idea. Thanks to her efforts, memorial gardens have been started in several states.

Nelson, formerly of Red Oak, was one of the first women to join the armed forces back in June of 1943, specifically the Navy WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service). She remembers it well.

“I had just graduated high school. My older sister was in college and I’m sure my parents expected me to do the same. But I told my father, I’m not going to college, I’m going to sign up for the Navy.

“Why? Well, the war was on, and all my life from first grade on, we would say the pledge of allegiance every day in school, and it was a real thrill to me. My father had been in World War I and my two brothers were both in the service, and I knew that’s where I wanted to be.

“We waited six weeks before I knew that I would be accepted. They investigated us, you know. They even went to my school. But finally I got accepted.

“There was a train that started in Portland, Ore., and picked up girls who were signed up and took them to New York. Another girl and I were the first to take the oath there in Portland, at a table where they were selling war bonds. And, we were the first to get on the train. There were only two cars on the train at first, but as we traveled across the country, stopping at all the towns, they added more cars and picked up more girls. By the time we got to New York, there were more than 50 girls. They came from all over.

“We had our basic training there in New York, and then I went to Washington, D.C., where I worked in the decoding section. We lived in apartments in a building that had been a college of some kind.

“Not everyone approved of women in the military at that time, but the idea was that each of us could take the place of a man at an office job, so that he could then go to sea.

“One day Eleanor Roosevelt came to see us in our apartment. She was never treated very well by the press. She was a big woman and not especially pretty, but I remember that she had lovely skin and beautiful blue eyes. She was really kind and charming, too. She took my hand and asked, ‘What is your name and where do you come from?’ I was thrilled!”

Following her service, Nelson married Laurence Anthony Nelson, Jr., a Red Oak boy and a pilot in the Air Force. They moved to Red Oak, where they raised a family of four children and made a lot of friends. She has fond memories of that time as well as an enduring pride in her years in the WAVES.

The history of American women in the military really starts with the Marines. Opha May Johnson was the first woman to enlist, in 1918. From then until the end of World War I, 302 women enlisted. In World War II, more than 20,000 female Marines served in more than 225 different specialties.

The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) was formed in May of 1942 and the name changed to simply Women’s Army Corps (WACs) in July of the same year. It was disbanded in 1978 and integrated with male units.

Women in the Air Force (WAFs) was formed in 1948 and ended in 1975, after which women were accepted into the USAF on an equal basis with men.

The Red Oak Express

2012 Commerce Drive
P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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