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I originally posted this on Veteran's Day last November. Since tomorrow is Mother's Day I thought a repost was in order.
The Lady behind the typewriter.
The lady pictured above and here is now 85 years old. She was born and raised on a small homestead farm in North Dakota. She graduated valedictorian from High School and as most unmarried woman in those days went to work in the typing pool at the county.
Then WWll came along and all the men left. Some of the woman went back to the farm to fill their places. This lady stayed on at the typewriter wishing there was something she could do way out on the Dakota prairie to help the war effort.
One day on the radio (always on for war news) they heard an announcement about a new Woman's Army Corp being formed to help fill all the vacant posts left by the men who went to war. The other woman laughed. It was a very radical idea at the time. Whoever heard of such a thing as a woman in the Army?
This lady said "that's something we could do to help". She was laughed at.
She took the next day off and went to the big city (Fargo) to enlist. The Army recruiter though she was crazy till he made some phone calls and found out she was telling the truth.
She returned the next day to clean out her desk to the shocked disbelief of the other woman in the office.
She was inducted and sent to Des Moines, Iowa to be in the very first company of females in the U.S. Army.
She served at Pittsburg, California for the next few years and met a very handsome Army man there. They were married and he was shipped off to New Guinea. He became very ill and was sent back to the states for treatment. She became pregnant and had to be discharged. She had a baby boy about the time her husband was diagnosed with Leukemia. He died about a year after the birth of their son. She never remarried and spent the next 18 years raising their son. I like to think she did a pretty good job of raising him on her own.
That lady was my mother.
The proud tradition of woman in the U.S. military is now commonplace. It all started on that drill field in Iowa those many years ago. There was no draft for woman so they were all volunteers. They continue to volunteer to this day although the stakes are now much higher for them in combat.
If I were a woman I don't know if I would have the guts to volunteer for today's military knowing what might happen to me if captured.
So on this Mother's Day, hats off to all the women (and mothers)in harms way on all the battlefields.
Now - do I still have to get a card? Alright! I'm going - I'm going!
7:57:36 PM 
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