thedrifter
06-14-07, 02:14 PM
Published: June 14, 2007 12:00 am
Local Navy veteran helped put Iwo Jima on the map
By James A. Kimble , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune
SALEM - Her role in helping to capture Iwo Jima was something she never told her husband or three children.
Now 83, a humble and soft-spoken Mary Habib still is reluctant to go on about it.
Her husband, Al, 86, shakes his head that he's only now learning how important his wife's role was in World War II.
"She didn't like to brag to the family," he said, sitting at the couple's kitchen table. "I didn't know about this until three weeks ago. We've been married since 1950."
Mary Habib softly adds with a smirk, "There's some things I don't tell."
Mary Habib worked on a map used by the U.S. military in the critical battle for Iwo Jima. That invasion ended with one of the most famous moments in World War II, when five Marines and a sailor raised an American flag atop the island's highest point, Mount Suribachi.
Photographer Joe Rosenthal immortalized the flag raising with his famous, posed, photograph - which became a topic of the recent Clint Eastwood movie "Flags of Our Fathers."
While seeing a commercial for the movie on television, Mary Habib mentioned in front of her oldest son, Bill, 55, she had worked on the Navy's map for the invasion.
It was an incredible revelation for Bill Habib of North Andover, who began peppering his mother with questions.
"Then she went into the next room and came out with a book and scrapbook," Bill Habib said. "That was the first time I ever saw it. I knew generally of her naval background, her deployment and that she served as a naval officer, but I didn't know the extent of it."
The surprises then came like one gigantic wave after another.
Despite her years of silence, Mary Habib kept a detailed record of her two and a half years working as a Navy petty officer in the Washington, D.C., area.
Upon being honorably discharged from the Navy on July 22, 1946, she was given a replica of the map of Iwo Jima she helped create with her name embossed on it.
A ringed binder holds dozens of black-and-white photographs and cartoon sketches she made of her office mates. They detail sightseeing around the city, too, serving as a guide to her memories.
One sketch shows a face, with eyebrows raised, looking down from the top of the Washington Monument.
"I don't like heights," Habib said.
As the scrapbook reveals, it's a dislike she overcame at times. A half-dozen photos she took from a New York City rooftop give a bird's-eye view of a phalanx of soldiers marching down the street in what seems like an endless parade.
"It's funny when you wear a uniform, you can get in anywhere," she said. "The funny thing about a uniform is that it gives you a lot of courage."
The highly detailed process of mapmaking was serious business, but Mary Habib said workers in the cartography office were still able to have fun. A favorite practical joke sailors played on newbies was placing a fake blob of ink on top of a new girl's work table when they went to the bathroom, she recalled.
"There was a lot of civilian workers there, too. We had a good time. Those sailors were quite the teasers," Habib said.
A native of Lowell, Habib (then Mary Margaret McCluskey) enlisted in an all-female division of the U.S. Navy known as WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. She graduated from the New England College of Art trained in graphic and commercial design. The Navy sent her to Hunter College in New York before she was assigned to the Pentagon's Hydro-Graphics Office in Suitland, Md.
Mary Habib said in the 1940s mapmaking was highly detailed but not what she expected when she first got her assignment.
"I was surprised," she said. "There actually wasn't too much drawing. It was fine work. We did the coastline about three miles in. The Air Force took pictures of the island, which we had on a big drafting table."
Houses were noted with spots the size of a pinhead. Precise details of cliffs, craggy rocks and sandy areas were crucial so ship commanders would know where and how close vessels could approach the shoreline.
Habib said she was assigned to the WAVES not long after it was formed. She worked there for two-and-a-half years between 1944 to just after the war in 1946.
A memorable highlight from her stint in Washington, D.C., was an afternoon when Eleanor Roosevelt invited Habib and female co-workers in the cartography office to tea at the White House. They spent time in the Blue Room, one of three state parlors at the home of the president, and later had punch and cakes in the dining room.
"She was a lovely woman," Habib said of Roosevelt.
Like many families during the war, everyone in Habib's family contributed in ways they could. Habib's brother, Richard Jr., and sister, Kathleen, both enlisted. Her mother, a nurse, worked part time in a parachute factory when not working her shifts at a hospital.
Habib said she had no idea the map she was helping create would lead to such a significant turning point in the war.
It wasn't until much later, when Rosenthal's photograph of the flag raising on the island became famous that she realized the significance of her contribution to the war effort. Still, she refrained from speaking about it. It simply wasn't her way.
"After the raising of the flag, I said to myself, 'OK, I was part of that,'" Habib said. "But I didn't realize how important it was at the time."
Moved by his mother's service, Bill Habib recently wrote a detailed summary of her military career, which was displayed for Memorial Day with photographs of World War II veterans at St. Monica's Church in Methuen.
"She's not inclined to boast of herself," Bill Habib said. "Her humility is one of her many fine virtues. She would consider talking about it bragging. That's not her style."
After the war, she married in 1950 and became a stay-at-home mother raising three children. Her daughter, Mary Lee Pare, 50, lives in Salem. Her youngest son, Michael, 45, lives in Methuen. She worked briefly at General Electric and the Internal Revenue Service, and only kept drawing as a hobby.
She remains an active member of American Legion Post 417, one of the few all-female Legion chapters in the area.
The family lived in Methuen for 40 years. Al and Mary Habib moved to Salem about 10 years ago.
Al Habib has long been a fan of Mary's artwork. He proudly shows off drawings and sketches Mary etches in a room at the end of a hallway inside their Azarian Road home.
Bill Habib is thankful that he's finally learned the details of his mother's military service. He now believes there was greater meaning behind the television commercial being played.
"I don't believe in coincidence anymore," Bill Habib said. "I'm so pleased and to a greater extent proud of her, even at this late stage in life. If it was up to her, I think it would have remained hidden."
Ellie
Local Navy veteran helped put Iwo Jima on the map
By James A. Kimble , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune
SALEM - Her role in helping to capture Iwo Jima was something she never told her husband or three children.
Now 83, a humble and soft-spoken Mary Habib still is reluctant to go on about it.
Her husband, Al, 86, shakes his head that he's only now learning how important his wife's role was in World War II.
"She didn't like to brag to the family," he said, sitting at the couple's kitchen table. "I didn't know about this until three weeks ago. We've been married since 1950."
Mary Habib softly adds with a smirk, "There's some things I don't tell."
Mary Habib worked on a map used by the U.S. military in the critical battle for Iwo Jima. That invasion ended with one of the most famous moments in World War II, when five Marines and a sailor raised an American flag atop the island's highest point, Mount Suribachi.
Photographer Joe Rosenthal immortalized the flag raising with his famous, posed, photograph - which became a topic of the recent Clint Eastwood movie "Flags of Our Fathers."
While seeing a commercial for the movie on television, Mary Habib mentioned in front of her oldest son, Bill, 55, she had worked on the Navy's map for the invasion.
It was an incredible revelation for Bill Habib of North Andover, who began peppering his mother with questions.
"Then she went into the next room and came out with a book and scrapbook," Bill Habib said. "That was the first time I ever saw it. I knew generally of her naval background, her deployment and that she served as a naval officer, but I didn't know the extent of it."
The surprises then came like one gigantic wave after another.
Despite her years of silence, Mary Habib kept a detailed record of her two and a half years working as a Navy petty officer in the Washington, D.C., area.
Upon being honorably discharged from the Navy on July 22, 1946, she was given a replica of the map of Iwo Jima she helped create with her name embossed on it.
A ringed binder holds dozens of black-and-white photographs and cartoon sketches she made of her office mates. They detail sightseeing around the city, too, serving as a guide to her memories.
One sketch shows a face, with eyebrows raised, looking down from the top of the Washington Monument.
"I don't like heights," Habib said.
As the scrapbook reveals, it's a dislike she overcame at times. A half-dozen photos she took from a New York City rooftop give a bird's-eye view of a phalanx of soldiers marching down the street in what seems like an endless parade.
"It's funny when you wear a uniform, you can get in anywhere," she said. "The funny thing about a uniform is that it gives you a lot of courage."
The highly detailed process of mapmaking was serious business, but Mary Habib said workers in the cartography office were still able to have fun. A favorite practical joke sailors played on newbies was placing a fake blob of ink on top of a new girl's work table when they went to the bathroom, she recalled.
"There was a lot of civilian workers there, too. We had a good time. Those sailors were quite the teasers," Habib said.
A native of Lowell, Habib (then Mary Margaret McCluskey) enlisted in an all-female division of the U.S. Navy known as WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. She graduated from the New England College of Art trained in graphic and commercial design. The Navy sent her to Hunter College in New York before she was assigned to the Pentagon's Hydro-Graphics Office in Suitland, Md.
Mary Habib said in the 1940s mapmaking was highly detailed but not what she expected when she first got her assignment.
"I was surprised," she said. "There actually wasn't too much drawing. It was fine work. We did the coastline about three miles in. The Air Force took pictures of the island, which we had on a big drafting table."
Houses were noted with spots the size of a pinhead. Precise details of cliffs, craggy rocks and sandy areas were crucial so ship commanders would know where and how close vessels could approach the shoreline.
Habib said she was assigned to the WAVES not long after it was formed. She worked there for two-and-a-half years between 1944 to just after the war in 1946.
A memorable highlight from her stint in Washington, D.C., was an afternoon when Eleanor Roosevelt invited Habib and female co-workers in the cartography office to tea at the White House. They spent time in the Blue Room, one of three state parlors at the home of the president, and later had punch and cakes in the dining room.
"She was a lovely woman," Habib said of Roosevelt.
Like many families during the war, everyone in Habib's family contributed in ways they could. Habib's brother, Richard Jr., and sister, Kathleen, both enlisted. Her mother, a nurse, worked part time in a parachute factory when not working her shifts at a hospital.
Habib said she had no idea the map she was helping create would lead to such a significant turning point in the war.
It wasn't until much later, when Rosenthal's photograph of the flag raising on the island became famous that she realized the significance of her contribution to the war effort. Still, she refrained from speaking about it. It simply wasn't her way.
"After the raising of the flag, I said to myself, 'OK, I was part of that,'" Habib said. "But I didn't realize how important it was at the time."
Moved by his mother's service, Bill Habib recently wrote a detailed summary of her military career, which was displayed for Memorial Day with photographs of World War II veterans at St. Monica's Church in Methuen.
"She's not inclined to boast of herself," Bill Habib said. "Her humility is one of her many fine virtues. She would consider talking about it bragging. That's not her style."
After the war, she married in 1950 and became a stay-at-home mother raising three children. Her daughter, Mary Lee Pare, 50, lives in Salem. Her youngest son, Michael, 45, lives in Methuen. She worked briefly at General Electric and the Internal Revenue Service, and only kept drawing as a hobby.
She remains an active member of American Legion Post 417, one of the few all-female Legion chapters in the area.
The family lived in Methuen for 40 years. Al and Mary Habib moved to Salem about 10 years ago.
Al Habib has long been a fan of Mary's artwork. He proudly shows off drawings and sketches Mary etches in a room at the end of a hallway inside their Azarian Road home.
Bill Habib is thankful that he's finally learned the details of his mother's military service. He now believes there was greater meaning behind the television commercial being played.
"I don't believe in coincidence anymore," Bill Habib said. "I'm so pleased and to a greater extent proud of her, even at this late stage in life. If it was up to her, I think it would have remained hidden."
Ellie