thedrifter
12-03-07, 09:23 AM
Published: 12.03.2007
Opinion by Bonnie Henry: A true patriot
Tucsonan may well be oldest female Marine in the country
Opinion by Bonnie Henry
Once a Marine, always a Marine. And never more so than for Miriam Cohen.
Cohen, who turns 100 on Dec. 13, is quite possibly the oldest female Marine in the country.
"We can't find any records saying otherwise," says Cohen's friend, June Berkey, another Marine and a Vietnam vet.
For Cohen — now a Tucsonan — World War II was her fight.
A former Brooklynite, Cohen enlisted a month after the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established in February 1943.
Although 305 women served in the Marine Corps during World War I, all were separated from the service by June 30, 1919.
More than 23,000 women Marines would serve during World War II, doing everything from clerical work to serving as parachute riggers, mechanics, radio operators, photographers, mapmakers and welders.
"My parents were very patriotic," says Cohen, who was in the first enlisted class of more than 700 women reporting for training at Hunter College, in the heart of Manhattan.
"We mostly lived in apartments," says Cohen.
Maybe so, but the women still got the full treatment.
"There were four of us in a room for one, and if they found a spot of dirt, it was off with your head," says Tucsonan Shirley Crowell, 84, who also trained with the Marines at Hunter College in 1943.
She remembers marching everywhere — and passing out after getting her shots.
"We had a young man from overseas assigned to us. When I opened my eyes, he was over me, saying, 'Fall in. Marines don't faint.' "
She fell in.
Bobbi Alger, 84, trained at Camp Lejeune, N.C., after joining the Marines in December 1943.
Pay was $50 a month, she says. She, too, remembers the marching. "We also did a lot of calisthenics, but nothing with a rifle.
"We lived in three-story barracks, and you had to bounce a quarter off your bed," says Alger, also a Tucsonan.
But jiggles of another kind were strictly forbidden. "We had to wear girdles," says Alger. "You could not bounce."
Crowell wound up working as a secretary for the station quartermaster in North Carolina.
Alger went back to her home state of Pennsylvania, where she updated spare parts for the Corsair airplane.
Both she and Crowell left the service after the war. Not so for Cohen, who stayed in for another 10 years.
"I worked for the commanding officer," says Cohen, who was stationed everywhere from Virginia to San Diego and San Francisco.
While some of the male Marines may have given the women a hard time, Cohen says the men were always polite around her — "maybe because I worked for one general or another."
However, she did tolerate a little good-natured teasing. Short in stature, she remembers two male Marines taking hold of her arms and walking her along, with her feet dangling in the air.
In 1948, Congress made women a permanent part of the regular Marine Corps.
Seven years later, Cohen went back to doing civil service work, including working for the Internal Revenue Service.
She also volunteered at the veterans hospital in Brooklyn, and then at the one in Tucson after moving here in 2000.
Besides attending meetings of the local Women Marines Association, Cohen has participated in every Veterans Day parade since moving here.
"Devotion to country is a very important thing," she says.
Semper Fi, Miriam — and Shirley and Bobbi.
Did You Know . . .
About 25 women, ages late-20s to 100, belong to the Women Marines Association in Tucson. The women, who meet monthly, have served in every war from World War II to Iraq.
For more information, log on to www.womenmarines.org/.
semper fi, ladies
● Reach Bonnie Henry at 434-4074 or at bhenry@azstarnet.com, or write to 3295 W. Ina Road, Suite 125, Tucson, AZ 85741.
Ellie
Opinion by Bonnie Henry: A true patriot
Tucsonan may well be oldest female Marine in the country
Opinion by Bonnie Henry
Once a Marine, always a Marine. And never more so than for Miriam Cohen.
Cohen, who turns 100 on Dec. 13, is quite possibly the oldest female Marine in the country.
"We can't find any records saying otherwise," says Cohen's friend, June Berkey, another Marine and a Vietnam vet.
For Cohen — now a Tucsonan — World War II was her fight.
A former Brooklynite, Cohen enlisted a month after the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established in February 1943.
Although 305 women served in the Marine Corps during World War I, all were separated from the service by June 30, 1919.
More than 23,000 women Marines would serve during World War II, doing everything from clerical work to serving as parachute riggers, mechanics, radio operators, photographers, mapmakers and welders.
"My parents were very patriotic," says Cohen, who was in the first enlisted class of more than 700 women reporting for training at Hunter College, in the heart of Manhattan.
"We mostly lived in apartments," says Cohen.
Maybe so, but the women still got the full treatment.
"There were four of us in a room for one, and if they found a spot of dirt, it was off with your head," says Tucsonan Shirley Crowell, 84, who also trained with the Marines at Hunter College in 1943.
She remembers marching everywhere — and passing out after getting her shots.
"We had a young man from overseas assigned to us. When I opened my eyes, he was over me, saying, 'Fall in. Marines don't faint.' "
She fell in.
Bobbi Alger, 84, trained at Camp Lejeune, N.C., after joining the Marines in December 1943.
Pay was $50 a month, she says. She, too, remembers the marching. "We also did a lot of calisthenics, but nothing with a rifle.
"We lived in three-story barracks, and you had to bounce a quarter off your bed," says Alger, also a Tucsonan.
But jiggles of another kind were strictly forbidden. "We had to wear girdles," says Alger. "You could not bounce."
Crowell wound up working as a secretary for the station quartermaster in North Carolina.
Alger went back to her home state of Pennsylvania, where she updated spare parts for the Corsair airplane.
Both she and Crowell left the service after the war. Not so for Cohen, who stayed in for another 10 years.
"I worked for the commanding officer," says Cohen, who was stationed everywhere from Virginia to San Diego and San Francisco.
While some of the male Marines may have given the women a hard time, Cohen says the men were always polite around her — "maybe because I worked for one general or another."
However, she did tolerate a little good-natured teasing. Short in stature, she remembers two male Marines taking hold of her arms and walking her along, with her feet dangling in the air.
In 1948, Congress made women a permanent part of the regular Marine Corps.
Seven years later, Cohen went back to doing civil service work, including working for the Internal Revenue Service.
She also volunteered at the veterans hospital in Brooklyn, and then at the one in Tucson after moving here in 2000.
Besides attending meetings of the local Women Marines Association, Cohen has participated in every Veterans Day parade since moving here.
"Devotion to country is a very important thing," she says.
Semper Fi, Miriam — and Shirley and Bobbi.
Did You Know . . .
About 25 women, ages late-20s to 100, belong to the Women Marines Association in Tucson. The women, who meet monthly, have served in every war from World War II to Iraq.
For more information, log on to www.womenmarines.org/.
semper fi, ladies
● Reach Bonnie Henry at 434-4074 or at bhenry@azstarnet.com, or write to 3295 W. Ina Road, Suite 125, Tucson, AZ 85741.
Ellie