World War II vet still defying stereotypes

[thedrifter]

OCEANSIDE: World War II vet still defying stereotypes

By Renee Ramsey - For the North County Times

OCEANSIDE ---- Adriana Willis is an 85-year-old World War II veteran who whoops it up like a college girl when her football team is winning.

In an otherwise quiet Oceanside neighborhood on Saturday night, Willis was bounding out the door and ringing a cow bell every time the University of Southern California scored against California in a 17-3 win for her team.

A 280ZX was parked in her driveway. The former Marine said she doesn't play cards like other women she knows in her age bracket; she drives sports cars.

"With a stick shift," she added.

But then, Willis has been defying stereotypes since the early 1940s, when she made the decision to join what then was called the Women Marines. The female stateside units were created to free up male Marines from desk duty to head for the front lines during World War II.

On Tuesday she will celebrate Veterans' Day at the Oceanside Elks Lodge, as she has for many years. "Last year I was the only Woman Marine there," she said.

Women Marines were rare even during World War II, when Willis was stationed at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va. She said some people were stumped at encountering her and other women in uniform.

"They would say, 'What are you, Canadian WACs?' " Willis said.

"When I said I was from Wisconsin," she added, "someone asked if I lived in a wigwam." These women were not allowed to serve on battlefronts, but they would open the doors to next generations of female fighting forces now known simply as Marines. A part of the Marine Women's Reserve established in 1943, the Women Marines officially would become regular duty Marines in 1948.

Willis has "mixed feelings" about now allowing women on the front lines, she said, but she's definite about one thing. "When they lowered the (enlistment) age to 18, that's too young," she said.

One of 11 children, Willis decided at 19 to become a Marine for the adventure and promise of a college education through the GI Bill. But she had to wait until she met the minimum age requirement of 20.

Boot camp at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was not like what she later saw depicted at the movies, she said.

"It was more like college. We took classes. No man was standing in our face yelling at us," Willis said.

A first 300 women known as Marinettes had served in a similar capacity during World War I, but the concept of women in the military still was new enough during World War II that many were uncomfortable at the notion.

Appearances and behavior were important, Willis said.

When she and her fellow recruits received their uniforms, they were heavy woolen suits, Willis said, so she spent almost a month's salary on a tailored gabardine version. And, she added, there was no cursing.

Even though she was confined to stateside duty, Willis found adventure with new East Coast friends in her unit.

They "crashed" President Franklin Roosevelt's inaugural ball in Washington, D.C., in 1944, said Willis, who still has a photograph taken that night of her with famed band leader Guy Lombardo.

Willis joined crowds in New York to celebrate VE Day (for Victory in Europe) on May 8, 1945, and in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 15, 1945 to celebrate VJ Day (for Victory over Japan).

She finished her tour as a corporal in December 1945, and, with the help of the GI Bill, earned her college degree at USC and became a teacher.

But Willis was not finished with a Marine's life. She met and married Marine Cpl. John Willis, and was a substitute teacher for kindergarten through high school classes at posts around the country, including Camp Pendleton.

When her husband retired as a captain in 1975, Adriana Willis continued to teach in Oceanside until she retired in 1985. They had been married 57 years when he died in 2006. Her walls are filled with pictures of three handsome children and even better looking grandchildren.

"I never thought I would be this old ---- 85. That's gross," she said with a grin ---- a teacher mimicking the jargon of students.

But at 85, Willis also just became a cover girl. Wisconsin's InSpire Magazine in this month's issues marked Veterans' Day by telling her story and reprinting a photo of Willis in her World War II uniform on the cover.

Willis, of course, was outside on a ladder trimming trees when the magazine called earlier this fall for the interview.

Ellie