Last June, America and her allies commemorated the 80th Anniversary of D-Day.
Now, in January, with the anniversary of the Battle of The Bulge behind us, we are following the trail of the greatest generation, the stories of those soldiers, sailors, and Marines as they continue on their path towards victory, both in the European Theater and in the Pacific.
In January of 1945, Charity Adams and the soldiers of the 6888 Central Postal Battalion were on their way to England. She flew to London while her incoming soldiers followed, braving the Atlantic Ocean on a troop ship that was targeted by Nazi submarines.
Kate Nolan was again on the move with the 53rd Field Hospital, churning towards the Rhine with the armor and infantry units of Patton’s Third Army.
In the U.S., a hopeful feeling was taking hold— the tide of war was turning.
The Women’s Air Service Pilots found themselves out of a job. Not just that, many felt they’d lost a career, a calling, and a way to make a difference in the war. Male pilots were returning from Europe and the Pacific to take their jobs—pulling targets for air and ground gunners, ferrying planes from factories to bases, or to be repaired and retrofitted.
Millie Rexroat felt she’d lost her lifelong dream. She couldn’t fly any longer, and like all other women who served in the WASP, they discovered they weren’t even worthy of being called veterans.
Another fight was beginning.
In Dayton, Ohio, Navy WAVES were still building the bombe, but soon, their work would also slow. Meantime, the codebreakers, both Army and Navy women, were busier than ever at their work in Washington.
In China, an eleven-year-old girl looked forward to her twelfth birthday and fifth year as a prisoner of the Japanese. But release was coming, even if it was still months away.
Young Mary Taylor was determined not to give up.
And like all those women who fought on the front lines with the resistance, they too felt a change was in the air.
Diet Eman was still serving in the Netherlands. Released from prison, Mary Barraco was acting as a liaison officer with Canadian forces in Belgium. Virginia Hall continued to lead operations with the French resistance in the south of France. Hilda Gimpel Eisen was fighting with the resistance in Poland. Plus, three million women volunteered with the Red Cross.
More than six million women worked in factories and other industries supporting the war efforts.
Mae Foley and a number of her contemporaries in New York City and other cities and towns across the country served as policewomen, making their own contributions to the safety of their communities.
Still others helped with the rehabilitation of the wounded. Gretchen Fraser taught skiing and horseback riding to wounded sailors at a rehabilitation hospital in Sun Valley, Idaho. After the war, she would begin to think about the Olympics again, but not then.
Millions of other women found their own ways to make a difference, to ‘do their bit.’
They all made a difference, some more than others, most more than even they could ever know.
They set the table for us today.
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