Time Moves On…

Twenty years ago I was living and working in Germany. I’d just been back to the states for two weeks, to complete the national security studies program and graduate from the Army War College, despite a boss who didn’t want me to make the trip. Thankfully I didn’t listen to him. But I’d just returned to work, when that bright and beautiful day in September, everything changed.

I had the TV on in my office, watching CNN International live as the second plane slammed into the twin towers in New York. Then carnage unfolded at the Pentagon. We all just stopped, stared, and sank down into our chairs, unable to do anything but watch. Some tried frantically to call friends or family. No one could get through.

It is so hard to believe it has been twenty years since that event that twisted our entire future into a whole series of new directions – conflicts, security challenges and changes, towards decisions and outcomes that earlier that had been unimaginable. But change is unrelenting, and time moves on. Only twenty years ago but we forget so quickly.

A few months ago, I visited Arlington National Cemetery, paying respects to the women buried there who I had come to know through writing my book, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line. I paused first at the Pentagon 9/11 memorial and spent long moments there contemplating the lives stopped that day.

Pentagon Group Burial Marker, Arlington National Cemetary

Then I moved on to locate the veterans I had come to find. If 9/11 is now a full generation behind us, then WWII seems even further back. But it isn’t lost in the fog of history; in many ways, those days are still very close, the challenges people faced then, seem much like the difficulties we are dealing with today.

As I walked the rows of headstones under cloudy, gray skies I could hear the boom of cannon fire in the distance, another funeral taking place, another family saying goodbye. I thought about their service, those women who stepped out of line to serve in uniform during the war. It wasn’t a common thing to do then. But every single one raised her hand and freely volunteered. Combat nurse 1st Lt. Kate Flynn Nolan is buried in Section 60, not far from the 9/11 memorial. She passed away in 2019 but didn’t join her husband at Arlington until the spring of 2020, a funeral held in the midst of pandemic restrictions. It is a short walk from there to the columbarium where I visited another who served so brilliantly in World War II, Capt. Millie Rexroat – the only Native American woman to fly with the Women Air Service Pilots (WASP). From there I climbed the steep hill up to Section 11, where Office of Strategic Services (OSS) counterintelligence agent, Maj. Stephanie Czech Rader lies.

I knew that Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley wasn’t buried in Arlington; she is with family in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio. What I didn’t know then is that there are fourteen members of Adams’ groundbreaking unit, the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Battalion buried in Arlington. Her battalion is the only all African- American, all female unit deployed overseas in WWII. I haven’t been to visit these pioneering service women yet, but I will.

LTC Charity Adams Earley and the women of the 6888th

Service was definitely the hallmark of women assigned to the Six Triple Eight. Four of those buried in Arlingon – Sgt. 1st. Class Gatha Amos, Staff Sgt. Catherine Bowie, Tech 5 (Dr.) Allie Harshaw, and Tech Sgt. Mary Peterson served not only in WWII, but remained in the Army through Korea and Vietnam. Spec. 6 Ardella Pitts and Sgt. 1st Class Bessie Robinson both remained in uniform through Korea. Maj. Blanche Scott transferred to the Air Force following the war, and later served in the Public Affairs Office under then Col. Benjamin O. Davis (later the first African American General in the Air Force).

Private 1st Class Hortense Cole, Tech 5 Lila Burt Dale, Tech 4 Margaret Jackson, Maj. Margaret Barnes Jones, 1st Lt. Willa Cherry Knighton, Tech 5 Mary Crawford Ragland, and Private 1st Class Annie Knight Jordan also served with the Six Triple Eight in England. All were accomplished. Sgt. 1st Class Gatha Amos came to the unit as the only licensed mortician serving in the Women’s Army Corps. Master Sgt. Annie Harshaw likewise came to the Six Triple Eight with a degree, hers from the Tuskegee Institute. Following the war, she earned her doctorate in Human Behavior from the U.S. International University and continued the fight against ‘racism, discrimination, and inequality’ throughout her life. Private 1st Class Annie Jordan also pursued her education following the war. She graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1949 and served with the federal government for many years while actively working with the NAACP and supporting civil rights.

All these women led lives transformed by their service, recognizing opportunities that military life offered but perhaps more importantly being influenced and supported by the cohort of high performing women around them. They learned from their accomplished leaders in wartime the lessons that changed the course of their lives – performing under pressure, the multiplying factor of teamwork, resilience and reliance on each other, and perhaps most importantly, that their work was important, their contributions valued, their service and selves respected.

May they rest easy now, in peace and glory, every one.

Poem, Theodore O’Hara, “Bivouac of the Dead” National Cemetery Administration