The Women's Memorial 

By TAD BARTIMUS

"It isn't just my brother's country, or my husband's country, it's my country as well. And so the war wasn't just their war, it was my war, and I needed to serve in it."

-- Beatrice Hood Stroup, Major, Women's Army Corps, World War II

Standing just inside the door of The Women's Memorial, Sheila Walsh Martin was ready to answer questions. Eager to answer questions. Champing at the bit to answer questions.

"If you need any help," she cheerfully called out, "just let me know!"

Turns out this smartly-dressed septuagenarian knew everything about the new monument at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. The Women's Memorial is dedicated to the 1.8 million women who've served in the United States military for the past 222 years. Sheila Walsh Martin is one of them.

Mrs. Martin was in THE WAR. The BIG ONE. She is a proud member of what Tom Brokaw dubbed The Greatest Generation. Her service as a WAVE helped define her character and shape her life. There were 84,000 WAVES – Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service – on active duty and another 8,000 in training when World War II ended in August 1945.

"That's the poster that got me in trouble," she said, grinning at a famous recruiting drawing of a lovely blonde in a Navy-style uniform. "We mostly came from lower and middle class families, from small towns and farms. We wanted to help out, we were patriotic. We didn't want a career, but we wanted to be part of the war effort. The whole country was behind us."

She reported to boot camp at Hunter College on Long Island, N.Y., on Sept. 15, 1944 – her 20^th birthday. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reviewed her graduating class. Elsewhere, Women's Army Corp (WAC), Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and Coast Guard (SPAR) women were serving where needed – 400,000 in all.

"You never took your uniform off," said Mrs. Walsh. "We wore stockings, behaved in the military manner. And we were NOT lady sailors!"

She learned weather forecasting and was stationed at the Jacksonville, Fla., Naval Air Station when she met Navy man Howard Martin, her husband of 52 years.

A mother of four and grandmother of three, she commutes from Pennsylvania by train to a son's home near Washington, D.C., to work two days a month as a docent at the popular tourist attraction.

"When I'm working I'm thinking 'Why wouldn't I be here? This is mine!' Nothing can be better than working in your own memorial."

Dedicated in 1997, the $22 million site houses a 16-alcove exhibition gallery, a theater to show films about women in the military and a user-friendly database for women's service records -- 350,000 to date.

"Children put in the name and BINGO! There's grammy in the war! It's thrilling to them," Mrs. Walsh said. "Women veterans my age save up to come here, usually accompanied by a family member. Sons seem particularly proud of their mothers. It's very heartening to me to see so many people prepared to be happy and thrilled. I get a lot of hugs and kisses.

"Women on active duty like to hold their promotion ceremonies here, every month there's a brown bag lunch seminar on women's health -- something wonderful is always going on. This is like a sorority house where every woman who served is eligible.

"We want all veteran and active-duty military women to think of this as their spiritual home."

Mrs. Martin and her husband both used the GI Bill to get college degrees at the University of Delaware after the war. "It was the most wonderful thing our government could have done for us veterans," she said.

Then she went on with "a normal life." But her wartime service remains at the core of who she is.

"It was the biggest single event any of us had experienced. I will always know I did something to help and have a quiet feeling of achievement because of it. We don't need anybody's stamp of approval at this point. We know who we are."

Mrs. Martin says she feels closest to the visitors who served in her era.

"We're still here, we're still active, even in our 70s, 80s and, if we're lucky, our 90s. We enlisted for a different reason than the young women of today, who see military service as a chance for a very good career," she said. "History has told us that we were a special group, the vanguard who opened the doors."

As she spoke, words from one of eleven engraved glass tablets on the Memorial roof reflected down onto the granite walls and floor around her, quoting from an unknown U.S. Army nurse in World War II:

"Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom. That our resolve was just as great as the brave men who stood among us. And with victory our hearts were just as full and beat just as fast – that the tears fell just as hard for those we left behind."

To find out more about the Women's Memorial, visit their website at www.womensmemorial.org or write to Women's Memorial, Dept. 560, Washington, D.C., 20042-0560.

© 2000 The Women Syndicate

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