Posted on 10/05/2009 5:55:18 PM PDT by franksolich
Family lore alleges that one of my great-aunts was the first woman commissioned an officer in the U.S. Navy during the mid-1920s, but as I have no way of proving that, I let it pass. Before 1928, she was in fact a captain, and so while one cannot allege she was the first, it appears probably she had been one of the first.
And her older sister (by two years), before 1928, was a major in the U.S. Army.
The two were the 12th and 14th children of my great-grandfather, a farmer and coal-miner in northeastern Pennsylvania circa 1880-1938. It was the custom at the time that the older children in a large family went to work so as to bring the younger children up in the world, which is why younger halves of large families tended to be better educated and more prosperous than their older siblings.
While their older brothers and sisters labored in the coal mines, on the farms, and in the boarding-houses, the two youngest girls of the family were sent to, of all, places, the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, to nursing school there.
I have no idea what inspired the older one to join the Army, or the younger one the Navy.
The boys in the family, with the exception of one remarkably-talented farmer and a great-uncle with a withered leg, all served in the Army, but this was either before the first world war (i.e., before 1917) or afterwards, during the 1920s, and so while they managed to see a great deal of the world, they were never in combat.
The two great-aunts however were a different story.
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativecave.com ...
Ping for the list; I hope this one is better than the egg I laid yesterday.
bump!
what egg?
Wow. It was of interest. Thank you.
Oh, and the ending carried a very profound point. There are always people who are forgotten.
The story of the fat girl in high school, which had a really poor, really bad, ending.
oh! I read that one too.
This is wonderful, what interesting people you know/knew.
I liked the fat girl story, too. It’s called “slice of life.” There are many that don’t understand, and they would be the types that wouldn’t like Anne Tyler novels.
It’s interesting you mention thinking of those whom only God remembers. I was just yesterday thinking of Mary and wondering if anyone but me remembered her.
We were both about 20, waitressing in a small cafe, and would often talk to each other about our hopes and dreams. Mary was small, with dark hair and had a kind of enthusiasm for life that surrounded her like a force field. She wanted a red MG sports car, she was saving her money to buy one, and she wasn’t letting anything get in the way in her quest.
Life moved on, and she left the cafe, and we saw each other less and less. On one of those occasions where we got together, she told me she had purchased the little MG she’d always wanted, and told me the very first time she drove it she got in an accident. She had the car fixed and it was as good as new. About a month or so later, I was talking with a friend who said that Mary had been in another accident in her little sports car, but all was well, no one was hurt (there had been a passenger), and the car was repairable.
After that, I didn’t hear from her or about her for about a year when another friend told me she had been killed shortly after the second accident. And yes, it happened in her little MG. In this third accident she had been rocketing down the freeway and crashed into the center divider.
Even if no one else does, I remember Mary.
And I remember the lesson her life and death taught me.
Pay heed to the warnings that come your way.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.