My husband first tried to enlist in the Marines.

His brother went into the Marine Corp first, and my husband decided after that that he should – well, he was being drafted of course and so he wanted to get into the Air Force.

So, he took all the tests and made all the top grades and everything and it was pretty sure that was what was going to happen.

When he went in for his physical some German doctor that couldn’t even speak English looked at his feet and said, “You’re flat footed” and they didn’t want him!

He was a football player in high school, a good football player! So, then he decided if the Air Force wouldn’t take him he wasn’t going, so he stayed home and fought with his wife instead. (Laughter) So, I must tell you what happened from there.

We were in Civil Air Patrol at that point, both of us. He went in with a friend and then I went in, the women went in, but then I had Connie, my oldest child, so then that kind of slowed down. But, I was a staff sergeant I believe when I got out of that and I was in radio, had a radio license and so forth, and my husband taught airplane mechanics and so on.

We were supposed to be the home front in case that would happen here and you trained people going into the military also.

We learned Morse code. You learned how to march. We marched in parades. It was like supporting the home front type thing. And we had people in flying – we were out at the airport and they were flying reconnaissance or whatever you want to call it type of thing, and there were a lot of units in the area; Toledo, Bowling Green and so forth.

You would even go into competitions and you all had uniform dress and everything. I have pictures of that some place but I can’t give them to you now. I hope I have. I may not even have them. My son might have them.

So, anyway, I have to say the end of that story is we have three Marines children. All of them are lieutenant colonels. One is retired, one is in the reserves yet and the youngest one is active. Two of them have been in Iraq. The oldest one was in Vietnam. They’ve all been all over the world.

They spend time in South Korea. My daughter has been everywhere. She’s been in Saudi Arabia. The only way she could go on that mission, whatever it was that they did – can’t tell you – she was an expert at whatever she did and they let her go because she had a brother that was going.

When they went into Saudi Arabia at the airport, and there were a whole group of people going in at the same time, they said to my oldest son, “This is your wife?”

He said, “No, this is my sister,” and they weren’t going to let her in. They put her to the side - and I mean Saudi Arabia is not to be sneezed at if you are going in there and you are separated from your group, that is not the way to go.

They wanted my oldest son to leave and go with the group and then she would come later. He said, “No way!” He knew enough about what was going on that there was no way he would leave that airport without her. And, an Englishman who out-ranked them came over and intervened and got her through. They didn’t understand and he was able to explain it to them.

I remember stories of her working in offices in Saudi Arabia where she was the only woman that wasn’t completely covered from top to bottom, I suppose, and how some guy almost dusted the finish off of the files trying to get close to her to see who she was, and what she was, and what she was doing when she was working at an office while she was there. All kinds of funny stories, you know? You didn’t dare to leave out in the public without being fully covered.