Female veterans from several wars joined the District IX Malibu Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, or DAR, Saturday at the Malibu Tennis & Riding Club for the 11th Annual Women in Military Luncheon.
Ann Zuhr, the California State Chaplain of DAR, was the featured guest speaker at the luncheon. Zuhr re-enacted the story of her mother, Margery Moore, a World War II-era Women Air Force Service Pilot, widely known as WASP, who died in 2000.
Zuhr donned her mother’s uniform and told the history of the WASP women through her mother’s first-person narration, based on tapes her mother recorded about her experiences. The lively presentation featured victory songs and anecdotes about a group of 1,078 women who were not officially recognized as veterans until 1977.
Joan Prather, DAR District IX director, commented, “These women had to pay for their own uniforms, their own transportation and sometimes take out loans to pay for their own funerals.”
Due to gender restrictions, all but one of the female vets who attended the luncheon remained stateside during wartime (one served as a nurse during the Vietnam and Korean wars). Many joined and replaced men domestically so they would be free to fight overseas.
Zuhr emotionally recalled one of her mother’s flights in Georgia when the hydraulic system failed and she was forced to make an emergency landing that could have killed everyone aboard her plane. She was successful, but, Zuhr noted, 38 WASPs lost their lives during the war.
“If the stories don’t get shared, they’ll be lost,” Zuhr said, who recounted her mother’s pilot training in Virginia, learning to rig parachutes for planes to her WASP service in Texas where she towed targets and tracked missions.
“She folded up her experiences and put them away,” Zuhr said, who had no idea her mother was a pilot until long after Zuhr had left home. Her mother did not share her stories until government recognition nearly three decades after the group was disbanded.
Prather was pleased with the success of the luncheon, an event she has participated in for the past 11 years and organized the past two.
“What was great about this year was that all [the veterans] spoke. Some years they won’t talk,” Prather said. “The re-enactment put everyone in a positive light to talk about their experiences.”
Members of the Women’s Army Corps, or WAC, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, or WAVES, who served with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as a few members of the U.S. Army Nurses Corps, attended the luncheon. The veterans served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Marie Mosley, a Cleveland, Ohio native, reflected on her days in the Coast Guard during World War II. The 90-year-old, who currently resides in Camarillo, proudly displayed her Coast Guard cap and emblem. Mosley rose to platoon leader during her basic training and served for the majority of the war as a military yeoman, or secretary, for the Coast Guard.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” Mosley said. “You learn to take orders without any qualms and that there’s a reason for everything.”
Mosley’s secretarial duties called for “no errors” and multiple copies of carbon paper in the days before photocopying.
In past years, the luncheon featured active military women. Prather wanted to avoid bringing active military during an election year, as DAR is not a political organization, and thought a re-enactment would be a good experience for many of the veterans.
“Yesterday was an upbeat, positive remembering,” she said, noting that sometimes the experience of war brings back unhappy memories for both veterans and the active duty.
“The two generations had very similar experiences,” Prather said. “The difference is today, the military is at war and we are at the mall. During World War II, there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t involved.”
Awards were also presented to local Malibu students for annual DAR contests.
Helen Hicks-Loy, a senior at Malibu High School, was recognized with the Good Citizen Award. The selection process included nomination by faculty for her service, leadership and grades, and a winning vote from her school peers. Caitlin Sherry, another Malibu High School senior, was recognized for her nomination for the Pittenger American History Scholarship.
Harry McAlevey, an 8th grader at Malibu Middle School, won DAR’s American History Award. McAlevey wrote a fictional story factually based about a spy in the American Revolution who was stuck in a fort in New Jersey for 14 days. He hopes to continue a passion for history next year at Malibu High School.
“It’s the end of an era,” Zuhr said, at the end of the luncheon. “We need to pass on the oral history to a new generation.”