BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Idaho native Shirley Law was serving with the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia, when she heard World War II had ended.
Law, who was born in 1924 and grew up in Homedale, enlisted when she was 20 years old. At the time, women couldn’t go overseas.
“I remember going downtown in Norfolk and the streets were crowded and everybody was celebrating,” Law said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The Idaho Press spoke to female veterans in the Treasure Valley ahead of the 78th anniversary of D-Day on June 6. One of them was Law, 96, who served in the Second World War.
Law first went to training in New York City. She was transferred to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for more training and then went to Norfolk. In 1946, she was discharged. She moved back to Idaho and married a man who served in the Air Force. She currently calls Boise home.
“I really felt important working in the Navy,” Law said. “I enjoyed it and I met a lot of interesting people.”
She’s not the only female veteran with Treasure Valley ties who served at a time when it was rare for women to be in the armed forces.
Another Idaho woman, Judith Eighmy, was born the same year D-Day occurred. Eighmy also served in the Navy, but from 1964 to 1969.
She was born in Michigan in 1944, grew up in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and now lives in Meridian. She moved here 17 years ago to help out her daughter after her daughter’s husband was deployed and the couple’s first son was born.
Eighmy initially joined because she needed money or she was going to have to drop out of school. The Army and Navy were both looking for nurses, and had programs to help pay for college.
As soon as she got her registered nurse credentials, Eighmy went to Newport, Rhode Island. There, she trained and was commissioned as an ensign. After Newport, she went to work at a Navy hospital in Oakland, California.
“The Vietnam war was ramping up,” Eighmy said. “There were so many amputations … and you always think about what is their life going to be like after?”
The Bay Area was a hotbed of opposition to the war. But as a woman, it was easier to hide her involvement.
“Nobody thought you could ever have been there,” she said.
Then, Eighmy requested to go to a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam.
“I really wanted to go. It was like an adventure and I also wanted to continue taking care of these young soldiers and sailors and Marines,” Eighmy said. “I was really honored to get to go.”
On the ship, wounded and sick soldiers came aboard, almost all by helicopter. If the ship was in a port, the patients could come by boat. Eighmy took care of some Vietnamese civilians when she could.
It was challenging to serve as a woman, Eighmy said.
“In those days, women tolerated things that they don’t tolerate anymore. We kind of normalized certain bad behavior on the part of the males,” Eighmy said. “You didn’t like it, but you tolerated it because you didn’t think there was any other way it could be.”
After the war, Eighmy left the military. Women at the time couldn’t serve and have children and Eighmy thought a family was something she wanted.
She remained a nurse, but only worked bedside for a year.
“It was just very hard to go back to a hospital when you’d been in the military and when you’d been in a war. In a war you do whatever is necessary,” Eighmy said. “When you come back to the United States, there’s a lot of concern for this rule, that rule, this law, that law.”
Overall, though, Eighmy loved her time in the Navy.
“It was a great adventure. It was also a test,” she said. “I was always testing myself to see what I’m made of.”
The Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, where Peg McCown and her husband Don both volunteer, has plenty of military history.
Peg McCown is originally from Glendora, California. She was born in 1950 and joined the Navy at age 18. She had an uncle she admired in the Navy and her sister saw some literature in the post office about joining the Navy and got it for her.
She went to boot camp in Cambridge, Maryland, enduring a tough winter for an L.A. girl.
“I was nervous,” McCown said. “I’d never left home before.”
After boot camp, she was stationed in Pensacola, Florida. Then, doubting whether or not to continue, she went home for three months and decided the Navy was what she wanted. McCown moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and became an aviation supply specialist. She moved all over the country, from San Diego to North Island.
In North Island, her husband retired from the Navy. McCown went out because she was going to be shipped overseas.
They went to Austin, where she re-affiliated with the Navy. The couple then moved to Colorado, where McCown worked at Buckley Airfield. Later they moved to Point Mugu and then Dallas, where she retired.
“You don’t form really solid relationships because you know you’re not going to be there,” McCown said.
Their latest move brought them to Nampa.
In the Navy, McCown said there were catcalls and whistles, but she ignored them and they didn’t bother her. She had wanted to be an aircraft mechanic, but that job was closed to women. Still, a lot of jobs have opened up to women, which she said is very nice.
“I can’t say it was a negative experience as a female,” McCown said. “After a while, you do your job.”
Carolyn Komatsoulis covers Boise, Meridian and Ada County. Contact her at 208-465-8107 and follow her on Twitter @CKomatsoulis.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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