EL TORO : The Corps of Operations Is Retiring

She has been called the Power Behind the Throne, the Commanding General’s Secret Weapon. Friends and co-workers even joke that she actually runs the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Quiet persuasiveness, charm and nearly half a century of service as secretary to high-ranking officers at El Toro have earned Helen (Bennie) Boillot such accolades and respect from her employers and co-workers. And today, more than 200 current and retired Marine Corps officers will pay tribute to Boillot, who will retire Friday.

“It’s time,” said Boillot, a Santa Ana resident. “I’ll miss the base and the people. I’ve had a great career, and I think it’s good to leave while in great health so I can enjoy a new chapter in my life.”

The old chapter was marked by service as a civilian secretary to 27 El Toro generals, starting just after World War II.

“She’s somebody who is unique,” said retired Gen. William A. Bloomer, Boillot’s former boss. “She has a body of corporate knowledge that no one else did. She knew everyone who was anyone. She was a wonderful person to be around.”

Boillot took her first job at El Toro in 1946 to pay her way through college, expecting to follow a career in public relations or journalism. But fresh daily challenges at the base glued her to the post.

“I enjoyed it so much, it was difficult to pull myself away,” said Boillot. “I found any excuse not to leave. If I had to do it all over again, I would.”

The job eventually became a way of life for the woman who, but for a short maternity leave, spent the next 47 years reporting to work, always before 8 o’clock each morning.

“When I first started, I was in awe of everything, all the high-ranking officers around,” said Boillot, who declined to give her age. “The challenge was just keeping up.”

While generals were promoted or transferred from the base, Boillot stayed and helped guide each new commanding general through a smooth transition. With the arrival of each new general came an adjustment period that made the job interesting, she said.

“She always knew exactly what was going to happen ahead of time,” said W.R. Quinn, a retired general and Mission Viejo resident. “She provided the continuity in the job and kept her fingers on everything so that when the (new) generals came . . . they were brought up very quickly to what had transpired in the past.”

Boillot’s life has been immersed in the activities and people of El Toro, and will continue to be even after her retirement, she said. “I consider the Marine Corps to be my family,” she said.

Through her job, Boillot has met Barry Goldwater, Billy Graham and Joe DiMaggio. Her closest friends include the wives and families of the generals with whom she has worked. Even her husband, Keith, is connected to the base. He worked there as a civilian telephone operator for 32 years before retiring in 1980.

Retirement plans include long road trips with her husband, writing courses and gardening. History of the El Toro base has become a hobby.

One of her first tasks is to sort through the stacks of boxes from her move out of the office, she said. Boillot has given a set of Blue Angel pins to a friend and donated boxes of old letters, books, pamphlets and a collection of photos kept from the 1950s to the El Toro Historical Center and Command Museum.

At home, her walls are crammed with accolades and memorabilia. One plaque given by Bloomer reads: “She has a mind like a computer, a will as strong as an A4 wing and the ability to wind battle-hardened Marines around her finger with a single twist.”