Women Vets Honored for Their Service

Norma Ryals spent two years during World War II in a San Diego naval base office that had high chain-link walls. In “the cage,” as she calls it, she checked everything from postage stamps to sewer pipes in her job of storekeeper.

The insults shouted at her from her male colleagues varied just about as widely.

“Boy, the things they threw at you were pretty wild. . . . We (women) were sending men off to get killed was the way they saw it,” said the WAVES veteran. The women, on the other hand, regarded themselves as filling a patriotic need, she said, freeing men to fight because “we couldn’t go.”

But half a century later, Ryals was on the receiving end of thanks, not insults, as one of about 100 female veterans honored Tuesday at Women Veterans Recognition Day, put on by the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda.

The women had been WAVES, WAACs, WACs, WASPs, Navy, Marine, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, but they all seemed to have one thing in common: They were glad to be treated like veterans.

“It’s 50 years too late, but it’s about time so we won’t argue with that,” said Ryals, 72, of Sylmar.

In the once traditionally male world of the military, women are starting to get the recognition they deserve, the veterans said.

“It’s about time,” said Polly Gillespie and Gloria Magliocco, both former Navy WAVES.

The recognition day was organized to thank the women for their service as well as to let them know what is available to them at the veterans hospital.

“Women have not really been recognized as veterans through the years for some strange reason,” said hospital spokesman Ron Vincent. “We’re trying to encourage more and more of our women veterans to get the help they need and they earned just like the men.”

In 1992, the hospital opened a clinic for women veterans and this year received a $350,000 annual addition to its budget for a joint women’s program with the Veteran’s Administration hospital in West Los Angeles.

“It has taken many years for the VA to treat and do for the women veterans what needs to be done,” said Dollie Whitehead, the hospital’s new associate director.

Tuesday, the veterans heard lectures on osteoporosis and stress and had blood sugar and pressure tests taken.

Most seemed to be there primarily to be among fellow women vets.

In line at the cookie and sandwich table, Ann Gadowski talked of her nursing experiences in France, Belgium and Germany during World War II. In front of her stood a 26-year-old Acton resident who returned from Germany last year after spending 5 1/2 years working on Air Force munitions bases. As Gadowski spoke, Elizabeth Grenier turned around, curious to hear how Germany and military operations differed half a century ago.

“Did you have chemical gear at that time?”