Local Women Marines Assn. chapter celebrates 50 years
Once a Marine, always a Marine.
That is the philosophy that the members of the Women Marines Assn. chapter in Orange County have held onto for 50 years.
For half a century, members of the nonprofit have raised money for veterans’ organizations and events, such as the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, the Semper Fi Fund, the Veterans Affairs Long Beach hospital and Wreaths Across America, as well as various scholarships, chapter President Carlene Wojciechowski said.
To celebrate the achievement, the local chapter is hosting a luncheon for its roughly 50 members at the Claim Jumper in Fountain Valley this month. However, the festivities are only open to members.
The national nonprofit was founded in 1960 as a way to preserve the history of women serving in the Marine Corps, aid charitable programs and assist other Marines and members of the armed forces, according to the Woman Marines Assn.’s website.
The Orange County chapter was founded on March 13, 1966, by World War I veteran Mildred Mobley Donnelly and 22 other female Marines to carry on the mission of the national chapter.
During the chapter’s heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, members of the chapter would carry out various projects, including creating placemats made of greeting cards for the veterans at the VA hospital in Long Beach, Wojciechowski said.
“We would collect different kinds of greeting cards — birthdays, get wells and different holidays — and laminate them into mats,” she said.
All of the members of the Women Marines Assn. have served as a Marine. According to the U.S. Marine Corps, 167,138 people are currently on active duty. Of those enlisted, 12,791 Marines are women.
Patricia Singer, 85, of Seal Beach is co-chaplain of the local chapter. She did recruitment and classification, identifying which unit the new Marines should belong to, in Los Angeles and San Diego counties during the Korean War.
Wojciechowski, 74, of Fountain Valley, served for three years during the Vietnam War as an air traffic controller at the now-retired Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine.
“I just love aviation, and that’s what I wanted to do and I got it,” she said. “I enjoyed every moment of it. It was a fantastic occupation.”
Membership in the local nonprofit has slowed, in part because of its aging membership base, but the commitment seems just as strong.
Though they know they cannot do as much now, Wojciechowski and Singer said they are still compelled to help their fellow Marines and other service people.
“We’re so honored and privileged that we can do what we’re doing,” Wojciechowski said.
Added Singer: “Every time you see a casket with a flag, a woman or man with a limb missing, go to the VA and see women or male veterans and their children, we want to help. We have an obligation to look out for our own, and it’s never going to stop.”
