WWII Veteran Reflects During Boise Navy Week

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Cheryl Dilgard, Navy Office of Community Outreach Public Affairs

BOISE, Idaho (NNS) -- The special assistant for Integrated Undersea Warfare, Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command visited with residents at Spring Creek Assisted Living Center in Boise, Idaho as part of Boise Navy Week Aug. 21.

The residents hosted a luncheon for Rear Adm. Douglas Asbjornsen and other area Sailors visiting the center. Asbjornsen spoke directly to the veterans in the crowd and asked them to share their experiences.

"It is important for them to share their stories, and it is important for us to hear them," Asbjornsen said.

"I was a major in the Army, and did recruiting for Army nurses out of Georgia," said Marjorie Parks, an 89-year-old veteran. "I also worked at a small fort hospital [in Georgia] that isn't there anymore. When the soldiers would get injured overseas they would send them there, and I would contact their families. I did mostly hospital administration in those days."

Parks enlisted in the Army Sept. 8, 1939, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland. She served through the entire war and was released from service with an honorable discharge Aug. 31, 1946. She said her enlistment was spent stateside. Her last assignment was at a post in Tampa, Fla.

"I met my husband in Tampa, but in those days you couldn't be a woman in the Army and be married," said Parks. "We had to wait until I got out."

During the visit, Parks shared photographs of her in uniform and her original separation papers she had framed.

"I don't have many opportunities to talk about my days in the Army," said Parks. "That was really a good time in my life."