HomeMy WebLinkAboutAlsmeyer, Marie Bennet; Brazos Valley HeroesR
One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest Generation'
By Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
Just looking at Marie Bennett Alsmeyer at five feet tall
and barely 100 pounds, one would not think she is a World
War II veteran. But she is.
The former resident of Bryan and College Station, now
of Kruse Village in Brenham, was one of the first members
of the Navy organization, Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service, or WAVES as they became known.
Her story began on March 30, 1923, in the small South
Texas town of Falfurras. As recalled by Alsmeyer, "I had
graduated from Falfurdas High in 1940 and had enrolled at
Texas A &I, now Texas A &M Kingsville, and was a member of
the band. I remember A &I playing A &M and getting beaten
badly. Butthe one thing I remember the most about my time
at Texas A &I was the announcement on Sunday December 7,
1941, that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. It was a
day that changed all of our lives. All the boys disappeared
from campus almost overnight.
"It affected almost every family, mine included. My
older brother had just graduated from medical school. He
joined immediately and was a medical doctor with the 101st
Airborne and participated in the D -Day invasion and the
war in Europe. I wanted to do my part and had read about
the Navy WAVES, but you had to be 20 to join. I left A &I and
returned home to wait until my 20th birthday.
"I worked at the newly created Brooks County War Price
and Rationing Board, handing out coupons for gasoline and
other items deemed essential to the war effort. My birthday
finally came and so did my orders to report aboard the train
for Houston and on to New York. I had never been on a train
by myself and had never been outside of the State of Texas.
Now I was on my way to New York. I reported to Hunter Clark
College, which was located in the Bronx, for boot camp. I was
joined there by 6,000 other women.
"We had no WAVE officers, only some marine drill
instructors, all of whom were returning veterans from the
war in the Pacific. I do not think they really knew what to
do with us. I think they probably thought this was going to
be easy duty, but teaching 6,000 women to march was not
an easy task. One thing you learned quickly was tall to the
front, short to the back. I never knew where we were going
because I was always at the back of every formation.
"After three weeks of marching I was off by train across
the country to Long Beach, California, for training as a navy
pharmacist's mate or navy corpsman. After three weeks
it was off to Oakland, California, to a newly built hospital
named Oak Knoll Hospital.
"After just six weeks in the navy I was now on a ward,
caring for injured sailors and marines. I arrivedjust in time to
tend to the marines arriving from the bloody battle known as
Guadalcanal. You learned quickly that they were the patients
and we were the corpsmen. We talked about everything,
about girlfriends, back home, and life before the service but
never about what had happened to them. They also learned
that no matter how bad off they were, there was always
someone in the ward in worse shape than them.
"One of the jobs I had while at Oak Knoll was to meet
the ships and bring back the wounded from the wharf in
San Francisco. Early in the war they used every kind of ship
to bring back the wounded, but later in the war it would be
the white - painted hospital ships. Waiting on the dock really
made one aware of the results of war. The first off the ships
would be the wooden boxes with the dead soldiers and
sailors. Then the stretchers and last, the walking wounded.
To see those boys coming off those ships was always a
sobering experience.
"One thing that was special about being at Oak Knoll
were the celebrities that came through the hospital to visit
the wounded. We had Bob Hope, Sammy Kay, Kay Kyser,
Victor Borg and a host of others I can't remember. Those
visits always did a lot for the boys, and I think it also did a
lot for the celebrities.
"Before the war ended, I also was able to tend to the
POWs captured by the Japanese from Fuga Island, which
included my Uncle John, who was a doctor when he was
captured. The Japanese let him tend to the American POWs
and he was in pretty good shape considering everything. We
had dinner together before he headed home. I was also in
the Oak Knoll band, which we used to help entertain our
patients. As a result, I was able to march in the VJ parade
in San Francisco, which was the major celebration in our
country. It was a wonderful experience"
Alsmeyer was discharged in November 1945 and
returned to Fulfurrias. In January 1946, she stood in line with
all the other returning veterans to enroll at the University
of Texas under the GI Bill. It was there she would meet her
husband Harry. Both were journalism majors.
According to Marie, "After we graduated, we had no
kids, no moneyand no commitments. We hopped a freighter
in New Orleans and shipped to France where we bought
bicycles and biked all over France, England, the Netherlands
and back to Paris."
Harry would earn his PHD and would become part of
the faculty at A &M. They have three children who hold five
degrees from A &M. As one of Marie's friends said, "The best
adjective to use for Marie is'Spunky .' No one will disagree.
When asked about her reflections about that time,
Marie's response was, "It was one of the times that was
a very important part of my life. My time in the navy, my
family, and my church has had a great impact in my life."
Marie BennettAlsmeyer's nameis found on the Brazos
Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to have a name
added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information,
to make a contribution, or Jf you know a World War 11
veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM
at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979)
160 -7030.