Spitz: Natick honors the women 'next door'

Few people used to ask about Marcia Zwecher's past.

"For so many years, nobody ever asked any questions," said the Natick senior citizen.

But in recent years, what Zwecher did in Florida more than 60 years ago has been brought to light.

So has Augie Chase's past in Memphis.

Letting the public know about these women, and all those like them, "is long overdue," said Natick Veterans Agent Paul Carew.

Even at the time, "people didn't know" much about women's military service, said Zwecher, who was in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. "People thought we were camp followers."

"Women have volunteered to serve our country before, and since, the U.S. government began officially accepting them into the military," said Marie Nardi, a Morse Institute Library staff member, "and they were doing it before they had the right to vote."

Chase, who served in the Navy as an aviation machinist's mate stationed at a Memphis naval air station during World War II, is proud to claim one such woman in her family tree. Laodicea "Dicey" Langston was 15 when "she carried messages to the troops during the Revolutionary War," said Chase. The legacy of the woman who went on to have 22 children was the inspiration for the novel, "The Patriot Wore Petticoats."

"Some of the women veterans have said, 'No one has ever said thank you to me or acknowledged my service,' " said Nardi.

On Saturday, May 15, Armed Forces Day, the achievements of "Women in Uniform" will be celebrated at the Morse Institute Library in downtown Natick.

"It will be a ceremony to honor women in the area who served or are still serving," said Nardi. "Also, anyone who would like to say thank you" is welcome to come.

While the library staff has invited Chase and other local residents, "we would like to spread the word to other women in the area who served, and invite them to attend," said Nardi. "It's our small way of saying thank you for the sacrifice and courage shown by female veterans, many of whom might be living right next door."

"They made it a lot easier for me," former Natick resident Danielle Golden, a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard, said of past generations' service.

"I was the only woman in the company, teaching men," Pamela Lathwood recalled of her stint as a drill sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

"I always wanted to be in the Army, I think," said Lathwood, who spent most of her years of service, from the late 1970s to 1990, as a mapmaker. As a child, "I read books on Lawrence of Arabia and (Gen. George) Patton."

There were challenges, she said.

"I was horrible at throwing hand grenades. But I thought, if these women could do it, I could, too," she said of those who came before.

Not that Zwecher was a grenade-thrower. As a WAC, she worked "mostly in radar," but "I did a short stint in the military police. In the beginning, they just moved us around from base to base to base. They didn't know what to do with us," she said.

"It was really a great experience. We made really good friends. It was an education. There were people from every state in the barracks with us."

But for those serving today, "I really feel for the women who go overseas and fight these days."

Chase, too, is "glad for the experience" of serving during World War II.

"I worked in the hangar," repairing planes, but "on windy days, you'd go outside and hold down the plane" so it wouldn't flip over. "These were World War I planes, two-seaters, open cockpits," made out of "wood, covered in linen and seven layers of paint," she recalled.

After the war, "I just wanted to get back to my life," and, like so many of her generation, she put her focus on her family and her home.

But some things stick with you, even after all these years.

She doesn't anticipate any problem getting to the 4 p.m. ceremony on May 15, when Lt. Col. Kari Otto, garrison commander of the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, will be the keynote speaker.

"In the service, I had to march 5 miles. This should be a cinch," Chase said.

(Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@cnc.com. Check metrowestdailynews.com or milforddailynews.com for the Spitz Bits blog.)