The Texas Standard collected the memories of veterans across the state for Memorial Day 2015.
Anna Gatti, 93, served in the female counterpart to the Navy called the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
“My father didn’t have a son, so I felt somebody had to do something, carry on for the family,” she says.
Gatti, who had just graduated from college, decided to enlist with some friends. She hated science “with a passion” but was sent to meteorology school and stationed at an airbase in California.
“The hardest part was getting the Navy people to accept us,” she says. “They didn’t want women … the admiral called Washington and said, ‘I do not want women on my base!’ But of course, they sent us anyway.”
Send us your Memorial Day memories or stories about serving on Twitter (@texasstandard) or via email (texasstandard@kut.org).
