GyBill
01-19-2008, 11:19 AM
A Woman Marine in WWII
Shore woman recalls WWII volunteer service
By Brice Stump
Staff Writer
STOCKTON -- In 1942, two sisters, Pansy and Dorothy Hancock, strolled along George Island Landing Road beside Chincoteague Bay here -- not looking for crabs or oysters, but for German aircraft.
As volunteers for the Civil Air Patrol, the two were doing their civic duty during World War II along with others from the village working in round-the-clock shifts.
They were "spotters," but without benefit of a lookout tower or even binoculars.
Now 95-year-old Pansy Vaccaro laughs about the low-budget outfitting and lack of training.
"We wouldn't even know an enemy plane if we saw one," she said. "We didn't know one plane from another."
"We went on duty or tour for two hours at a time, in the afternoon," Vaccaro said.
And in the year or so the sisters watched the skies, she thinks they only saw one plane. As soon as they saw it heading north, the two ran into the oyster house along the side of the road and used the phone there to call a "special number" to alert Army personnel that an aircraft had been spotted.
"They wanted to know what it looked like and what direction it was going," she said.
All along the East Coast, spotters watched for both aircraft and submarines.
It was often boring work, standing around waiting for something to appear. Those slow hours were often not so bad, she said.
"We weren't there by ourselves; soldiers were there too, all the time with their guns, and they changed shifts. They patrolled all along the coast," she said.
The young soldiers patrolled more than the beach.
"We flirted, cut up with them all the time," she said with a giggle. "I have a picture of my sister wearing one of their helmets, and I put on one soldier's gas mask. He wasn't supposed to, but he let me shoot his gun."
Every so often an Army Jeep, probably from nearby Wallops Island, pulled up to the oyster house with fresh faces as the soldiers switched shifts. The girls were dressed in their smartest clothes.
The sisters lived on a little farm in Portersville, now a forgotten village about halfway between Stockton and George's Island Landing. They used their father's car to go to and from their spotting tours.
"I was born and raised in Portersville," she said, and grew up working in the fields, sometimes scratching potatoes.
With experience driving a truck for her father's oyster and farm business, Vaccaro knew the Marines could use her services during the war. Knowing her father, David, wouldn't approve, she told him after she enlisted.
"At first I wanted to be a nurse, and he didn't want that, so I knew he didn't want me to be a Marine," she said. "I wanted a change. I was working in a beauty shop in Pocomoke."
In 1944 she left to join the Marine Corps, perhaps making her the village's first female Marine.
Problem was, when she tried to get a driver's position, she was rejected.
"I failed because I couldn't tell them all the parts of the engine," she said.
She became a corporal in the "WR" -- the Women's Reserve -- while at Cherry Point, N.C. She was suppose to be a sergeant, but when she went from aviation duty to line duty, they wouldn't give her the stripe she wanted.
When she got word that twins were born to the family back in Stockon, she hitchhiked home in uniform. She made it fine from Cherry Point to Norfolk, until the military police told her at the ferry terminal there that she couldn't go farther north. Out of their sight, she managed get aboard the ferry and hitched a ride on a tractor-trailer truck loaded with cabbage from Cape Charles to meet her father in Pocomoke City.
Two years and two months later, she returned home and went to Washington and married in 1947. She came back home in 1973 and stayed.
She still has her uniform and the photographs of herself serving as a spotter at George's Island Landing. Now she thinks she may be the last of those from the area who volunteered to watch the skies so many years ago.
"It seems so long ago," she said, but has photographic proof that it all happened.
http://www.dailytimesonline.com/app...0119/LIFESTYLE/
Shore woman recalls WWII volunteer service
By Brice Stump
Staff Writer
STOCKTON -- In 1942, two sisters, Pansy and Dorothy Hancock, strolled along George Island Landing Road beside Chincoteague Bay here -- not looking for crabs or oysters, but for German aircraft.
As volunteers for the Civil Air Patrol, the two were doing their civic duty during World War II along with others from the village working in round-the-clock shifts.
They were "spotters," but without benefit of a lookout tower or even binoculars.
Now 95-year-old Pansy Vaccaro laughs about the low-budget outfitting and lack of training.
"We wouldn't even know an enemy plane if we saw one," she said. "We didn't know one plane from another."
"We went on duty or tour for two hours at a time, in the afternoon," Vaccaro said.
And in the year or so the sisters watched the skies, she thinks they only saw one plane. As soon as they saw it heading north, the two ran into the oyster house along the side of the road and used the phone there to call a "special number" to alert Army personnel that an aircraft had been spotted.
"They wanted to know what it looked like and what direction it was going," she said.
All along the East Coast, spotters watched for both aircraft and submarines.
It was often boring work, standing around waiting for something to appear. Those slow hours were often not so bad, she said.
"We weren't there by ourselves; soldiers were there too, all the time with their guns, and they changed shifts. They patrolled all along the coast," she said.
The young soldiers patrolled more than the beach.
"We flirted, cut up with them all the time," she said with a giggle. "I have a picture of my sister wearing one of their helmets, and I put on one soldier's gas mask. He wasn't supposed to, but he let me shoot his gun."
Every so often an Army Jeep, probably from nearby Wallops Island, pulled up to the oyster house with fresh faces as the soldiers switched shifts. The girls were dressed in their smartest clothes.
The sisters lived on a little farm in Portersville, now a forgotten village about halfway between Stockton and George's Island Landing. They used their father's car to go to and from their spotting tours.
"I was born and raised in Portersville," she said, and grew up working in the fields, sometimes scratching potatoes.
With experience driving a truck for her father's oyster and farm business, Vaccaro knew the Marines could use her services during the war. Knowing her father, David, wouldn't approve, she told him after she enlisted.
"At first I wanted to be a nurse, and he didn't want that, so I knew he didn't want me to be a Marine," she said. "I wanted a change. I was working in a beauty shop in Pocomoke."
In 1944 she left to join the Marine Corps, perhaps making her the village's first female Marine.
Problem was, when she tried to get a driver's position, she was rejected.
"I failed because I couldn't tell them all the parts of the engine," she said.
She became a corporal in the "WR" -- the Women's Reserve -- while at Cherry Point, N.C. She was suppose to be a sergeant, but when she went from aviation duty to line duty, they wouldn't give her the stripe she wanted.
When she got word that twins were born to the family back in Stockon, she hitchhiked home in uniform. She made it fine from Cherry Point to Norfolk, until the military police told her at the ferry terminal there that she couldn't go farther north. Out of their sight, she managed get aboard the ferry and hitched a ride on a tractor-trailer truck loaded with cabbage from Cape Charles to meet her father in Pocomoke City.
Two years and two months later, she returned home and went to Washington and married in 1947. She came back home in 1973 and stayed.
She still has her uniform and the photographs of herself serving as a spotter at George's Island Landing. Now she thinks she may be the last of those from the area who volunteered to watch the skies so many years ago.
"It seems so long ago," she said, but has photographic proof that it all happened.
http://www.dailytimesonline.com/app...0119/LIFESTYLE/