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Las Veteranas
By REBECCA PLEVIN / Vida En El Valle
(Published Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 09:10AM)
FRESNO -- It was considered scandalous when Sarah Navarro Pulido joined the Army in 1950, just months after graduating from Edison High School and celebrating her 18th birthday.
"This of joining the service was kind of breaking from tradition, I think, of what a young señorita does," Navarro, 77, said.
But Navarro admits she never really fit into the mold for a traditional Latina.
"I was real outgoing, a tomboy," she said. "I would bully people if they let me."
Navarro served in the Army for three years, at a time when few women, and especially Latina women, were in the armed services, said Helen Galván, the chairmwoman of American GI Forum Women of California.
In the 1950s, Galván said, women were still perceived as homemakers, and Army service was viewed as a man's job.
"For any woman to go into the service was unusual, and probably even more so for Latinas, because they have more of a traditional upbringing and background," Galván said.
Navarro, who grew up in Fresno as one of nine children, was in 10th grade when she became interested in joining the Army. Navarro met a female recruiter at Edison High School and was impressed by the way in which the woman carried herself and spoke.
"That's for me," Navarro remembered thinking.
Navarro enlisted as soon as she could. She attended basic training in Fort Lee, Virginia, and then enrolled in a three-month typist course at Fort Ord, located on Monterey Bay.
She was later assigned to work at Fifth Army headquarters in Chicago, and was also stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
In the Army, she finally met other young women who were as strong and outspoken as she was. More than 50 years later, Navarro still recalls the names of the women she served with, and tells fond stories about them.
"We were all the same," Navarro said. "I think you have to be that type to join the service."
She also recalls tales of the time she and other Women's Army Corps (WAC) members proudly stood guard along Chicago's Michigan Avenue and saluted General Douglas MacArthur, and about her experiences playing catcher for the WAC baseball team in Kansas.
When she tells an especially raw story, she stomps her foot on the ground and lets out a hearty laugh.
Though she enjoyed her Army service, Navarro said she did not re-enlist after three years, mostly because she was homesick. She said she missed her mother, and longed for the enchiladas, tamales, nopales, and chile verde that she ate at home, but were not available in the Army.
Navarro's three years of service still impact her today. She still wears two pins on the collar of her blouse -- one represents the Women's Army Corps and the other is an Army button -- and she still becomes emotional when she hears patriotic songs.
"I see the flag and I hear the music," she said. "I'm a cry baby."
Navarro has maintained her connection to the armed services through her support of veterans causes.
She served as a nursing assistant at the VA Central California Health Care System for three years, formed a local female veterans club that is no longer in existence, and participated in the city's annual Veteran's Day parade.
She also raised her son, José Díaz, 52, and has two granddaughters.
Navarro said osteoporosis and spinal stenosis now prevent her from participating in the Veterans Day parade, which was scheduled for Wed. But she said she would watch the event on television this year and, "see who I know."
And there is no doubt that if she hears 'The Star Spangled Banner' or 'My Country 'Tis of Thee,' Navarro will be filled with pride and dignity, and then begin to cry.
"If I was young, I would do it again," she said of her Army experience.
