...And some gave all

Helen Schroder sits on the sun porch of the PEO Home in Beatrice, her thoughts drifting back in time.

The memories flow as the silver-haired mother and grandmother, who turns 84 the day after Christmas, talks about her days as a Navy WAVE and the heroism of a son who went to war and never came home.

An only child, son Jack was born in 1947. He died in 1967 while serving with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, but his legacy lives on in the words he penned.

“He had written a diary of every day over there and on the ship,” his mother said.

Some of those words, and the thoughts of many others, have been preserved in the David Maraniss book, “They Marched into Sunlight - War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967.”

Schroder's own enlistment was in 1943 when she was snubbed by a former employer, which sent her packing - right into the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for volunteer Emergency Services).

“I tried to join the WAVES. I had gone through the physical and (my employer), North American Aviation, would not give me a release from work,” Schroder said.

“So I quit and came home, and I went to Omaha and re-enlisted,” Schroder said.

“She is a part of the Navy and helps in many capacities,” said Schroder in explaining the women in the organization. “We marched, We had regimental reviews - same as the men.”

This time she was successful. Her basics were at the former Hunter College in New York. From there, the recruits took a train to San Diego, Calif., an unforgettable experience, she said.

“We had air-conditioning on the train, but it went bad. We had to be in uniform when we arrived in San Diego - in our ‘blues' instead of our seersucker (jacket, dress and tie),” she said, adding with chuckle - “we had to stand duty for several hours on the train so no men would walk through, except officers).”

Once at the base in San Diego, transportation for the women recruits to and from their housing was an adventure in itself. With housing not provided for military women, ”we would take a boat every morning and every night across the water from Coronado,” she said.

After her discharge from the service in 1947, she stayed in California for a time, eventually moving back to Nebraska with her son Jack to the place she called “home” in Clay Center.

With a failed marriage behind her, she gratefully accepted the help of her parents, S.W. and Florence Moger.

“My mother helped take care of my son while I helped my dad (in a clerical capacity) when he was a county attorney,” she said.

Schroder speaks proudly of the self-made man she called “dad,” who served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and as clerk of the District Court and later as county attorney in Clay County, Nebraska.

The former WAVE eventually moved to the Beatrice PEO Home, which offers retirement living to members of PEO, a philanthropic, educational association of women.

Now almost four decades later, Schroder takes comfort in the close relationship she has maintained with her daughter-in-law, and with her four grandchildren, including Larry Schroder, the child her son Jack never got to know.

“Larry has four children - four boys - 7, 5, 2 and a 10 1/2-month-old baby,” Helen said, beaming.

“Helen and her family were really dedicated to the service,” said her daughter-in-law, Ellie (Schroder) Clark.

The Army man and the love of his life met while Ellie was in nursing school in Milwaukee, Wis., and Jack was going to dental technology school there. After he enlisted in the service in January 1967, the couple lived in Fort Lewis, Wash., where he received his training before being deployed to Vietnam.

She said goodbye to him at Fort Lewis, which was the last time she ever saw him.

After his death, his widow moved to Clay Center to be near her late husband's family. She now works as a home health licensed practical nurse for the Clay County Health Department.

“I was so young (when Jack died), and it was difficult, but I had my son - my baby to take care of, and I had the Lord. You just accept it and go forward. You have no choice, but,” she said, “it impacts the rest of your life.”

Memories are relived for these families, even now as the stories from Iraq emerge.

“The casualty in Beatrice was (injured) Oct. 17 - that's (the date) Jack died,” says Clark of a recent news report she read of the death of Beatrice native Darren D. Howe, who died Nov. 3.

“You will remember it. You will remember because it's so intensified.”