Corporal Rusty Marlen

The Mid-America Veterans Museum is a nonprofit that relies on community donations to preserve veterans' stories. The Operation Insight podcast educates on sensitive topics and doesn't endorse views expressed by guests. Host Jason Galvin and co-host Sergeant Ethan Gross interview Dorothy "Rusty" Murrell, a former Women's Army Corps member, discussing her experiences joining the military and meeting her husband Eddie. Rusty shares her journey from recruitment to training and meeting Eddie while serving. The Mid-America Veterans Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit business. The museum would not exist without the donations of our generous community. Your donations ensure the museum continues to share and preserve the stories of our veterans. To donate, visit mavm.org and click on Donate. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only. The primary purpose of the Operation Insight podcast is to educate. The views, information, or opinions expressed on the Operation Insight podcast are solely the views of the individuals or guests involved and by no means represent absolute facts. Operation Insight does not accept responsibility for their views or comments. The Operation Insight podcast may at times cover sensitive topics, including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illness, sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the Operation Insight podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics. Either the company, host, director, or the guest shall at any time be liable for the content covered causing offense, distress, or any other reaction. [♪ music playing ♪ Welcome to the Operation Insight podcast from the MidAmerica Veterans Museum with your host, Jason Galvin, and co-host, Sergeant Ethan Gross. [♪ phone ringing ♪ Hello? Hi, Rusty. It's Ethan. Hi. How are you doing? Are you doing the calls now? Well, yeah. We're going to start. It's your time to shine. Oh. Okay. Wake up time. Okay. Well, hey, Rusty, a few things I wanted to do before we get into your life and your service. I wanted to give our audience an education in terms of what was formerly known as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. That was founded in 1942, May of 1942, by Chief of Staff General George Marshall. But then it was changed to the Women's Army Corps in July of 43, so in the dead heat of World War II. I know. But do you know that they had all those women pilots that never got any credit for doing anything during the procedures? But they would deliver those big airplanes, bombers and everything, overseas to Britain for our troops to use, you know. Oh, wow. Or wherever they were needed. Yeah. That's a story I haven't heard before. Wow. Yeah, I didn't hear that either. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Well, that's the truth. I knew one of the gals. Yeah. We were in a club of flying people, you know. And Uncle Eddie was nutty about airplanes. I was going to say that came from Eddie probably. He loved piloting. Yeah. But the women pilots, they really did an exemplary job. And they finally got recognized, but it was much after the war was over. Well, I was going to – You want me to continue on here? You want me to shut up? I definitely don't want you to shut up, Rusty. I don't want that. But I was going to say, and honestly, I educated myself in terms of what it meant to be in the WAC. You know, I've forgotten some of it myself. Well, hopefully we'll be able to get some of those memories back today. Yeah. But before they went to just Women Army Corps in 43, and you're going to know this better than me, Rusty, that as an auxiliary corps, they didn't have any of the same types of rights that active duty service members had. Oh, my gosh. The differential between what I went in and what they have now, it's incredible. They have the ability to fire machine guns, you know. Sure, combat arms roles, yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know whether I would really have liked that or not. I don't know. But it was a shock to see. I get a magazine from one of the organizations that has formed in Washington, D.C., and I've yet to join them. But they send pictures of the girls and what they did in the service, and it was nothing like what we had really. That was amazing. So I'll shut up now, and you can go forward. No. I was going to say, Rusty, take me back to November 1950. You go in as an E1, a private. Take me back to when, and I've got to be honest with you, Rusty, I didn't know your name was Dorothy Mae Jackson. Yes, exactly. Dorothy Mae Jackson Murrell. I don't know who I am, but nobody in this town knows me as Dorothy or Mae. They all call me Rusty. It's always been Rusty. Yeah, I got that name when I was in high school because I had red hair. My sister did too. Yeah, she's got a beautiful shot of red hair. Okay, so, Rusty, take me back to November 1950. You enter as a private into the Women Army Corps. I had joined the service at the time mostly because they had posters all over the stores and things for Uncle Sam Needs You and I Love My Country. Are You a Girl with a Star-Stangled Heart. Do you remember that one? That sounds beautiful. I didn't know that one. But, anyway, that was something I really wanted to do. And so another girl joined with me. I don't think she did well. I never saw her after we got there. Never even heard from her. So you were born in Salida, Colorado, but you grew up in Pueblo, is that right? Pueblo. Okay, just south of Fort Carson, Colorado Springs. Yeah, right. Did that have an influence on you, being near a military base? Just the fact that they were pleading, actually, for the young women to join so that they could relieve the men who were doing death's work. And that was what our thing was going to be. However, none of that, I don't believe, actually happened to me. I joined the Army. I went from Fort Pueblo on the train to Virginia. Fort Lee? Fort Lee, Virginia. Was that your first time out of Colorado when you did that? Oh, no, honey. I lived in California during the war in Hollywood. Did you do basic training at Fort Lee? Is that where that took place? Yes, that was our basic training. I do not know where they do it now. I haven't kept up with it all. So which branch of the Army did you go to? Which field were you in? I signed up. I signed up to get into the medical field. Gotcha. And I never saw anybody, maybe a doctor now and then. But I went to basic training, and then I went to school. Did you go to Fort Sam Houston? The school? Yes. Okay. And then I went down there, and then I was sent up to Chicago. I can't remember the name of the place in Chicago, but it was in front of a training center. And then they sent me to – I wonder if you're thinking of Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. Does that ring a bell? That's the next place I got to was Camp McCoy after the Chicago thing. Fort Sheridan is where I was in Chicago. Oh, okay, Fort Sheridan, yeah. I don't even know that it exists anymore. Well, they were moving you all over creation, weren't they? And they sent me to Wisconsin, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. And then I ran into one of my basic training lieutenants, and she said, what are you doing here? And I said, I really am not sure. They told me to go to that lie. I didn't know. You know, we'd get up in the morning and go to the office, and just kind of nothing was going on the way that I had assumed that it would. So subsequently they said, well, I'm going to get you out of here. And so she got me into – and that was my second year in. And then she got me into – You just mentioned that that's not the way you expected to go. I thought I was going to go to medical training. I wanted to be an x-ray technician. He promised me that I was going to get that, and it didn't happen. Uncle Sam lied. No. Yeah. But what did I know at that particular time? I have to check. We first went to Fort Lee, Virginia. We were all dressed up, and then we had to crawl into the back of a truck. And, you know, we were handled not really very nicely, but we expected – we didn't know what to expect. And so we had high heels and suits and everything dressed up to get in there, and everybody else was in their fatigues. You know, the girls that were picking us up. So you were in your civilian clothes upon arrival. I just want to make sure I understand, right? Oh, yes. That's what we did. Sure. So they were kind of dressy. Well, yeah, a very different time back then. And they were not meant, those clothes, for the back end of a truck. No, no. You know, nowadays when the kids go to basic training, they're in sweatpants, T-shirts. But in the 50s, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Rusty, but, heck, going on a flight, you dressed up for that occasion. It's just a lot more formal wear in those days. Oh, yeah. The way they dress now in their pajamas, for goodness sake. The world has changed considerably. So tell me how Eddie plays into all this. When did you and Eddie get married? We got married. Oh, about three or four weeks after we met. And was that when? It wasn't a very long time at all. Did you guys meet before you became a WAC or was that after? Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I had a recruit. I had one recruit, and I had taken her out to dinner because she's the only recruit I had the entire time I was there. Nobody could pass the test. So, subsequently, I was out with her and then walked Eddie, and he had a box of donuts in a bar. Come on. Because that was unheard of. I'd never seen that before. But, anyway, and he sat down at our table, and she and I, he drove out to the name of the Air Force Base. What is it there? Scott Air Force Base? In the Dupont area. It was a big training base there. It was an Air Force training base. Are you thinking of Scott Air Force Base, Rusty? That's it. Okay. Scott Air Force Base. Yep. Yeah. Was he a contractor there? Was he working as a contractor? No, he wasn't at that time. He was working for McDonnell Aircraft, I believe, at the time. But he came over and sat down, and he kept trying to tell her not to go, because he wasn't for women in the service. There you go. So, I was about ready to clobber him on the top of the head. He was my one and only. But, anyway, he drove her to the Air Force Base there so that she could get a fly-in to San Antonio. Oh, so he helped you out with that recruit? Yes, he did. How about that? I think we went together for about three weeks or four weeks at the max and got married, and he had the two sons. Yep, Jim and Roger. Uh-huh. So, Eddie, he also served. He served August 1944. He was in the Navy in 1942, or 44. Yep, 44 or 46. Yeah. I don't know much about what he was doing. I know he was very interested in flying, and then he got Scarlet fever or something, and that affected his eyesight, so he was quite disappointed, I think. Yeah, I bet. Maybe that's why I didn't hear about it so much. But he was in Pensacola, Florida. And Jacksonville, right? Jacksonville, Pensacola. Both of them. I haven't been to either one of them. Well, I have to give credit where credit is due, Rusty. So your daughter, Cindy Gasper, she helped me a lot with understanding your service, and she sent me your DD-214. Oh, she did? She did, yeah. She was very kind of her. And also Ryan, Eddie's grandson. Yeah, okay. So he sent me. They have a lot more information. Well, no, you have a wealth of information as well. It's your experience, so you have the information. I wanted to give my relatives a shout-out for helping me prepare for the interview, Rusty. I mean, nothing can really prepare me for a Rusty encounter, but I'm doing the best I can. I knew the world wasn't ready for Rusty, but I made it, and I'm very proud that I did. The leadership school that I went to, I thought maybe I was going to be cadre. Well, I was cadre there for about a year. I had a platoon. At first, I was an assistant, and then I got my own platoon, and I had that for about six months, I guess it was. And then they shipped me off to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for some reason or other. My records got lost. They had a big fire, apparently, down in St. Louis, and all my records were lost. Oh, boy. I remember hearing about that. Yeah, we knew that at the time. Right. So remind me, Rusty, how was it that you ended up being stationed in East St. Louis? How did that come about? Well, I'm probably going to confuse you, but when I was in Wisconsin, I ran into my basic training officer, and she said to me, What are you doing here? And I really don't know. I was going to have some type of medical training, I assumed, and nobody said anything about anything like that. So the next thing I know, she said, I'm going to get you out of here, and she got me into a recruiting duty. I see. Oh, okay. I went to recruiting school in Indianapolis, never dreaming at that time that I would be living in Indianapolis for 60 years. That's how that happened. And my duty with my recruiting was right in East St. Louis, down on the main street. I can't even remember the name of the street. Probably Main Street. I don't know. It was up above a bar. So had it not been for that lieutenant from your basic training seeing you and suggesting you go somewhere else. God knows where I would have ended up. But I kept waiting to go to that school to become an x-ray technician, and that never happened. But anyway, they dropped me. I beg your pardon? What I want to hear about is I want to hear about the sense that you had. Was it a sense of pride? Was it a sense of duty? Was it a sense of obligation? A sense of duty, pride. I am truly a very strong-willed woman, and my parents did not object to me going in. My dad was glad because he wanted a boy probably at some point in time. Didn't get the boy, so there I was. So he didn't object to it. My mother was terrified that I was going in. But everything worked out fine. Did you have a history of military in your family? I beg your pardon? Did you have a military family history? No. Well, I did in a way. My father's brothers were all in World War I. They had just moved to America, and they were in the Illinois Brigade or whatever it was. They served overseas. You said they immigrated? They were from Scotland. Scotland, okay. That's where my father was from, and he was only 15 when he came across the ocean with all the properties of his mother and his father, and he had younger brothers and sisters that he took care of. But he had seven brothers. And so did your father immigrate? His brother was in World War II, his one brother was. Okay. And he was in the fire department because he was the chief of the fire department when he got out of the service. Yeah. I know he was in Pueblo, Colorado. Yeah. It was a large city. It had steel mills, sort of like Granite City. Sure. Yeah. Well, tell us about that. I didn't actually know that, Rusty. That's complete news to me that you were a recruiter. So tell us about that experience of being a recruiter in the St. Louis metro area. When I got on recruiting duty, it was my job to kind of usher people around that came to visit us, like I had General MacArthur's doctor. Are you still there? Oh, yeah, we're still here. We're fully engaged. Somebody's been trying to call me, but they're still beeping. I don't know what in the world that is. Never mind about that. But, yeah. But, anyway, it was MacArthur's doctor, and he was a very lovely person. And he was all for the women, you know, having a better situation than we had at that time. And, obviously, they went wherever they took their basic after that. I heard of a couple places down in the south. Fort Lee, Virginia, was where I was most of the time. I could be wrong, but I think now Fort Lee is the quartermaster's school is located at Fort Lee. Is it called a fort anymore? I bet it must be something else. No, there's still Fort Lee. It's there, same place in Virginia. Uh-huh. Well, it's right in Petersburg, and that's where they had the big war and the Civil War. Sure, yeah. It was one of the big fights that they had at that time. Yeah. But that's my first trip to Virginia, and I was very impressed with it. Fort Lee was where you did your leadership course, which I think is what they must have called it. Right, uh-huh. I was out on, we'd go out and bedrock, and we learned how to hold the gun and shoot the gun, you know. Were you pretty proficient with a rifle, Rusty? Not necessarily. I guess I did fine. Uh-huh. But one of the girls that was there with us, she went up to the captain and she had the guns right on the captain, you know, facing the captain. And, oh, my God, I thought they were going to fall apart because he would have thought she was going to try to kill the captain. Yeah, oh, my gosh. That was alarming. But basic training, you know, they didn't teach us much of anything about goings on of a war, should I say. Well, they did put, I got the duty of, this is just one thing that I did. I was out there on bedrock at night in the dark with no lights, the only thing guarding a bridge. And the men we didn't know at the time were on bedrock, and they did not know that we were on bedrock at the time. So I'm walking across this bridge back and forth and back and forth. Didn't have a gun, didn't have anything at all, except I kept my eyes open to see. I didn't have any idea what was under the bridge because, you know, everything was in the dark. And anyway, all of a sudden, it was so dark and kind of spooky. And all of a sudden, you know, the lights went off from the tanks that came along, and they were shooting across the bridge. And there was no place for me to go. And they did not know that I was on the bridge, and everybody else had a place to hide but me. Wow, you were completely exposed. Yeah, that was kind of scary. I must admit to you. I would think so. Grenades were going over my head, and, you know, I could recognize those things. And I really got a taste of what it would be like to be in battle. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And it was scared the heck out of me. Got a taste of what friendly fire feels like. Well, they hadn't given us any training for any of that. What time of year was that? But it had happened. What time of the year was that? That was in Fort Lee. It was in Virginia. What season was that? What season was it? I think it was in the fall. In the fall? It's a good time to be in Virginia. Yeah, it's a good time to be in Virginia. That's what I was wondering because in the summertime, it's hotter than heck in Virginia. It wasn't. What do you remember? We lived in tents and things like that, and our tent caught on fire one time. And that was at the same time that I had that shock from being up there all by myself. And as I understand it, the captain was in her office under her desk. I didn't have anything to hide under. I didn't know what was under the bridge, and I wasn't about to go down there by myself. Sounds legit. The captain was hiding. But anyway, they finally got that shut off. But it went on for at least an hour before they got it shut off. But I didn't know what the tank sounded like, know what the grenade sounded like, and the machine guns. And holy cow, I was really pretty frightened about it at the time. And the sound was quite hard on my ears, I must say. But I made it through it. But I got the real feeling of being in action, you know? Yeah. Rusty, what do you remember about your drill instructors? Oh, I enjoyed that. But I taught the women basic training like the marking, and I loved to do all that to the music. When they would have it every Saturday, we'd have to get up and march around. But I enjoyed doing that. You had male drill sergeants, is that right? No, I was it. Well, no, for your drill sergeants, I'm guessing they were male, or were they female drill sergeants? They were all female. You mean when I was in basic? When you were in basic. Then I ended up being one, a drill sergeant. Okay. Now that's a story I think I have heard before. Tell us about that experience, Rusty. Well, I went to leadership school, and I did that for a couple of months. And then I graduated from there. And I was kind of hopeful maybe I'd get some, you know, kind of a fine little job of some kind. But that didn't happen. And then after I left there, that's when I went to Fort Sheridan. And then I went to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. And then that's when I ran into my basic training officer, and she got me into the recruiting duty. And nobody ever mentioned that to me before. But that was okay too. I was only in two years, but I was in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. What? I said you did a lot in two years. Well, I traveled a lot. Yeah, you did. I got to see places I had never been before, like that Wisconsin. And I was there. There were 25,000 men and 25 WACs, I think it was. We had guards over us all the time when we were there. That leads to my next question, Rusty. So you came in, I think, at a really interesting time. 1950, less than a decade is how long the Women's Army Corps had even been in existence. So did you get a sense that some of the pieces were still being worked out, some of the pieces were still being put together? Oh, my, yes. How did that play out? Was it confusing at times? They kept saying we're going to do this and we're going to do that, you know, and all the promises that they tried to make come true. Did you feel like you were treated fairly? Oh, yeah. Well, good. Okay. None of it was magnificent, but I felt I was treated fair. I was always the first one to volunteer to get something done that nobody else wanted to do. I would do it. Well, you know, I'm not surprised by that, that you were so gung-ho. But also I think evidence of your constant volunteering and you wanting to be there on the front line, evidence of that is the fact that you entered as an E1 private and you entered as a corporal in two years. That's a pretty quick progression for that time. Very quick. I was actually always titled serge because they gave me a temporary assignment, being a sergeant and all that and basic training. But I really enjoyed training the women. I had to do the exercises in the morning and getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning and getting dressed and you have to run out in the front yard and go through a bunch of jazz, you know. I enjoyed that. Okay, so I'm hearing you say you enjoyed, I'm hearing you say all these things that you loved about being a WAC. So not to put you on the spot, but tell us about the decision to get out in November of 52. Well, Eddie and I got married and about a month later I was pregnant. And I went to get out of the Army at that time. I was still serving on the Collinsville Avenue, that's where it was, in East St. Louis. And that's where my recruiting station was. And it was right over the bar. I can't think of the name of it. But anyway, that's what I was assigned to there. And I really, I didn't enjoy that too much. But I did squire people around. But you were pregnant. I did talk on the radio in East St. Louis. They had a guy, a disc jockey, and his name was Spider Web. And he interviewed me on the radio. Spider Web, nice. It's a very unusual name, but whatever. And he, the doctor that I told you that I was with, the General MacArthur's doctor, and we went down to the radio station and we were interviewed by Spider Web. Now when did that happen? Were you still in the service when you were interviewed by that disc jockey? Oh, yeah. So what kind of questions did he ask? Oh, he just wanted to know. He had never heard of the women in the Army. And so we just answered, I answered questions like that. And the doctor was behind me because he was all for it, the women in the Army. Wow, so you were kind of a spokesperson and formal spokesperson at that time. Oh, yes, I did that too. And as a matter of fact, I'm doing that now. You are. Well, I went to the junior high here and talked to the kids. Is that for Veterans Day? The American region asked me to do that. Yeah. And they just asked me to do it again this year and tell the kids, you know, what it was kind of like. I want to make sure we get to the end of that story you had mentioned. So were you pregnant with Cindy? Is that kind of what went into your decision to get out? I was. Okay. See, I was only in two years, but I got all that traveling and everything else done about the first year. And I was in East St. Louis, and Eddie and I were living up on the hill, I think, at the time. And I went to get out of the service and went up to Chicago, to Pier 16, I think, or something. That's where you had to discharge from? No. Why did you have to go to Chicago? I got there, and, yeah. And they sent me to Denver to a hospital there. They told me that I had tuberculosis. But I was in that darn hospital for about six months while carrying Cindy. And I kept telling them they had the wrong person because all my tests were negative. Yeah. But they kept saying it was because I was pregnant. So essentially they dragged your contract? Yeah. Well, my dad went to the United States Senate, and Eddie went to the general that ran the base in Denver, and they finally got me out around Thanksgiving. Wow. Two years later. Oh, my God. So I was discharged in the same year that I, you know, not in the same year but in the same month that I actually got into the service because I went in in November of 1950. And I got out in November of 1952. And when I got out, the doctor said, You never had that. There was no way you had that. Never had tuberculosis. At the x-rays, and they just said they mistook something. Strange. And that was that. But I was there in that hospital bed taking all those pills. My roommate was a real live tuberculosis patient, and she was a very nice lady. But they kept me right there. They made a horrendous mistake. You think they said, I'm sorry? Never did that happen. No, of course not. But anyway, that was a very unpleasant period of time for me. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about more positive things then. So my wonderful cousin Cindy is born. You and Eddie eventually moved to Carmel, Indiana. No. I've never lived in Carmel. Cindy lived in Carmel. Oh, that's right. Eddie and I moved to Indianapolis. Gotcha. Indianapolis, proper. But that was after Cindy was about two years old, 18 months to two years old. And we lived there for 60 years. So take us through a typical day post-Army service. What did you keep with you as you learned while it was left? I got out, as I said, in November, and then I had Cindy in February. And the little duties of being the mother, that's what I did. I ran the household, and Eddie was gone to work. He was an engineer. So we stayed there for maybe 18 months, I think, when we moved to Indianapolis. And we stayed there. He worked for a company there. Then he started his own company because that company had moved to California, and I didn't want to move back to California particularly. And then Eddie got very involved in flying, and so we were always with the flyers. And we had a great time with those organizations. There were several of them. This is a perfect segue. You're doing my job for me here, Rusty. Speaking of flying, tell Jason and me and our audience about the honor flight that you were part of. Oh, that was a very nice trip, and I highly recommend it to anyone that was in the service at the time. But they took us to the World War II monument, the Korean War monument and all of that. And it was just really wonderful. It brought tears to the eyes because some of the guys were quite hurt, and they were still in that condition. And it was really something to see. Under the circumstances, it was really something to see because some of them were from Vietnam, and some of them were from— See, it was only about three years ago that I went. That was in March that we went, about three years ago. And they had grade school kids on a class trip, and they would stand there and clap for us. I mean, in the airport, the people would stand and clap. Really, they were very supportive of us, and the kids were so cute. I would be remiss, and this has nothing to do with military, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask for you to give us a quick synopsis of your relationship with Barry Manilow. I bought a ticket to go. I think the ticket cost $1,700. I had been told I was not going to live long. I had a heart problem, da-da-da-da. And Wayne and Cindy said, oh, go ahead and do it. So we went to Vegas to see Barry. Wayne always made the reservation for us, and I told him about six times. But anyway, when I first went in to see him, it was in Vegas. He said, well, why are you here? And I meant to say, why do you think? But anyway, and I had told him that I had just gotten out of the hospital. They put seven stents in my artery, and then we got to talking about that. And so he came over and gave me a big hug and a kiss, and we had champagne. That's great. And so that was very interesting. Yeah, I bet. And then I had a very special seat out in front, and we saw that. The concert was over, and then I went to go outside, and there were all these people standing in line, and they were hugging me and kissing me. And they said, gee, we're so glad to see you. And I said, me? Who do you think I am? And they said, Debbie Reynolds. And I said, I like Debbie, too. But no, honey, I am just Rusty Marlin from Indianapolis. But they were all wanting to kiss me and hug me and whatever. It was amazing. And I thought, boy, they're very friendly here. And then something I thought was something wrong, you know. And that's when I asked them, who do you think I am? Yeah, you should have just rolled with it. I should have, yeah. That would have been funny, too. But anyway, it was a very lovely thing to do. Well, here, Rusty, I want to remind everybody as we begin to close here. So your late husband, Uncle Eddie, Eddie Grover Marlin, a fantastic guy. He was an aviation machinist mate, third class in the Navy Reserve, 44 to 46. And Rusty Marlin, November 1950, November 1952. You exited as a corporal. You had started as an E1. And you were in the Women's Army Corps. Yes. As we close here, Rusty, and, you know, it's always interesting. Wait a minute. Hold on. He's asking me questions. I know. I'm sorry. It's okay. Oh, that's okay. Well, tell her she's got to send me those photos. Well, hey, Rusty, as we're preparing to close, Jason and I want to give you the opportunity to tell our audience what it meant to you to serve your country. I love my country. I hate some of the stuff that has gone on. But our country is, I tell the kids when I see them, don't let anyone tell you that this isn't a great country. You know, when I see them, I go to the classrooms and I try to cheer them up, you know, about America, the elementary school and the junior high. Yeah. Okay. But tell us also, I want to end with this, Rusty. Tell us what it meant to serve your country as a WAC in the Women's Army Corps. What did that mean to you? It meant a lot to me. I got to travel all over the United States, it seemed to me, and I enjoyed doing that. I enjoyed all the stuff that I had to do, get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floors. And, you know, we had to clean up and do all that kind of stuff. Then I got into cadre and I had to be in charge of some of these girls. And, my, they had no discipline at all. And it was very interesting because I was raised in a Catholic school, and I went there for 12 years. But it was an interesting, it made me, I was very proud of the fact that I was able to get in there and do what I did. I think that I tried to help the country. Because, you know, in those days, I beg your pardon? I said, and we are very grateful that you did. Well, it was a whole different ballgame because it wasn't a big thing that the girls did in those days, you know. So I just was very proud that I was able to do it and that I had the guts to do it mostly. Well, Rusty, I can confirm for you, as your relative, I'm very proud of you. Well, thank you. As an American, I'm very proud of you. I feel very fortunate to be able to call you family. So thanks for your time, Rusty. It's always a joy to speak to you. I hope that I'm able to see you guys again sometime soon. You're out there in Phoenix, Arizona, Scottsdale. Is that right, specifically? It's near Cape Creek. It's where the actual place I am. Okay. But it's right by Scottsdale, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, Rusty, thanks again. Love you very much. Really appreciate you taking this on. I love you, too. And hopefully we'll talk again soon. Yeah, well, hopefully we'll get to see you. I felt so good about doing that. And once again, I would like to remind you, we didn't have TV or we didn't have cell phones. Sure. We had just those posters that they would post in the stores and the drug stores and everything. And Uncle Sam needs you. Yeah. And I thought, by golly, I'm not doing anything exciting because I just graduated from high school. So I decided to do that. Yeah. But I'm very proud of the fact that I did do it. It wasn't an easy thing in those days. And what the girls now are able to do, it's fabulous. Yeah. And you were a pioneer. And you led the way for millions of women to serve, Rusty. So thank you. Yeah, well, they certainly really got the big, bad job. We had a blessing, I guess, in reality. Well, hey, Jason is going to sign us off here, Rusty. But thanks again, Shag. We really appreciate your time and you sharing your story with us and our audience. Well, thank you. And you take care. And God bless you. Thank you, Rusty. Bye-bye. We're going to go ahead and sign off of the Operation Insight podcast from the Mid-America Veterans Museum. Okay. Bye. Operation Insight is brought to you by the Mid-America Veterans Museum. Do you like our podcast? Well, we hope that you and your family and friends with your support will continue to bring you great programming. If you'd like to donate, go to mavm.org and click on Donate.