Honor Flight a high point for female WWII veteran

By 1945, at the end of World War II, less than three percent of American military personnel were women.

Barbara "Bobbie" Merritt was one of them. A resident of Sedgebrook, a senior living community in Lincolnshire, Bobbie achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), serving in Arlington, Virginia.

"My brothers were far too young at the time to go into the service, so I went," Bobbie said. Listening to the confident, forthright woman, it's not hard to imagine her away from the home front. "It was wartime; I wanted to join," she said.

Last August, Bobbie and her daughter, Sandra Lyons, took a three-day Honor Flight with the Veterans Network Committee of Northern Illinois, out of Fox Grove. Bobbie cannot say enough about the quality of this organization and its leader, Randy Granath.

Choosing this flight because of its extended trip to Washington, D.C., (with time spent in Baltimore, Maryland) and the allowance of relatives to be veterans' companions, Bobbie raved about the organization she first learned of when Granath visited Sedgebrook.

"I said, 'that's what I want.' They did an absolutely wonderful job," she said. "We were treated to two honorary dinners, and everywhere we went people knew who we were. They were expecting us at the airports, where we were applauded."

Of the 24 veterans in her Honor Flight group, Bobbie was the only woman. While they visited all of the war memorials in the nation's capital, the high point for Bobbie was the Iwo Jima Memorial.

"For me, that memorial represents World War II. Those men raised our flag when I was in Washington and still in the service."

Bobbie also enjoyed visiting the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, of which she is a charter member.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Bobbie began her military training in 1943 and completed her duties with the WAVES' bureau of personnel in 1946. Living most of her life in Kansas towns, with a career in commercial real estate, Bobbie received a B.A. in Economics in 1984 by going to night school.

"I wanted to go to college when I got out of the service, but the schools were inundated with returning veterans getting an education on the GI bill," she said.

In 1997, the veteran retired from the working world.

Six years ago, she moved to Sedgebrook to be closer to her family in north shore Illinois. "I still have that same degree of freedom here that I had when I retired; I do what I want, when I want."

At Sedgebrook, doing what she wants includes thrice-weekly exercise classes, line dancing, and "anything else that's going on - which is a lot," she said.

A member of Sedgebrook's ROVEO club (Retired Old Vets Eating Out), Bobbie is one of very few women veterans at Sedgebrook.

"We're a rare breed these days," she remarked. "All World War II vets are, especially women."

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