CULPEPER, Va. -- Virginia Walczak wonders what may have been. It is a question she has been pondering for a century.
”I miss the idea of a father,” Mrs. Walczak said. “I try to think of the positive things and block out the negative.”
Robbed of memories, tattered and fading keepsakes from World War I, including a set of aging dog tags, are all Mrs. Walczak has of the dad she never knew.
“Oh yes, all of this makes me feel a little closer,” Mrs. Walczak said. “Well, you sort of feel like they’re sacred.”
In 1918, William Jasper Tye served in the United States Marine Corps. The private returned from France a broken man. The Marine’s lungs were ruined by poisonous gas used during the Great War.
“He had been sick the whole time. He was never well,” Mrs. Walczak recalled. “It was devastating.”
In 1922, Tye died at the age of 25 when his young daughter just six months old.
“No, I don’t remember any of it,” Mrs. Walczak said.
After his death, Walczak and her mother, Hazel, were on their own.
”She wasn’t emotionally prepared for such a devastating thing, but she had a healthy attitude. She carried on. She started a new life with taking care of me,” Mrs. Walczak recalled.
Despite the loss, her father’s legacy in the Marines loomed large. In fact, following graduation at Union College, the Kentucky native made a bold decision in January of 1945.
”Actually, I walked into the recruiting shop, recruiting office, and just on a whim, I just walked in there and signed up,” Mrs. Walczak recalled. “The women had to sign up for the duration.”
The military needed to fill the ranks during World War II. For Mrs. Walczak, there was only one branch that mattered.
“I thought about it. I knew if I did join I would join the Marine Corps for sure,” Mrs. Walczak said.
The resident at The Culpeper Senior Living Center was one of only about 19,000 women who served in the Marine Corps.
“I dI felt like I was in my little corner doing my little bit,” Mrs. Walczak said.
Allowing women to join the military freed men to fight. Women served as mechanics, truck drivers, pilots and instructors.
“You become a dedicated Marine right away,” Mrs. Walczak said. “There was no question about it.”
The Corps tested her physical limits.
”All of the marching and all of that. Sometimes you felt like your legs were going to fall off because you over marched,” Mrs. Walczak remembered.
Sgt. Tye taught journalism to Marines fighting overseas through a correspondence class at the Marine Corps Institute.
“It was helping them get the credits to finish high school. It was also a morale booster. And feel that there is another life out there,” Mrs. Walczak said.
When assignments did not return, Mrs. Walczak's heart filled with dread.
“You often wonder what happened to him," Mrs. Walczak said. "Sometimes they quit taking the course, but other times I’m sure it was more disastrous than that. That became hard on the nerves at times."
Owen Conner, the chief curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, said allowing women to join the military was out of necessity.
“Every Marine has a green uniform. Every Marine has a blue uniform. But behind that uniform is an individual with a story to be told,” Conner said. “Women Marines were reluctantly accepted into the Marine Corps. Their premise as a woman reservist was to free a Marine to fight.”
Conner believes Mrs. Wolczak is national treasure and pioneer who broke new ground.
”I’m absolutely thrilled," Conner said. "The Greatest Generation — the term gets used perhaps a little too much. But in my heart they were the Greatest Generation, they were my grandparents. It will be a sad day when we don’t have people like her among us still.”
Following World War II, she married a fellow Marine and had three children.
”It was exciting. There were exciting times,” Mrs. Wolczak said. ”Yeah right off the bat I was satisfied with what I did and I put my whole self into it.”
She earned her masters in education and pursued a teaching career. In November, the veteran will turn 102 years old.
“No. I can’t believe I’m still alive," she admitted. " Yes, I still made it over the hump.”
In some respects, the senior will always be that little girl wondering what may have been.
“Very special,” Mrs. Wolczak said. “Oh yeah he carried it.”
Mrs. Wolczak served during a time of war while breaking glass ceilings along the way.
”I felt like there was pride in it and I wanted to live up to those standards,” she said.
This veteran remains a Marine to the Corps all while marching in her father’s footsteps.
“Oh there is no question about it. He would have been proud, yeah,” Mrs. Walczak said. “Well, like they say, ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi.'”
Watch Greg McQuade's stories on CBS 6 and WTVR.com. If you know someone Greg should profile, email him at greg.mcquade@wtvr.com.
