A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Once a Marine, always a Marine
I
have had the honor of talking to
many World War II veterans over
the years — American, Canadian,
British, German, French, Belgian and
Dutch.
Many were reluctant to talk about
their experiences. They grappled their
entire lives to deal with memories of
fallen comrades and the horrors of war.
Some, usually the
loudest, boasted of fi c-
titious accomplish-
ments. Their accounts
didn’t stand up to closer
scrutiny.
Others were proud
of their service, but
JIM VAN
reluctant to cast them-
NOSTRAND
selves as heroes. They
served in support roles
and didn’t experience front-line com-
bat. They did their duty and contributed
what they could to the war effort.
Juanita Price of Astoria defi nitely
falls into the last category.
Her story is relatively unique, at
least to me — my interest was piqued
when I heard the words “World War
II,” “woman” and “Marine” in the same
sentence.
She writes in her memoir that she
was a student at the University of Mis-
souri journalism school in the winter of
1944, working on the copy desk, as the
teletype machine spewed out news of
battles raging across the globe, includ-
ing the Anzio landings in Italy. The
news included dispatches from Ernie
Pyle, one of the most famous war cor-
respondents of all time.
There were hardly any men in the
journalism school, she said. They’d all
been drafted. She had a poster in her
dorm room aimed at women: “Be a
Marine — Free a Marine to Fight.” The
Marines had reluctantly started recruit-
ing women because they had run out
of men. So while on spring break, she
went to a recruiting offi ce in St. Louis
and signed up.
She helped publish a D-Day “extra”
edition of the Columbia Missourian
newspaper on June 6, 1944, gradu-
ated the next Sunday, then boarded a
train June 12 for boot camp at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina.
Jim Van Nostrand/The Astorian
Juanita Price with her 1940s Speed Graphic camera.
Juanita Price
A Marine processing images at the photo
lab.
‘You are not WACs’
In six weeks, she and the other
women were converted into Marine
Corps privates, doing everything the
men were expected to — even the
obstacle course.
“I didn’t care for before-breakfast
calisthenics and lights out at 10 p.m.,
but the routine kept us all healthy,” she
wrote.
She vividly remembers the white-
glove inspections, everything shined,
pressed and folded exactly as specifi ed.
Even their girdles and slips were regu-
lation. Sometimes, in an unannounced
surprise inspection, they’d hurriedly
line up in what she called their “undress
pinks.”
“It was our one bit of self-identity,”
she laughed while remembering that
particular detail.
The platoon sergeant — a man —
instructed the recruits prior to review.
“You will stand at attention until
put ‘at ease,’” he said. “If you feel
like fainting, well don’t. You are not
WACs,” referring to the Women’s
Army Corps.
After graduation, she was assigned
to the Marine photo lab at Quantico,
Virginia, where she served as a quar-
termaster. She was the only woman
Marine quartermaster on the East
Coast. It was considered good duty
because of its proximity to Washing-
ton, D.C., and New York City. The lab
trained cameramen in both still and
cine (video) photography for service as
combat photographers.
She left the Marines on April 26,
1946, with the rank of corporal. Seeking
a newspaper job after the war, she expe-
rienced her fi rst (but not last) brush with
discrimination — editors told her she
was a woman, not a veteran.
Common bonds
Talking to Juanita is a delight. She’s
the most active 90-something I’ll proba-
bly ever meet.
She seemed particularly proud to
show me her 4x5 Speed Graphic cam-
era, which she began using at Quantico
and was standard equipment for news
photographers. We both noted the irony
when I took a picture of her and that
camera using my iPhone, which weighs
under 7 ounces.
We have some common bonds. We
both majored in journalism in col-
lege, 40 years apart. We both joined the
military after graduation and worked
Juanita Price
Juanita Price as a Marine.
Marines at the photo lab.
John Price as an Army captain.
Juanita Price
Marines in class at the photo lab.
‘THERE’S SOMETHING DREADFUL ABOUT WAR.
IT MAKES A PEACEFUL PERSON OUT OF YOU.’
Juanita Price
in newspapers after leaving the ser-
vice. And we both met our spouses in
newsrooms.
Her husband, John Price, who
passed in 2011 at the age of 95, served
as a tank platoon leader and staff offi -
cer in the 33rd Armored Regiment of
the Army’s Third Armored Division in
World War II, earning a Bronze Star in
the Battle of the Bulge.
His unit landed on Omaha Beach
on June 23, 1944, while Juanita was
in boot camp. The division spear-
headed the First Army’s drive across
Normandy.
I have visited several of the battle-
fi elds on which John served, including
Mons, Belgium, and the Hurtgen For-
est in Germany. He wrote in his mem-
oir, titled “A Narrow Road Through
the Forest,” that as a personnel offi cer,
he served behind the combat units. But
he was close enough to the front lines
to experience shelling, air attacks and
some close encounters with enemy sol-
diers that the lead units had bypassed.
John’s regiment liberated the Nor-
dhausen concentration camp in Ger-
many, where French, Belgian, Pol-
ish and Russian prisoners labored on
the V-1 and V-2 rocket assembly lines.
He recalled seeing streams of walking
skeletons newly freed from the death
camps.
After the war, John, who had
majored in journalism at the Univer-
sity of Idaho, joined the Times News in
Twin Falls as a reporter.
Juanita was already working there
as a reporter and photographer, cover-
ing nine counties in the southern part of
the state. She remembers him walking
in and surveying the room on his fi rst
day in late September 1946. They were
married in 1948 in Portland and moved
to Astoria in 1960.
Juanita’s contributions to the Asto-
ria community have been well-docu-
mented in the pages of this newspa-
per. She worked as a librarian and was
active in the American Association of
University Women and the National
Alliance on Mental Illness, among other
organizations. She was honored with a
George Award in 2012 for her selfl ess
volunteerism.
Looking back at her military ser-
vice, all these years later, she remem-
bers the Marines who came home from
the South Pacifi c, many of them physi-
cally and mentally scarred. It made her
become an advocate for peace not war,
she said.
“There’s something dreadful about
war,” she said. “It makes a peaceful per-
son out of you.”
Jim Van Nostrand is editor of The
Astorian.