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In 1943, Veronica Bradley was one of the first women in the Marines, serving as a corporal. Known then as Agnes Veronica Byrnes, the 20-year-old noticed in a shop window a small recruitment poster showing a young woman dressed in uniform and asking women to help the war effort.
"They started women in the service to become actual reserves in 1942, but the Marines took them in 1943. It was to relieve the Marines to go on the fighting lines," said Mrs. Bradley.
Her journey in the Marines began with boot camp at Hunter College in Bronx, N.Y. The "barracks" was an apartment house, which was a far cry from the situation at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where the women went after a program at Indiana University.
Officials were housing the women in male barracks in North Carolina. The officials promised to fix the barracks so they were more comfortable for the women but issues remained.
"When we arrived there we had to take showers," Mrs. Bradley recalled. "There was only one big room with showers coming out of the wall, and a lot of us were very shy about covering ourselves up. So we would wash at the sink trying to keep ourselves covered."
After Camp Lejeune, the women went on to Santa Barbara, Calif. There, Mrs. Bradley took an aptitude test and ended up in aircraft repair. Some of her regular duties included aviation mechanics on F4U fighter planes and SNJ trainers.
Aside from serving as a Marine corporal, Mrs. Bradley became a poster girl to recruit women into the Marines. The poster said, "Be a Marine, Free A Marine To Fight" and Mrs. Bradley posed holding a clipboard next to an airplane.
"We were the first women in the Marines, so they were taking pictures all the time. It was just a case of them picking me out," said Mrs. Bradley.
Mrs. Bradley said that the Marines were naturally a man's outfit, and many men didn't enjoy having women come into a man's outfit.
"We had to convince them that we were there to do a job and were doing it well, and we finally got their respect," said Mrs. Bradley, who left the Marine Corps in 1945.
Mrs. Bradley was married in 1947. Her husband, John, was in the Army. She is currently writing a book about her experiences. In her younger years, she was raised in a convent in New York, and after the service she became a stage manager at the Marquee Theatre in New York City.
"I am very proud to be a veteran. I am very much aware that our time is running out for the Second World War," said Mrs. Bradley. "There are many veterans of the Second World War that are starting to diminish."
Mrs. Bradley moved to Woodbury from New Jersey three years ago. She has six children, 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. In 1960s, she served as a Marine Corps League commandant for four years. She is a member of the American Legion in Woodbury and the Marine Corps League in Waterbury. She was also an officer for four years with New York State Marine Corps League.
Reed Bertolette was in the Army Air Corps from 1944 through 1945. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Yale University, where he was a member of the Air Corps Reserve.
Mr. Bertolette explained that like many of his classmates, he was able to get out of college early and go into the service. He began training to become a B-29 flight engineer in 1944, serving as a first lieutenant. After training at various bases around the country, he ended up with a crew in Guam.
"We flew out of Guam and had 22 bombing missions over Japan," said Mr. Bertolette, who was 21 at the time. Missions took place from early March 1945 through the end of the war.
The crew was then selected to travel to the Mojave Desert in California and train on radar bombing equipment because, during the latter part of the summer, Japanese skies were overcast and it was difficult to see the targets.
"We came back and trained with some new sophisticated radar systems," said Mr. Bertolette.
According to Mr. Bertolette, from June through the end of the war, he flew another 11 bombing missions.
"Most of these missions were low-level incendiary bombing missions, which were devastating to Japan. We burned up Tokyo and many other cities," said Mr. Bertolette. "One mission alone over Tokyo, we ended up killing more people than they did with the A-bomb."
"At the start, there was heavy fighter opposition, but as the war progressed, near the end of the war, Japan ran out of gasoline," said Mr. Bertolette. "The fighter opposition was less. We did encounter kamikaze fighters, airplanes."
According to Mr. Bertolette, one of the challenges he and his crew faced was the concern of running out of gas during the 3,000-mile, 16-hour round trip for missions. Mr. Bertolette's job as a flight engineer was to regulate the flow and use of gasoline and the engine settings.
"I wasn't proud of all of those deaths we caused, but Japan was determined to defend their homeland," said Mr. Bertolette.
After the war, Mr. Bertolette began working for Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury. He worked there for 20 years in sales and marketing.
He later worked for the Turner and Seymour Manufacturing Company, where he was the vice president of sales.
After a couple of years with Turner and Seymour, Mr. Bertolette decided to purchase the machine division of the company and formed his own company called Bertolette Machines Inc., which made specialized machinery.
"It was a good little company," said Mr. Bertolette.
The company had about 20 employees and it made special production machinery for cutting and forming tubing of all types.
"We dealt with all sizes of companies and sold it to them," said Mr. Bertolette, who sold his company in 1989 to a company in Finland.
"They kept the factory going in Torrington for a couple of years and then finally moved it to Finland," said Mr. Bertolette.
Mr. Bertolette has lived in Woodbury for about 42 years with his wife, Martha. He is involved in local politics, the Woodbury Scholarship Fund and the Yankee Invention Exposition in Waterbury.
"What we did in entering the war and putting all of our effort into it was absolutely necessary. And it wasn't the most pleasant thing we ever did, no war is. It had to be done, and we did it the right way I think," said Mr. Bertolette. "There was some controversy about the atomic bomb, but I feel it was absolutely necessary. Otherwise an invasion of Japan would have killed millions, [of] Japanese and ourselves."
Cosmo DePalma was drafted into the Army in September 1944, and entered the medical battalion of the 40th Infantry Division in the Philippines in 1945. Mr. DePalma joked that he received his draft card and pharmacy license on the same day.
"The first few days I got in the infantry division, you [could] hear the fighting going on. That was kind of scary at first," said Mr. DePalma. "I was not use to planes and cannons going off."
After the Philippines Mr. DePalma's infantry was the first to board a ship headed toward Korea.
"No one had ever heard of Korea at that time," said Mr. DePalma. "We were actually the first troops in Korea on the occupation."
Mr. DePalma also remembered that on VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) an incident occurred while soldiers were breaking down and packing up their hospital. Three Japanese men dressed in American uniforms tried to break into the camp during the night.
Mr. DePalma was discharged from his duties in 1946. He owned Kingsbury Pharmacy for 18 years in Waterbury. It closed in 1959, when he bought the Woodbury Pharmacy, which he owned for 35 years before selling it to its current owner.
Mr. DePalma now works two days a week at the Woodbury Pharmacy.
"I am glad that I was drafted. It was good. You met a lot of different people.
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz has actively pursued a program to honor the contributions and sacrifices of World War II veterans. In 2008, she held more than 80 Public Service Awards ceremonies horning veterans. The program is continuing in communities across the state this year.
