'The guys thought we should do what they did,' veteran recalls

Virginia Becker was born in Ironwood, Michigan, but Montana has always been home. Her parents moved her and the rest of the family to Libby when she was two years old.

“It was rough and tumble, we played outside. My childhood was delightful. I wouldn’t trade my life in Libby,” Becker said in an interview last week.

She graduated from Libby High School in 1942, and the offer of a Coast Guard Recruiter was too good to pass up.

“A Coast Guard recruiter came through with a story of free college... with eight kids, my parents couldn’t pay for college,” she recalled.

Her father was not sold on her decision.

“No daughter of his was going in the military,” Becker said.

But go she did, first to boot camp at the Biltmore Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. The Spars, as women in the Coast Guard were called, were no different than enlisted men.

“The guys thought we should do what they did. We had to learn to swim, swing on ropes, climb, all the usual things,” Becker said.

After boot camp, Becker attended business college and earned her Yeoman stripe.

“They shipped me to Washington, to Ediz Hook,” she said.

Becker did office work, but was also one of the few women in the office who could drive a stick.

“I always liked that. They’d yell ‘Petrusha [Becker’s maiden name]! We need a ride! And then I knew I’d get to go to town again,” she remembered.

The nearest town was Port Angeles.

“I liked it because it was regimented. Everyone was always on time,” Becker said.

With herself and three older brothers all serving at one time, Becker said hers was, for a time, a four-star mother.

While Becker served in Washington, her then-fiance was stationed in New Guinea for three years, serving in the medical corps. She got letters, usually once a month.

He was injured, and called her from Los Angeles. He wanted to get married, and she said she couldn’t, because she didn’t have any leave.

“My CO said, ‘get married and I’ll give you 10 days leave.’”

So she did.

After the wedding, she got pregnant and was able to leave the service.

“I was in a little over two years is all, but I loved every minute of it,” she said.

They stayed in Libby, and Becker and her husband had six children, four girls and two boys.

Since then, the family has grown to include 19 grandkids, 35 great-grandkids, and three great-great grandkids.

“They’ve all been so good to me. I can’t describe enough how much my family means to me,” Becker said.

Becker now resides at the Montana Veterans Home and just recently joined the Columbia Falls American Legion. She never did in the past, she said, because “I wasn’t going along with all those guys.”

But, she said, she was thrilled when the Columbia Falls Legion invited her to join.

“If anyone ever told me I’d live to be 92, I’d say, yeah right,” she said, “but I’m still here.”