First Birthday Reached For Women of Marines
The 325 or more Iowa women who preferred service to their country and a forestry green uniform to civilian life will be among the approximate 12,000 members of the United States marine corps women's reserve observing their first birthday.
None of them had a chance to see the halls of Montezuma or the shores of Tripoli, but each one enlisted has freed a marine for service overseas. Members of the corps serve only within continental United States.
Activities of the following Iowa members of the marines are representative of the service of the corps:
[excerpt]
Pvt. (f.c.) Mila Louise Gardner, Ames, panel ration board clerk at Edenton, N.C. air base.
Source: The DesMoines Register, February 13, 1944 (photo included)
Mila Louise Gardner was born Aug. 18, 1912 to William L. and Lela B. Sanger Gardner. She died Apr. 30, 1999 and is buried in San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, Santa Nella, CA.
Cpl. Gardner served in World War II with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Source: ancestry.com
