A Vet’s Story – Edith Mellner

Navy woman pioneer breaks barriers

Edith Mellner was a pioneer for women in World War II. This is something that she kept with her for her entire life. As a tiny figure across the table of a small restaurant, it was hard to imagine this strong person paving the way for so many other women. As soon as she spoke, however, it was obvious that this is a person who had worked to accomplish what few women have.

Before enlisting in the Navy, Mellner attended the former East Stroudsburg State Teachers College. There, she majored in health and physical education with minors in science and physics. “In college, I was the only girl in so many of my classes which was hard,” she said, “I remember walking into my first physics class and looking around and not seeing a single girl.” Though a difficult experience, Mellner pursued and got her degree. After graduation from college, she started teaching science at Central Junior High School in Allentown. This is where she was when she enlisted in the navy.

When she decided to join the navy, World War II was under way, and she wanted to do something for her country. She had uncles who were already in the service. Her brothers were still too young to join, so she took it upon herself to do something. “My family was very proud of my decision to join the navy,” she said, “Shortly after I became active, my younger brother enlisted and went into the Army Air Corps.” Just before coming off of active duty in 1945, the younger of her two brothers joined the navy as well. “We were a military family.” Mellner was able to join because Congress in July of 1942 established a women’s auxiliary. This opened up new opportunities for women. The group was called W.A.V.E.S. (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services) This was the group that Mellner was a part of.

Upon enlisting, she was sent to the original boot school for Navy women in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Since she had no background in typing, she interviewed for and was accepted to the LINK Trainer school. LINK taught the women how to speak to and run the training programs from the ground for new pilots. “The head of the school said that I had a good speaking voice and could be clearly heard on the microphones,” she said. Mellner was one of the 75 women who were picked to go to the school.

After completing boot camp, she was sent to the LINK school in Atlanta, Ga., for 10 weeks. Following her 10 weeks in Georgia, she was sent back to Iowa. She arrived at the Ottumwa Navy Air Station where she worked basic training in Sterman planes. “I was the person on the ground who spoke to the pilots and the instructors while they were training in the air,” she said. Ottumwa had a type of training for pilots that was called “blue box needle point and air speed.” The women went to classes to learn how to direct the pilots from the ground. From Ottumwa, she put in to go to Celestial Training School in Quonset Point, R.I. There, she learned celestial navigation, crew coordination and flight.

Amid the noise of the restaurant, Mellner thought back to her time at Quonset Point. Sitting perfectly still she closed her eyes and recalled the cabin of the simulator. It was 30 feet off the ground. She sees herself in the navigator seat where she could look down onto a large piece of plate glass that would give a pilot the sensation of flying over water, and even islands. Tilting her head up slightly, she saw the stars of the northern hemisphere overhead. They were part of a sphere used for pilot navigation. She learned to work the desk of the trainer to radio navigational aids to the pilots. After completing school, she stayed in Rhode Island.

She was officially put on active duty in 1943 and left Philadelphia with a group of women who were to be stationed together. During her active time she was stationed in Atlanta. “I remember when we got to Georgia our barracks had not yet been completed, there was no roof. They found a place for us to stay, but it was funny that no one thought to finish the building,” she said. While in Atlanta, movie actors would come and visit the troops. “One thing I will never forget is when Bob Hope came to entertain at our base,” she said.

In 1945, she came off active duty and started teaching at Whitehall High School. In the summers, she attended Penn State University and finished her master’s degree in physical education. After leaving Whitehall, she went to teach at Kutztown University. There she taught physical education for the elementary school teacher, health education, and some physical education. She stayed there for 26 years.

Meanwhile, 1949 was the first year that women were allowed to join the reserves. She decided to enlist. While in the reserves she was assigned to Willow Grove, Pa., and for a short time in Brooklyn, NY. During her time in the reserves, she was involved in many different training programs for Navy pilots. Mellner also went to instructor training and classification school, as well as drug and alcohol school, where she learned to counsel soldiers who had problems. She also spent some time as an interviewer for her squadron. In the summer of 1976, she went to Philadelphia for training duty in the Navy yard. “I got to participate in many of the city’s Bicentennial activities.” “During my second tour in Willow Grove, I worked on anti-sub training devices,” she said. “The commander was a submarine commander who was an expert in evading anti-sub warfare planes.”

When she was 60, she retired with a formal retirement ceremony from the Navy. “I got to walk down the red velvet carpet as the bell rang for me to leave, it was such an exciting experience for me,” she said.

After her retirement, she joined many veterans’ organizations. One in particular was the Jewish War Veterans. She is a representative for the Jewish War Veterans on the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council. In 1992 and 1993, she was the first woman in Pennsylvania to become state Commander of Local Post 239. Other organizations she is a member of are the American Legion, Navy Enlisted Reserve Association, National Education Association, and the Pennsylvania Public Health Organization.

Veterans organizations were not very accepting of women, with the exception of typists, which she was not. She said, “Even today, women don’t ever make it up to be top officers. If I were younger, I would have pushed harder to make it higher.” In the reserves, she was bucking the men all of the time. “Everything that I did there always seemed to be men blocking my way,” she said.

She thought back to all of the places she had been stationed throughout her life, glanced out the window and smiled. “In LINK school, I made friends with so many girls that I kept in touch with for a long time, one in particular up until the time she died,” she said. “So many of us were sent all around the country it became hard to keep in touch.” Especially after she became ill a few years ago, she lost track of quite a few people.

As the conversation began to slowly come to an end, Mellner closed her eyes, then she fell silent for a minute. “I think about these boys over seas now, and I remember all of the scary moments during World War II,” she said. Then, with a smile, she got up and slowly made her way to her car, heading to another meeting.

Shannon K. Seckinger is a junior at Lehigh University. Her hometown is Churchville, Pa.