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97-year-old Barb Schober of Ellensburg, WA appears on episode #705 of Hometown Heroes, airing October 30 – November 1, 2021. Schober was one of approximately 20,000 American women to volunteer for trailblazing World War Ii assignments in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.

This episode also features comments from Jan Lebo, who has been on a decade-long crusade to honor World War II veterans in Kittitas County and preserve their memories, but the episode begins with information about Douglas Munro, the only person ever awarded the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. Click here for a lengthy article from the National World War II Museum about Munro’s heroism at Guadalcanal in 1942.

“Munro, under constant strafing by enemy machine guns on the island, and at great risk of his life,” His Medal of Honor citation reads. “Daringly led five of his small craft toward the shore.”

While shielding the other boats from Japanese fire, Munro was struck by an enemy bullet and killed. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his parents with the Medal of Honor, Edith Munro, Doug’s 48-year-old mother, volunteered for Coast Guard service herself. She spent the rest of the war in charge of a USCG barracks in Seattle. Edith was one of more than 300,000 American women to serve in our Armed Forces during World War II, and we have the privilege of meeting another one of those pioneering veterans on this edition of Hometown Heroes.

Barb Schober shared her WWII memories with us on her 97th birthday, starting with her childhood as the middle daughter in a string of three sisters, raised in the cities of Grandview and Sunnyside in nearby Yakima County. You’ll hear her recall working in the local fruit harvest from the time she was 9 years old to help support the family during the Great Depression. When she was 17, she moved to Los Angeles to live with her older sister, and starting working in North American Aviation’s factory in Inglewood.

The teenager would crawl up into the cockpit of those B-25s and inspect every detail against a checklist, to make sure the bombers would be properly equipped when flown into combat. You’ll hear her remember her memories of December 7th, 1941, and hear just how captivated she was by radio reports about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At that point, she was in Seattle, and you’ll hear Barb recall required blackout curtains as the populace braced for a potential Japanese attack. Before long, Barb and all of her roommates for volunteering for military service in various branches of the Armed Forces. A friend named Muriel Johnson had entered the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, and Barb decided to follow suit.

“We all wanted to do something for our war effort,” you’ll hear Schober say. “We did and it was wonderful.”

After training at Camp Lejeune, NC, where her Sergeant Major was a Guadalcanal survivor who had been wounded five times, she spent much of her time in uniform in Washington, DC. You’ll hear Barb explain how that uniform was part of her attraction to that particular avenue of service. That WWII USMC Women’s Reserve uniform was recently donated to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, where someday it will be on display. Among the other topics you’ll hear Schober discuss are which famous film premiere she attended in Washington, DC, what it was like to participate in a parade honoring Chester Nimitz, and the not-so-flattering nickname some servicemen of the era employed when referring to Barb and her fellow female Marines.

“The reason they had us women Marines in there in the first place,” you’ll hear Barb explain. “Was for us to let the guys go overseas.”

When she was stationed at Henderson Hall in Arlington, VA, Barb’s daily walks would take her past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. You’ll hear about that, as well as her return to Washington, DC decades later with Inland Northwest Honor Flight.

Barb contributed to the war effort in three different ways: as a “Rosie the Riveter” in an aircraft factory, as a war bond drive representative for Sears & Roebuck, and ultimately as one of the first women to wear the USMC uniform. In later years, she became an entrepreneur, and continues to serve as President of M2 Industrial, the fence and guardrail company she founded with her son, Mark. Our introduction to Barb came from Jan Lebo, who, with her husband Skip, has spent the better part of a decade capturing the stories of World War II veterans in Kittitas County. You’ll hear Lebo discuss the impact she’s experienced from interviewing 58 WWII vets, and touch on some of what inspired her to begin. Part of the motivation for the project was the memory of the Lebos’ youngest son, an Army veteran.

“A year and a half after the service, after he got out, he was killed in an automobile accident,” you’ll hear Jan relate. “I wanted to know more about what went on in the military.”

She has learned more than she ever expected through the military memories of those veterans, who have each received a video of their interview and a customized scrapbook of photos and mementos. The heartfelt efforts of the Lebos have touched countless lives in Ellensburg and throughout Kittitas County. When Skip and Jan were asked to serve as grand marshals of Ellensburg’s annual Rodeo Parade in 2021, they agreed on one condition: that World War II veterans accompany them. Barb Schober was one of four vets to answer that call, riding in a WWII-era jeep. In a region that gave us the Coast Guard’s most revered Gold Star hero, the tragic loss of another veteran has inspired a campaign that has brought people from throughout Kittitas County together to honor all who have served.
—Paul Loeffler