"Women are veterans, too," said Marine Tech. Sgt. (Ret.) Janina Rybicki, of Sandy, as she quotes a favorite T-shirt she proudly wears to all veterans' activities.

The 88-year-old served during World War II in an administrative role at North Island near San Diego as top kick, or acting first sergeant, for much of the duration of her service.

Among the million or so initial veterans from WWII, now just hundreds remain, and sometimes it may be easy to forget that women served in uniform during that armed conflict and other wars.

Su Richards and a board of volunteers at Fort Douglas are working to make sure that doesn't happen. A Utah women's memorial is planned at the fort with a first grouping of four life-size bronze statues commemorating the service of women in such major conflicts. Another grouping of two women is planned as well, all depicting women from wartime and in uniforms of their respective periods. The first grouping is to have a representative map of the United States serving as the base from which the figures are caught in motion, one carrying a rifle, two in skirts and the last surveying her surroundings attired in a flight suit with goggles atop her head.

Rybicki points out the fun her group had even amid the challenges at the North Island post as it functioned as a major launch site for troops. She remembers after VE Day, the redeployments of the European Theater troops as they started to amass on the West Coast for the invasion of Japan until it was called off. "A lot of people don't remember that happened," she said.

Rybicki, with a photo album at the ready, pointed out pictures of couples dancing and women marching in step. "I taught many a soldier or sailor how to dance," she said laughing as she recalled volunteering with the USO. The two step, the double and then the waltz, she said, pointing out the progression of difficulty.

Marine TSgt (Ret.) Janina Rybicki brought out her photo album and memories when asked about experiences in uniform in WWII.

She did lose friends -- a car full at an unmarked railroad crossing just outside of camp. She remembered someone in the front seat was killed, and several in the back of the car. Rybicki said the car was full of women Marines.

She wasn't the only one in her family who served during the war. Her brother fought in Europe. "My mother had two stars in her window," she said.

Another veteran, another armed conflict

Another woman in uniform, Army Sgt. 1st Class Melissa Beatty, of Hill Air Force Base, spent some time in Iraq, October 2006 to September 2007, and served under armed conflict conditions. Her platoon ran Army Post Offices, or APO, in and around the Baghdad area, far from the Green Zone.

Beatty recalled the role she had as platoon sergeant, issuing orders to both Reserve and active duty personnel in Iraq. It was an interesting challenge, she said. "Effective leadership includes knowing how to issue orders in a way that each individual would best respond."

Beatty said she learned to compartmentalize some of her thinking while serving there.

"As platoon sergeant, I had to get accountability of all of my Soldiers after receiving incoming fire. Being able to compartmentalize my thinking allowed me to do my job without having to worry about getting home to my two small children," she said. Her daughters were 1 and 3 at the time.

Taking care of Soldiers is her job. "In Iraq, you always have to be alert and ready to move. I must have spent eight of twelve months in my flak vest and (Advanced Combat Helmet) running around the Forward Operating Base looking for my Soldiers to ensure they were OK after we took fire. I remember one time grabbing a Soldier's arm just to make sure he was OK. It took me a few seconds of just looking at the Soldier before I was able to let him go."

Although she focused her thinking and compartmentalized her children's needs, Beatty still served as a caregiver to her Soldiers. It was particularly hard when she could hear the bombs hitting the site of on the APOs her platoon manned. "There wasn't anything we could do for them. My platoon leader or I would send an e-mail to a Soldier's husband just to let him know that she would not be able to call or instant message for a day or so."

The APO in the desert did not have the kind of cover and support that she would have preferred but the mission and the worry always went on.

Adjustments came abruptly when she returned. "I was instantly the mother and the disciplinarian again," she said. There was no time to "settle back in or decompress" which made the adjustment hard on her. "Without the decompression time, I remained keyed up all of the time and remember losing my temper with my family. It was hard for me. I counted to ten a lot of times during my first six months home," she recalled.

Beatty is currently assigned to a unit which travels two weeks every month and says that her children are still adjusting. "I have to always reassure them that I will be coming home at the end of the week."

The Army sergeant's family is proud of her, as were the family members of the WWII veterand and Marine Rybicki.

"I was the first in my family to serve in the military,' Beatty said.

Rybicki noted that her time in the Marines brought a change in her demeanor after her time of service. "More confident," she said in describing herself as a much younger girl. "I used to hide in the bedroom when someone would come over to visit the family. Now I speak up," she said.

The daughter of first generation immigrants from an area then under Poland's rule, but now Lithuania, Rybicki speaks two languages and has visited her parents' homeland. She has cousins there who lived under communist rule and family accounts of one family of relations vanishing in the middle of the night with another family from Russia surplanted in the home the next day taking over their name. "They (other relatives) assumed they were sent to Siberia somewhere," she said, as they were never heard from again.

A speedy distinguished visitor

Rybicki laughs about the time her unit scrubbed up and put on their best uniforms, polished the barracks and stood in ranks, just so a distinguished general could drive past them, "So fast, I couldn't even make out who it was," she said.

She missed President Harry Truman's visit. "My bunk wouldn't flip up a quarter upon inspection," she said, and she had to do compensatory duty.

That was a rare incident, as she was an accomplished administrative sergeant who served so well that her captain only had to tell her who a letter was for and what it was about and she would compose and produce a letter her captain could sign. "I scored 176 on the aptitude test for office worker," she said proudly.

Amid assignments -- humor

Full of humor, Rybicki recalled short sheets for late dormitory mates and never being put on KP duty. "They needed me too much where I was at," she said, although she indicated a change once in awhile to the kitchens might have been nice.

She keeps in touch with many of her friends from that period. "I stood up for one (friend) for her wedding," she said. And, in those days of short rations, gave her some stockings for the event.

Everyone got together and gave what they had for special occasions like this. "One would give a pig, another their ration card -- once I gave two bottles of whiskey so there would be something to celebrate with," she said.

As for now, she said as she concluded her account of all her rich experiences, "Every day is a blessing, God granting."

For those interested in donating to the women's memorial or purchasing a brick paver for the patio for the memorial, contact Su Richards by mail at Fort Douglas Museum, 32 Potter St., Salt Lake City UT 84113. For information, call her at (801) 581-1251, or e-mail her or drop in and visit with the staff at the Fort Douglas Museum. The patio pavers are of high quality and can include company logos along with an inscription or name and cost $100 per donated paver.