California's Oldest Female Veteran, 102, Honored
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Bea Abrams Cohen put her life on hold to help her country, one of the few women to do so at the height of World War II.
"We had to train, we had to drill, we wore gas masks, we had to go through a gas chamber without the masks," she said Tuesday during a ceremony at the state Capitol to honor her during Women's Military History Week.
Dignitaries gathered to honor her as California's oldest living female veteran. But despite Bea's age, the memories are vivid.
Based in Denver, and then sent overseas, she got to Great Britain just in time for D-Day. The trip over the Atlantic Ocean was treacherous, with her boat finally making it to shore.
"It was zig-zag to avoid the submarines, the enemy submarines," she recalled. "It was so clear you could see the bombs down below the gate, to keep the enemy subs from getting in."
Earlier she had helped build planes for Douglas Aircraft, a real-life Rosie the Riveter. She joined the Army women's auxiliary, she says, to make a difference.
"We did a job we were supposed to do," she said. "One of the things I want you to know is what I did, I did from my heart."
Along with her husband, Bea stayed active in volunteering for veterans' causes. She's modest about her contributions, instead saluting all the women's veterans, then, now and in the future.
"They've done a good job," she said. "Never to be forgotten."
