‘Saluting Our Grandmas’ hails servicewomen
Local authors describe women who were pilots, nurses in WWII.
Sue Hill Norrod reached for the folded American flag a sailor in a white dress uniform handed her, marking her mother’s service in the Navy in World War II.
At that moment in the midst of her mother’s funeral in 2015, Norrod said she knew the story of her 91-year-old mother’s time in uniform in decades past, and of thousands of other U.S. servicewomen, had to be told to a new generation of women.
She teamed with Cassie B. Barlow, a retired Air Force colonel and former commander of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to co-author “Saluting Our Grandmas,” to tell the story of the legions of young women who left their hometowns across America and joined the WAVES to the WASPs, and in roles from pilots to nurses.
“We met and Sue showed up with a very large portfolio,” Barlow said in an interview. “She pulled a book out of the portfolio that was (titled) ‘Saluting Our Grandpas.’ And I flipped through it really quick and I said, ‘What about Saluting Our Grandmas’? And she said, ‘I was really hoping you were going to say that.’”
The two co-authors worked with six contributors to write the book, “Saluting Our Grandmas,” published this month by Pelican Publishing Co.
“Back during World War II, the entire country came together around the war, from victory gardens and (war) bonds and rationing,” said Barlow, 51, of Beavercreek. “Everybody was part of the war effort. Everybody.”
The authors have a book signing scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, May 13 at the Barnes & Noble, 2720 Towne Drive, Beavercreek. The book has a brief military biogra-