You’ve heard the well-known mantra of a famous American military branch – “Once a Marine, Always a Marine.” It’s almost as prominent as “Semper Fi.”
One of the best examples of this legendary tradition is right here in Sun City, and she is still living it, at the age of 93. She started her journey in the Corps in 1943, and it reached an exciting climax in 2016, this past August.
She is Ann DiValerio, a resident of Neighborhood 5. DiValerio, her daughter, and grand-daughter, traveled to Washington D.C. a couple of months ago on a sight-seeing tour. As an ex-Marine, she wanted to go to the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery and enjoy a concert by the Marine Band. Because she was still an enthusiastic ex-Marine, she wore her “cover,” (Corps language for cap), to make the occasion sartorially complete.
Sun City resident Ann DiValerio (N5) is one of the first female Marines. She’s pictured on the left in 1943, shortly after graduating bootcamp. She’s pictured on the right in 2016, at the Huntley Memorial Day Parade, proving “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
Sgt. Major Joseph Gray, coordinating the activities that day, noticed DiValerio’s “cover” and immediately stepped forward and introduced himself to Ann and her family members.
“He told me to come to a special area in the audience seating area and he asked us to sit in the front row,” DiValerio said. “He told me that I deserved special treatment for this occasion. I was pleased but kind of embarrassed.”
A few minutes later, two men dressed in formal uniforms approached her and were introduced. One of them was Robert Neller, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and the other was General of the Army Mark A. Milley, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the group of military leaders that advises the President on military matters.
“I almost fell out of my chair,” Ann said. “I thought I was just coming to listen to the concert and pay my respects to the memorial and all it symbolizes. Here were two of the most famous officers in America and they were going out of their way to welcome me and thank me for my service. It was one of the best moments of my life.”
DiValerio was born and raised in Chicago, and graduated from Notre Dame High School for girls in 1942. America was awash in patriotism, and DiValerio heard that the Corps was recruiting women as well as men. She went to the Marine recruiting office to sign up.
“They initially told me to wait until I was 20, which was in August, when I would be eligible. I took a whole bunch of mental and physical exams and was finally accepted in November, 1943, three months after my 20th birthday.”
While she waited, she worked at the Chicago Public Library.
“I always wanted to be a nurse, but circumstances never let that happen for me,” she recalled. “I got caught up in the patriotism and confusion of the moment, and decided to enlist in the Corps, just like so many others.”
She was sent to Camp Lejeune, North Caroline, the major Marine training base, which still serves that role today. “I was there for six weeks of boot camp,” DiValerio said. “It was no picnic. We had a male drill sergeant. We were up at 5:30 a.m., breakfast at 6:30, and classes started at 8 a.m. We were trained in all kinds of administrative jobs. We had to learn to identify ships and plans, Marine customs, and we were made to run through a Quonset hut filled with gas, wearing a mask. Six weeks later, I was ‘promoted’ to PFC, private first class.”
Another reason DiValerio enlisted was because her fiancé, Mike Hoffman, was in the corps, fighting in the Pacific with a combat unit.
“During boot camp, I was notified that he had been killed in the battle of Tarawa. He was manning a machine gun on a landing craft, trying to cover other marines who landed on the beach. He was wounded twice, the second time fatally. He later received the silver star posthumously, the second highest honor in the Corps,” she said.
After boot camp, Ann was sent to the San Diego Marine recruiting depot in California, where she worked in the library, under the supervision of a male sergeant.
“It was good duty, but I later asked for a change, and they made me a CQ, a Charge of Quarters person who performs security duty, both days and nights. I had to stand for inspections and make sure I and everything I was responsible for was ‘spit and polished.’ It was great duty,” said DiValerio.
By 1944, she was transferred to the Bremerton, Washington, Naval Yard, where she worked in the Quartermaster Corps, and helped Marines returning from the war zone by replacing their clothing and personal effects.
“I made out the requisitions for the stuff they needed, many had clothes in really bad condition. It was depressing but important work. One of the great things that happened me at Bremerton was a parade where a bunch of us female Marines marched in Seattle in 1945. We marched behind a convertible in which three of the Iwo Jima flag raisers were riding as part of a bond drive. We were told the three were Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, and James Bradley, They were the only flag-raisers that survived the Iwo Jima battle. Hayes was the Native American from Arizona, and Bradley was the medic. They teased and flirted with us during the parade, but we couldn’t respond because we were marching and had to keep a straight face.”
While at Bremerton, DiValerio said she had a chance to go aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise, which was in drydock for repairs.
“The ship had a hole in her side as big as a garage,” she recalled. “We walked up several stories to the upper decks. It was ugly but fascinating.”
DiValerio served two and a half years of active duty and was discharged in 1946. She returned to the Chicago area, took a job at the Northwestern University dental school, and soon met her husband, Anthony, when she attended her best friend’s wedding.
“We lived in Park Ridge for 47 years, raised three children there,” she said. “Tony was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps in the war, and later worked as a superintendent and manager in a printing company. He was a wonderful, very creative, man. He was an excellent golfer and avid bridge player. I called him a number-one handyman, because if he was repairing something, and he needed a part, he made it himself.”
While raising her children, DiValerio worked as a receptionist for a Park Ridge dentist.
“I was chief cook and bottle washer. I did lots of things,” she recalled. DiValerio and her husband came to Sun City among the first residents in 1999. Tony passed away three months after they arrived.
Since she came to Sun City, DiValerio has become involved in the Women Marines Association in Chicago, and has been its president for two terms. She also has started a Women in Military organization in Huntley that meets regularly, and is an active participant in the 37-member Marine alumni group in Sun City.
DiValerio said she has a deep affection for the Corps.
“I went in as a young girl, and came out as a disciplined woman,” she said. “The Corps was very good to me. I made so many wonderful friends, I still keep in touch with many of them. I call them my bunkies.”
Clearly, this Marine is still going strong.
