Martha "Marty" Salmela
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Martha "Marty" Salmela (nee Banttari) enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) on January 11, 1942, and then re-enlisted on August 10, 1943, when the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was created. Home at entry: Hibbing, Minnesota.
She served as a Sergeant and clerk typist at the physical training office in Fort Worth, Texas, and at other various continental locations in the United States as a recruiting clerk.
She was honorably discharged on November 23, 1945 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
She was awarded with the following: Good Conduct Medal, Women's Army Corps Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The Saint Louis County World War II Project, 278.
Mrs. Salmela was born in 1921 to Jacob and Hilma Banttari in Bismarck, North Dakota. She was the middle child of fifteen children. Of her wartime experiences, she notes: “The whole family moved to Minnesota to look for jobs, and they rented farms and were selling raw milk. Four boys were drafted into WWII, and so then I took over the milk route. The law came in, and you couldn’t sell raw milk any more. So there I was, age 21, thinking, ‘What do I do now?’ I saw this little ad in the paper where the Women’s Army Corps was formed, and I thought, ‘That’s for me.’ You get your clothes, travel, medical, dental, pay and all that stuff. “I enjoyed life there totally. There were so many of us in the barracks, eight girls to a room. We went to a lot of professional games and other activities. It was quite like a country club where I was stationed. “I’m proud of being part of the ‘Greatest Generation,’ the World War II soldiers.”
Source: Veterans’ Memorial Hall History form; “Hard Times Bring Forth the Greatest Generation,” The Woman Today, October/November 2009, pp. 22-23
