Valley women were among military trailblazers

May 28—People in the Valley are coming to realize that women are serving in the military in increasing numbers.

It wasn't always that way.

When Debbie Bausch, of Riverside, went to a Navy recruiter in 1971, in Sunbury, she recalled, "he didn't know what I was there for, or what to do with me at first."

And Jody Ocker, of Sunbury, a retired Air Force colonel, remembers a time "when if you went to a grocery store and parked in the 'veterans only' space, people might look and say 'why are you parking there?' But I think that women in the military is more widely accepted now."

Ocker's family was not filled with people who made the military a career.

"I had an uncle that had served in the Army and an uncle who served in the Navy in World War II. But they weren't career military people," she said.

Ocker grew up in Sunbury, graduating in Shikellamy's Class of 1982. She went to Penn State for a few years, then went to Bloomsburg University, where she got her B.S. in nursing.

It was in her senior year in nursing school that recruiters came and did a presentation, encouraging nurses to join the service, she said.

She joined the Air Force in 1989, commissioned as a medical service officer. Officer training was a very special military indoctrination, Ocker said.

"Medical personnel, lawyers, and chaplains went to special officer training as they entered the military," she said.

Her first assignment was at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, at their medical center. From there she went to Incirlick Air Base in Turkey for 15 months. Then she was selected by the Air Force to get her master's degree in nursing. She got her degree at the University of Maryland.

"I got to see the world," she said. "I was always looking for the next overseas assignment."

During her time in service she also was based in Germany, Japan, and the Azores in Portugal.

Ocker made a career of the Air Force, coming in as a commissioned Second Lieutenant. She retired as a "full-bird colonel," a nickname referencing the silver eagle insignia of the rank.

Ocker was in the service during the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm.

"I volunteered, but didn't get selected to go," she said. "While I was in Incirlick, we were enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq. So there were a lot of persons assigned there, but I was assigned to the hospital.

"The years went by so quickly. It was always interesting. One adventure led to another, next assignment, next type of nursing, next role, type of job, next rank. It all went very fast."

Each overseas assignment was unique in its own way, depending on the country that it was in, the size of the base and the area surrounding it, Ocker said.

Ocker was very young during the Vietnam era, "but I do understand that veterans of that era had a very different experience than veterans today. And we do appreciate everyone, in all the little ways that we express gratitude for service."

Desire to explore

Wendy Warfield, of Danville, came from a family with military ties.

"I had a brother in the Marines during the Korean War," she said. "I had a brother in the Army and two others who also retired from the Air Force."

Being from Danville, Warfield "wanted to explore. And having two brothers in the Air Force at the time, when I graduated from high school, I thought, that's what I want to do. See the world," she said.

Warfield joined the Air Force in January 1973. She went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base.

When she first joined, she was based at Torrejon Air Base in Spain.

"There weren't many women there at the time," Warfield said. "But I was ecstatic. Eighteen years old and I was going to another country. I was elated."

There, she worked in classification and training, Warfield said. She also did retraining of people who wanted to get into other career fields.

After leaving Spain she returned to the U.S. When she reenlisted she was able to choose her next posting. Warfield selected San Antonio, Texas, at Air Training Command.

"They offered me a job, so I went down to Randolph AFB and worked in Air Training Command, hiring military training instructors and student training," she said.

After spending years in Texas at Kelly Air Force Base, she got orders to Korea.

Warfield spent 20 years in the Air Force before retiring.

"Being in the Air Force was a good experience," she said. "I enjoyed it. I loved wearing the uniform. I was proud to serve."

Military family

Bausch did come from a family with military traditions. Her father and brothers were in the Navy. So, it followed that when she joined the service, it would be the Navy. She enlisted in 1971 and left the service in 1978.

"My boot camp was in Bainbridge, Maryland," she said. "It was very structured and I wasn't used to it, from the time you got up."

Bausch said she adjusted and helped open the Navy's East Coast Search and Rescue School, in Rhode Island.

Her last two years in the Navy she spent in the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C., she said.