Okay, here's a question for you military trivia experts: when was the first US military drone? Was it the Second Gulf War? The First Gulf War? Vietnam?
I don't know if that ID on Norma Jeane's belt survives, but if it does - that's worth something to someone.
Well, as a matter of fact, there were indeed drones in those wars. However, they were not the first military drones. The first US military drone - a real drone, not some "ancestor" of a drone, but an honest-to-goodness, flies-by-itself, does-something-militarily-useful drone - flew in World War II. Before there even was a US Air Force, in fact (it was known as the US Army Air Force then, or USAAF).
They were called "radio planes" (the one shown is an RP-5 aka OQ-2 Radioplane aka TDD-1) because nobody had come up with an official name for them - but they were drones, and known by that name informally even at the time.
Norma Jeane with a neighborhood friend in front of her junior high school, Los Angeles, March 1941. The school and that fire hydrant are still there.
And, in those pictures at the beginning of the article, you're looking at drones. Oh, and you are also looking at Norma Jeane Mortenson/Baker/Dougherty (Norma Jeane had a lot of names to keep track of). But the drones were the thing, at least they were the intended thing for you to be looking at in those shots. Though, of course, nobody now gives a fig about the drones.
Yes, Marilyn Monroe had a high school yearbook just like you. There she is, front and center, second row in the center. Her picture stands out like a diamond. Notice that several of her classmates already are in the military (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images).
Marilyn went to high school in Los Angeles. She was just plain Norma Jean Baker then. Marilyn graduated in 1942, about six months after the United States entered World War II.
Marilyn's mother was a film cutter at Consolidated Film Industries but had a lot of mental issues and Marilyn was placed in orphanages and foster homes after her birth in 1926.
Marilyn Monroe in her wedding dress on or about 19 June 1942. Remember, this shot is years before her first modeling experience of any kind. Whatever "it" is, Marilyn had it naturally.
Let's back up a step to see how Marilyn got into the factory in the first place so that she could be in those pictures. Marilyn was a typical (adopted) high school kid in Van Nuys when the war broke out.
Another shot of Marilyn Monroe in March 1941. Of course, she wouldn't have recognized that name "Marilyn Monroe" at the time, but that's how we think of her now. She is standing outside her house in LA (the house you can see is her neighbor's). Norma Jeane is imitating the famous scene by Claudette Colbert from "It Happened One Night."
She lived with a foster family, but when they moved out of state, Marilyn had to do something quick, because kids in her situation were not allowed to leave the state and could not be alone.
Norma Jeane and Jim Dougherty on their wedding day. Big Jim passed away in 2005.
Marilyn married 21-year-old neighbor James "Jim" Dougherty, a worker at Lockheed, on 19 June 1942. When Jim enlisted in the Merchant Marine in 1943, the happy couple moved to Catalina Island off the California coast the following year. This was so that Marilyn could be nearby while Jim was in basic training on the island.
Marilyn Monroe's house on Catalina Island, where she lived during World War II (Google Street View).
The couple's house on Catalina, incidentally, is perfectly preserved and a top destination for Monroe fans (it's just somebody's house, though, so don't bother the occupants, please stay on the sidewalk). The house is at 310 Metropole Avenue if you happen to be visiting the island. It is just a short walk up from the waterfront area.
Marilyn took several personal snaps on the beach at Catalina Island during World War II. Remember, this is long before she ever thought of becoming a model.
The Monroe house has a real San Francisco vibe, being built on a street running up a steep hill from the harbor. It appears from the photographs of Marilyn on the island that she was happy there and enjoyed going to the beach. After Jim shipped off and left Marilyn on her own, she moved back to the mainland.
Marilyn with her first husband, Jim Dougherty whom she married in 1942. He was the neighbors' kid who worked at Lockheed. He later joined the US Merchant Marine. After Dougherty was shipped off to the Pacific Theater, Marilyn moved in with his parents and took a job with the Radioplane Munitions Factory. Marilyn divorced Jim in September 1946 to focus on her modeling/acting career.
This essentially was a marriage of convenience, to keep Marilyn out of returning to an orphanage (she was barely 16 years old). Essentially, Jim was doing Marilyn a big favor. This was Marilyn's first personal experience with the military. The marriage was not to her liking and was over shortly after the war (at which point Jim completely disappears from history), which leads to a lot of misconceptions. Really, the marriage was only necessary due to her age, and once she got old enough to live on her own, it was no longer necessary, so it's not like the couple divorced because they hated each other. So, that chapter of Marilyn's life closed.
However, Marilyn's connection with the military was just beginning.
Norma Jeane continued her military association long past World War II. And, yes, that most likely is the best DoD headshot of all time. Notice that she used her real name, not her stage name.
After Big Jim went overseas in 1943 and she moved back to the mainland in 1944, Norma Jeane Dougherty got a position with the Radioplane Munitions Factory at Van Nuys Airport in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Her job was spraying down the planes with a fire retardant. However, in the 1944 spread for Yank magazine from which the above photos are taken, photographer David Conover shows Norma Jeane putting together an OQ-2 radio plane. This was first mass-produced and unmanned aerial vehicles in the world, what today (and sometimes then) was called a drone. Assembling the drones actually wasn't Marilyn's normal job (she used a hose and not any tools). Marilyn likely had never held a wrench at the factory before, but posing her with one was close enough to reality for government work.
Norma Jeane entertaining the troops in Korea, 1954.
How Marilyn got the modeling assignment is a tale of serendipity. It all came about in a circuitous manner. David Conover worked for the U.S. Army Air Force's First Motion Picture Unit. His boss sent him to the Radioplane Munitions Factory to get some good publicity snaps of war production for morale purposes, not to find the next superstar model/actress. Out of all the girls in the factory, Conover picked Norma Jeane Dougherty. She had a wholesome, girl-next-door look that was intoxicating. Really, that is how these things work, then and now: someone makes a fateful decision.
Conover took the snaps of Norma Jeane assembling the drone and used them in the magazine spread. That could have been that, but Conover remembered the pretty drone girl and later recommended the wholesome young lady to another photographer who was looking to build a portfolio. That photographer, Bill Carroll, took a bunch of pictures of Marilyn at what would prove to be her most-photographed location: the beach. He then filed them away and only realized in the 1980s that the pretty unknown girl at the beach, Norma Jeane Dougherty, had later changed her professional name to Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe in 1941.
There are many myths about how Norma Jeane came up with the "Marilyn Monroe" moniker. Mickey Rooney famously claimed that he came up with it one day on the spot while he was on the phone with his agent. The reality is likely a little more prosaic: Norma Jeane used her mother's maiden name and an alliterative first name picked by studio executive Ben Lyon. He took it from Broadway star Marilyn Miller (another alliterative name, common in the era). Sorry, Mickey. Incidentally, Marilyn Miller died prematurely at age 37, while Marilyn Monroe died prematurely at age 36.
One of Bill Carroll's snaps of Marilyn.
Carroll's snaps were Norma Jeane's first paid modeling work: he gave her $20, which was good money in those days for a day's work.
So, Bill Carroll made Norma Jeane into a professional model, which caused her to look for other work in the field after the war. This led her to her first paid ad - a print ad for bandages. Now, we have the chain of causation: Carroll gave Norma Jeane her first model salary because he got that tip about the pretty girl from his pal David Conover. And Conover only knew Marilyn because he went to Norma Jeane's radio plane factory and "discovered" her. Conover only went to the factory because his boss ordered him to get some shots of the drone manufacturing process - not of Marilyn, that was strictly accidental and fortuitous. And Conover's boss who started the whole thing and first brought maintenance worker Marilyn Monroe to world attention?
Ronald Reagan.
Marilyn's first paid ad work: an ad for bandages. She felt upstaged by the dog, so she never agreed to be filmed with a dog again. I have to admit, that is some dog. Photo by Bruno Bernard.
So, yes, there is a connection between Marilyn Monroe and World War II: she was discovered in a drone factory due to a decision made by Ronald Reagan, which gave her the start of her entire film career. The conflict and the opportunities that it provided very directly gave Marilyn her start in the professional world of modeling, which led to her film work, which led to you and me to know her name.
Marilyn Monroe at 19 years old sitting in the middle of the Pacific Coast Highway, California. 1945 (Andres de Dienes). For many, this is the most iconic shot ever taken of Marilyn Monroe and is widely imitated.
And, that is not the only connection of World War II to Marilyn Monroe's later career.
A shot by Bill Carroll in October 1945.
One of her husband's co-workers on the Lockheed factory floor, Bob, remembered Norma Jeane fondly years later. However, at the time, Bob only knew her as the wife of fellow worker Big Jim Dougherty. And, along with Norma Jeane, Robert Mitchum also became one of the top stars in Hollywood after the war. They starred together in "River of No Return" about a decade later.
Marilyn continued her relationship with the military long after World War II.
Marilyn signing autographs in Korea (Hulton Archive/Getty Images).
After entertaining U.S. troops in Korea in 1953, she said:
That was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never felt like a star before in my heart. It was so wonderful to look down and see a fellow smiling at me.
It is fair to say that Marilyn's relationship with the military that began during World War II helped to define the rest of her life - as it did with so many millions of other people.
Marilyn Monroe visiting a military base in Korea in 1954.
"We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
"We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.
"Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
"The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms.
"And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor."
"I think I know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking "we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day." Well everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.
"Lord Lovat was with him -- Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "Sorry, I'm a few minutes late," as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
"There was the impossible valor of the Poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold; and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.
"All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore; The Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots' Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's "Matchbox Fleet," and you, the American Rangers.
"Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.
Acting Sergeant Jake McNiece (US Army paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division) with warpaint and mohawk ready to drop into Normandy, June 1944. He was the leader of the Filthy Thirteen - an elite demolition unit whose exploits inspired the novel and movie "The Dirty Dozen."
"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.
"You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
"The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.
"Something else helped the men of D-day; their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: "Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do." Also, that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."
"These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.
"When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together. There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.
"In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. The Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose: to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.
"We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace, prepared to deter aggression, prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms, and yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.
"It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II. Twenty million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.
"We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.
"We're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we're with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.
"Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."
"Strengthened by their courage and heartened by their value [valor] and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.
"Thank you very much, and God bless you all."
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. He served in World War II.
President Ronald Reagan recognizes Raymond Weeks as the father of Veterans Day
Veterans Day is the United States holiday that honors people who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, any branch and in any capacity. These veterans have this one day set aside each year to honor their sacrifices and those sacrifices of soldiers who did not live to see another Veteran's day. Veterans Day as a national day of observance has a long history, but the current holiday has its roots firmly in World War II.
Veterans Day is observed each year on November 11. The date derives from the ending day of World War I (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect). Observances began that year, focused on celebration that the horrible war was over.
Veterans Day began as Armistice Day and initially only honored veterans of World War I, or 'The Great War' as it was known before World War II. Armistice Day became Veterans Day holiday only in 1954, though before that it had been used to honor veterans of all the nation's wars. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had led Allied forces to victory in Europe in World War II, signed the bill into law. That marked the end of a long campaign to bring about that recognition.
Veterans Day is different from Memorial Day in that Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving.
It took concerted action by particular veterans to bring about the federal observance of Veterans Day. The process began in 1945, as World War II came to a close. A veteran of that war, Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks went to Washington, D.C. with other veterans and met with Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of a National Veterans Day, not just one directed at World War I veterans. The government, however, did not enact the law at first, so Weeks himself led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama. He continued doing so annually until his death in 1985.
President Ronald Reagan, a World War II veteran himself, honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan and was married to a disabled World War II veteran herself, did the research that established Weeks as the "Father of Veterans Day." Not all of the coloring pages here reference World War II specifically, but on this page we expand our focus to include all brave veterans of all wars and the weapons they are tasked to use in defense of their countries, putting life and limb in danger.
