Although "Pensacola's First Lady Marine of WWII" was not an official title for Miss Gladys Vonceil "Boots" Walser, it was certainly indicated so by the News Journal. But regardless of the "officiality" of the moniker, Miss Walser did in fact enlist in the US Marine Corps at the age of 16-years-old in WWII. She was born in Pensacola, Florida on April 11, 1927, the daughter of Robert Andrew Walser (1900-1946) and Myrtle Lee McDaniel (1908-1971). Her parents would divorce in 1936 and eventually each would remarry.
In the meantime, her older brother James Odes Walser was stationed on the gunboat USS Asheville in the South Pacific. But, seven months later came the surprise and devastating attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. Gladys, along with every other American, was awestruck to hear the news that our fleet was decimated along with 3,000 military servicemen dead. Within days of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese expanded their offensive to include the Philippines as they pushed their forces south toward Australia. And right in the middle of this unstoppable juggernaut was Gladys' older brother James! But there was no news from or about James until early April 1942 when they were notified by the War Department that he was missing in action. For the rest of the war, they heard and knew nothing new about the fate of their son and brother.
For young Gladys, it was especially hard to sit at home and do nothing when our entire nation was at war. So, on October 28, 1943 she left Pensacola High School and walked down to the recruiting station at the old Post office on the NE corner of Palafox & Chase Street. There, she enlisted in the Marine Corps determined to do her bit for the war effort. She was only 16 years old, just like her brother had been, so she had to get her mother's permission to join. Following basic training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, she was transferred to San Francisco, CA. By 1943, she was a corporal and handling the muster rolls and casualty lists in the military post office building. She told her parents that maybe she would one day see her brother's name on some document to bring an end to the mystery.
Finally, the war ended, and word was received from a recently released POW off the sunken USS Houston. The sailor related that he was told a story by the only survivor from the Ashville. The survivor told him they had been attacked by enemy ships on March 3, 1942 and had gone done with all hands off the Java coast. Now they knew! She would marry at Paradise Beach on November 4, 1946 to WWII veteran LCdr John Charles Azab who was stationed in Pensacola at the time. Sadly, she was fatally injured in a car wreck on November 19, 2012 at "A" Street and Garden and passed away two days later and joined her husband in Barrancas Cemetery.
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