McCannell recalls life as a woman Marine

By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    When the Gunnery Sergeant utters the United States Marine Corps’ “Semper Fi,” it comes with a chuckle, a breaking smile and dancing ocean blue eyes … always faithful.
     The youngest of 12, Gunny would sit and look through binoculars at the sky to see if any plans were coming. Gunny’s mom was an Air Raid Warden during WW II.
    “She talked military when we were watching the planes,” Gunny said. “She wished she was in the military so she could help her sons. That probably was the first seed of thinking about going in.”
    Gunny’s choice of service wasn’t embraced by a six-star mother, but later on, it would become both of their lifestyles. Through the corps, Gunny learned first-hand about breaking down walls of prejudice.
    Gunny Sergeant Ruth A. McCannell was 18 years old when she enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.
    “When I was in the eighth grade I saw a poster and then a young woman in Princeton, who had gone into the corps, was home on leave,” she said. “I wanted to be a Marine. I wanted to belong to an elite organization. That’s all I could think of.”
    Though McCannell’s mother never told her daughter outright how she really felt about her enlistment, she did offer some advice.
    “My mother told me upon signing permission for me to join the Marine Corps to please guard my reputation with my life,” McCannell recalled. “You will be associated with all walks of life. Never judge a book by its cover. Get to know with whom you associate. Don’t make snap judgements as to their character. But know, that once your reputation is lost there is no way in which to retrieve it. Serve yourself, your family, the corps and your country with honor.”
WOMAN VETERAN – Gunny Sergeant Ruth A. McCannell is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. She served her country with pride.
    McCannell’s mother ran a well-structured home, as her husband died five months before her daughter’s birth.
    “She raised us when there was no such thing as food stamps or any state aid,” McCannell said.
    McCannell learned all she needed to know about pride and dignity from watching her mother get on a rickety old bus with no heat and travel to Eastport every day to work in a sardine factory, making $18 a week.
    McCannell, a four-year letterman and basketball captain, graduated from Princeton High School in 1954. She had been active in Junior Speaking, Business Manager 3, a candidate for queen and class president .
    At first, McCannell’s thought was to attend the University of Maine. But, in those days, athletic scholarships were limited.
    “I knew none of us could afford for me to go,” she said.
    So, she fell back on her initial dream … the Marine Corps since it offered a G.I. Bill.
    “I went straight out of high school,” she said.
    She went to basic training and served three years and came home discharged from the corps.
    “There was a letter of acceptance from the Dean of Women at the University of Maine. I went for an interview,” McCannell said.
    But, McCannell was missing a part of her life … the U.S. Marine Corps.
    “I missed the corps and the camaraderie,” she said. “My mother was with me most of the time while in the corps, with other times spent with her son Donald [Don]. So, after the interview, I went back to Princeton and said, ‘Momma, what do you think about us going back into the Marine Corps?’ She said ‘ Where are we going to be stationed?’”
    That’s all it took. McCannell was back in dress blues and spit-shined shoes. McCannell was an outstanding Marine and all the paperwork and commendations to prove it.
    While in the Marine Corps, McCannell’s two loves came together.
    “I was able to play on the All-Marine Corps championship basketball team,” she said. “There was also another Mainer on the team, June Fields. In 1955, we took the All-Marine Corps title and West Coast championship, and in 1956, we again were the West Coast and All-Marine Corps champions.”
    It was an all-female squad, which played a half-court game. She received a gold and bronze medal for playing center forward on the team.
    Though not battle bruised, the affects of the Vietnam War weigh heavy on Gunny’s mind. But, there are no regrets for living a Marine’s life.
    “I pushed all that stuff aside in my mind,” she said. “All of a sudden in the last few months, stuff has come back to me. The deaths of these young people. It affects me. I didn’t think it ever would.”
    But, when Gunny stood gazing at the black marble with names of those who gave their lives for our country in Vietnam, she was overwhelmed.
    “When you see those names, it hits ya,” she said with conviction. “You can’t help but cry. It’s heart-wrenching.”
    While studying the wall, McCannell saw a name of a young Marine captain, who had signed one of her military fitness reports.
    He arrived at the Marine Corps Recruiting Station, Kansas City, Mo., and was assigned as an assistant officer in charge. He was only there for a few months when he received his orders for Vietnam.
    “This young captain’s name is forever etched on a Black Wall among 60,000 other brave men and women, who gave their lives for the freedom which we enjoy,” McCannell said. “Oh, how I wept for this young man when I, along with a Marine Corps officer and minister notified his wife that her young Warrior was not to return to her. I wept for her loss.”
    McCannell had another heartache during the Vietnam War.
    “I again wept when the parents of a young lady upon her death asked me to give the eulogy and to honor her for her service as a U.S. Marine. I was asked to personally do this, for I was the Marine who enlisted her in the service,” she said. “The tears and heartache remain in my mind for those two wonderful young people and for the many friends I have lost.”
    One of McCannell’s proudest moments as a Marine came when she personally made the trip to Washington D.C. on Oct. 16, 1977 for the dedication ceremony of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial located at the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
    The memorial honors and holds the history of all women who have served honorably in every branch of military service — past, present and future. For anyone visiting the memorial, inside they will find computers that contain the names of women who have served. Those names are forever etched in the history of the United States of America and our military.
    “I thought over the years, I would become a faceless ancestor,” McCannell said. “Knowing that I have contributed something to my ancestry and that millions of people will visit the memorial, among those, hopefully my own family, recaptures for them a part of my past and the contributions made to our country by all military women.”
    Through her years in the Marine Corps, McCannell was treated with the utmost respect. After recruiting school at Parris Island, S.C., she was stationed in Kansas City, Mo. She was to report to the major, a hard-corps Marine.
    “He told her he wasn’t too fond of woman in the military,” McCannell recounted. “I said, ‘Sir, I am not here to win a popularity contest. I have orders from headquarters Marine Corps Washington D.C. to report to duty as a recruiter.’ He quietly grumbled. Chewing on his cigar, I stood at attention, all polished. And, he dismissed me. We came to terms, and when he left, he told me he enjoyed my sparring.”
    McCannell got none the less treatment while in Hawaii on an unaccompanied tour when her mother, who was at home, fell ill.
    “I received emergency leave and got a hop out of Honolulu with the Air Force,” she said. “We had a hospital ship (plane) that came into the island, which [medevaced] the injured back home.”
    The plane was on its way home to Illinois for repairs, but halfway across 3,000 miles of ocean, the  engine began spitting out oil.
     “I said, ‘Sir, do you see that oil coming out?’ He said, ‘Oh yea, Gunny. We will be alright. We crawled into San Francisco. After they pumped oil to her, we took off and then landed in Illinois,” she said.
    Since the young colonel couldn’t find McCannell another hop, he asked for a staff car and driver to be ready to take her to the civilian airport in St. Louis. When they landed, the car and driver were ready and McCannell even had a passenger a CIA agent.
    “I was always treated with highest respect and esteem,” she said. “I never had any disrespect shown to me by any Marine in all my 20 years of active duty.”
    McCannell received a Humanitarian transfer to Bangor as a recruiter for two years and then was assigned to Norfolk, Va. in Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, as an Account Analyst Chief. She retired in 1974 after 20 years of active service, but despite retirement, she still could be activated into service until she officially retired on 30 years in 1984.
    If the corps would have called her back, McCannell said, “I would have love to gone. I wouldn’t have traded it. I loved the U.S. Marine Corps … dress blues and spit-shined shoes.”
    The Marine Corps was fun, but McCannell knew the hardships of it, too.
    “As a recruiter [during Vietnam] I was at high schools and college campuses,” she said. “I got my uniform torn. I was spit on. But, we had our job to do.”
    But, time moves forward. McCannell has no regrets about joining the Marines.
    “I just loved it, and love it today,” she said. “Semper Fidelis, we are always faithful. Once a Marine, always a Marine. I would never change it for anything.”
    McCannell never married except to the U.S. Marine Corps. She made a decision to stay in the corps, instead. If she would have married, she would have been discharged as a Marine. So, she stayed a Marine and her mother remained a committed Marine mother until her death in 1976.
    After retiring, she came back to Maine and her East Grand home. But, after a major heart attack, she has settled in Houlton.
     McCannell worked with underprivileged children through her military career, and through the years, she has received letters from those she has helped and from those who she called friend. But, the most important forms she received were her military records from St. Louis, Mo. Her records indicate nothing less than an exemplary career. The records showed she remained the same constant person, nothing less than a top-notch Marine.
    “Homage was paid to all veterans of every war by the people of the United States of America, with the exception of the Vietnam Vets,” McCannell said. “On this Veteran’s day, all I ask is for my beloved country whom I gave 30 years of my life to for the freedom which you enjoy, pay homage to all veterans living and gone by extending a hand and speaking the words thank you for a job well done.”