A red granite memorial to veterans of all this nation’s wars and the cold wars in between its armed conflicts, designed by a county Womens Army Corps veteran of the Korean War, will be dedicated at Little Axe American Legion post 2 p.m. Tuesday.
It was designed by Patricia Penn, a former WAC who twice was Cleveland County Disabled American Veterans commander and has served in numerous other positions in both the DAV and the Shawnee American Legion post.
The Pink area resident explains that’s because she lives “about half way in between.”
The monument bears the words, “in memory of those who have served to protect our country,” and insignias of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard in a circle centered by an American flag.
Funded by Little Axe American Legion Post 274 and Cleveland County DAV Chapter 61, the memorial will be unveiled during the Veterans Day ceremony at the Legion post, 2020 156th Avenue NE, Norman, (about one mile north of Thunderbird Casino on SH 9).
Main speaker will be Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.
State Rep.Wallace Collins of Norman, who has been very supportive of the American Legion post there, also will speak.
Sarge Brannon, retired career Air Force sergeant and music leader of Pink Baptist Church, will sing patriotic songs.
The uniformed honor guard will be Absentee Shawnee servicemen from Oklahoma City and Cleveland County.
Willis Granite Company, Granite, donated the engraving on the Oklahoma granite stone, a $3,000 gift.
“We’ll have a man from all five branches of service there,” Penn said. “The Coast Guard is not under the Navy any more. It’s under Homeland Security but they’ll come.”
“We have a veteran of World War II Coast Guard in our Little Axe Legion post,” she added.
Penn also was on the planning committee for a Norman veterans memorial that will be dedicated on Veterans Day morning. Planning of the Little Axe memorial started six months ago, the Norman monument six years ago, Penn said.
“If you start putting names on, you get into controversy,” she said.
”This one (at Little Axe) is just to honor all who served. I think it’s about time.”
Honoring all of America’s veterans is very important to Penn.
Her husband, Richard Penn is also a Korean War veteran. She had a relative in every branch of the service in World War II, two uncles in World War I, her deceased first husband was in the Vietnam Conflict and a cousin’s daughter is currently serving in Afghanistan.
War broke out in Korea June 25, 1950, four days after Penn entered the Womens Army Corps.
Born in Reno County, Kansas in 1932, she became a Shawnee resident at age six months, started school at then-two room Pleasant Grove School next door to her grandfather’s home, and attended Shawnee schools until her sophomore year.
Her last three years were at Norman High School, where she graduated in 1950
“I had to wait until I was 18 to go into the WAC,” she said. She enlisted for the occupational training opportunities.
Penn was assigned to the Pentagon in a top secret communications field. “It was a lot of hard work. I was doing a lot of 12-hour shifts. Once you went to work, you stayed until everything was completed.
“Then you’d go to bed but you might be called to fall out for a parade at 8 a.m., two hours of sleep later. By the time the parade was over, it was time to go back to work.”
After a year at the Pentagon, “everybody in the family got sick and I was transferred to the Oklahoma City recruiting office,” she said. From there she was sent to Fort Hood to do the same top secret work she did at the Pentagon.
Following discharge, Penn received an accounting degree from Hill’s Business University, Oklahoma City, and joined the Reserve.
In December 1959, she was recalled to active duty, ultimately the comptroller’s office at Landstuhl Hospital, Germany, and Fort Leonard Wood, where she revised the post’s financial plan, met and married her first husband.
He was sent to France when she was discharged in October 1963. Penn joined him there and did volunteer work, mainly on base, about three years- until he was sent to Vietnam. She came home to Shawnee.
When her husband’s 18-month tour was up, he was sent to the East Coast to finish the month or two left before his retirement.
He was killed in an auto accident before Penn could join him in the east.
She was working at Tinker Field when a heavy box of paper she was trying to remove from a ceiling-high stack, fell on her shoulder knocking out 4 major vertebrae. She eventually had to quit full-time employment, but turned to volunteer work, especially with veterans, the DAV and American Legion.
Penn is still permanently disabled, 100 percent service connected from an ankle and back injury suffered in basic training in 1950.
Patricia and Richard Penn, long-time acquaintances, were married in June 1990.
Richard Penn was in the Air Force in Korea, 10 minutes from the front lines, repairing jet airplanes.
The WACs were absorbed into the Army in 1960.
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A red granite memorial to veterans of all this nation’s wars and the cold wars in between its armed conflicts, designed by a county Womens Army Corps veteran of the Korean War, will be dedicated at Little Axe American Legion post 2 p.m. Tuesday.
It was designed by Patricia Penn, a former WAC who twice was Cleveland County Disabled American Veterans commander and has served in numerous other positions in both the DAV and the Shawnee American Legion post.
The Pink area resident explains that’s because she lives “about half way in between.”
The monument bears the words, “in memory of those who have served to protect our country,” and insignias of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard in a circle centered by an American flag.
Funded by Little Axe American Legion Post 274 and Cleveland County DAV Chapter 61, the memorial will be unveiled during the Veterans Day ceremony at the Legion post, 2020 156th Avenue NE, Norman, (about one mile north of Thunderbird Casino on SH 9).
Main speaker will be Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.
State Rep.Wallace Collins of Norman, who has been very supportive of the American Legion post there, also will speak.
Sarge Brannon, retired career Air Force sergeant and music leader of Pink Baptist Church, will sing patriotic songs.
The uniformed honor guard will be Absentee Shawnee servicemen from Oklahoma City and Cleveland County.
Willis Granite Company, Granite, donated the engraving on the Oklahoma granite stone, a $3,000 gift.
“We’ll have a man from all five branches of service there,” Penn said. “The Coast Guard is not under the Navy any more. It’s under Homeland Security but they’ll come.”
“We have a veteran of World War II Coast Guard in our Little Axe Legion post,” she added.
Penn also was on the planning committee for a Norman veterans memorial that will be dedicated on Veterans Day morning. Planning of the Little Axe memorial started six months ago, the Norman monument six years ago, Penn said.
“If you start putting names on, you get into controversy,” she said.
”This one (at Little Axe) is just to honor all who served. I think it’s about time.”
Honoring all of America’s veterans is very important to Penn.
Her husband, Richard Penn is also a Korean War veteran. She had a relative in every branch of the service in World War II, two uncles in World War I, her deceased first husband was in the Vietnam Conflict and a cousin’s daughter is currently serving in Afghanistan.
War broke out in Korea June 25, 1950, four days after Penn entered the Womens Army Corps.
Born in Reno County, Kansas in 1932, she became a Shawnee resident at age six months, started school at then-two room Pleasant Grove School next door to her grandfather’s home, and attended Shawnee schools until her sophomore year.
Her last three years were at Norman High School, where she graduated in 1950
“I had to wait until I was 18 to go into the WAC,” she said. She enlisted for the occupational training opportunities.
Penn was assigned to the Pentagon in a top secret communications field. “It was a lot of hard work. I was doing a lot of 12-hour shifts. Once you went to work, you stayed until everything was completed.
“Then you’d go to bed but you might be called to fall out for a parade at 8 a.m., two hours of sleep later. By the time the parade was over, it was time to go back to work.”
After a year at the Pentagon, “everybody in the family got sick and I was transferred to the Oklahoma City recruiting office,” she said. From there she was sent to Fort Hood to do the same top secret work she did at the Pentagon.
Following discharge, Penn received an accounting degree from Hill’s Business University, Oklahoma City, and joined the Reserve.
In December 1959, she was recalled to active duty, ultimately the comptroller’s office at Landstuhl Hospital, Germany, and Fort Leonard Wood, where she revised the post’s financial plan, met and married her first husband.
He was sent to France when she was discharged in October 1963. Penn joined him there and did volunteer work, mainly on base, about three years- until he was sent to Vietnam. She came home to Shawnee.
When her husband’s 18-month tour was up, he was sent to the East Coast to finish the month or two left before his retirement.
He was killed in an auto accident before Penn could join him in the east.
She was working at Tinker Field when a heavy box of paper she was trying to remove from a ceiling-high stack, fell on her shoulder knocking out 4 major vertebrae. She eventually had to quit full-time employment, but turned to volunteer work, especially with veterans, the DAV and American Legion.
Penn is still permanently disabled, 100 percent service connected from an ankle and back injury suffered in basic training in 1950.
Patricia and Richard Penn, long-time acquaintances, were married in June 1990.
Richard Penn was in the Air Force in Korea, 10 minutes from the front lines, repairing jet airplanes.
The WACs were absorbed into the Army in 1960.
