Military (ACWH)

A 1965 graduate of Allegany High School, Marjorie Hobrock enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1966 during the Vietnam War era. Sgt. Hobrock served stateside and worked in communications.

Since that time women have played an increasingly important role in the armed forces. In March 2005, about 350,000 women were serving in the U.S. military, almost 15% of active duty personnel, one in seven soldiers. (From: NPR Radio, Wounded in War: The Women Serving in Iraq, March 14, 2005).

In addition to 99 local nurses going off to WWI in 1917, the local Women’s Preparedness Committee noted that women were fast taking their place in all walks of life including working in most of the local industries as well as in the creation of war gardens to increase the flow of food overseas. African-American women organized their own separate clubs and reported 111 war gardens in Cumberland alone by November 1917.