Mary Devine, right, director of the Nevada Department of Veterans Services, presented Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proclamation commending 105-year-old Mercedes Starr of Lovelock for her service during World War II in the Navy WAVES. To their left is Craig Starr, Mercedes son.
Navy veteran and longtime Lovelock resident Mercedes Marcucci Starr has witnessed many events during her lifetime.
From witnessing the Great Depression in the late 1920s to a devasting world war in the 1940s that resulted in the death of millions of people, Starr grabbed a front-row seat watching events unfold before her eyes.
Undaunted by what her friends and family thought of women fighting in a war, Starr enlisted in the Navy in early 1944 because she wanted to serve her country.
Now 105 years old, Starr’s story now belongs to others. The Nevada Department of Veterans Services honored Starr on Monday for her contributions to her nation and the recognition afforded during Women’s History Month.
Mary Devine, director of the Nevada Department of Veterans Services and members of her staff, traveled to Lovelock to present Starr a proclamation on behalf of Gov. Joe Lombardo for Starr’s service. The Nevada Veterans Coalition presented the colors to begin the ceremony. Starr is a patient in the skilled nursing care center at Pershing General Hospital.
“It’s important to let these veterans know that we honor their service, and we’ll never forget what they have done for our country,” said Devine, who is retiring as an Army colonel at the end of March after 37 years of service.
Starr, whose family immigrated from Italy and eventually found a home in Lovelock when she entered fourth grade, found herself in a new community completely different from the big city. After high school, Starr worked for the family’s store and a drug store, and she married Ronald “Larry” Starr, a classmate she had known since he moved to Lovelock in 1939.
The Nevada Veterans Coalition presented on Monday the colors at a ceremony honoring 105-eyuar- Mercedes Starr of Lovelock.
Community life in Lovelock during the war years was tough as anyone from that generation would attest. Occasional blackouts and shortages of supplies and fuel swept across small towns and big cities. Larry Starr decided to enlist in the Navy and eventually became a Seabee stationed in Alaska. Mary, now in her early 20s, also heard the calling from President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he signed the Navy Women’s Reserve Act’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES)
Mark McBride, NDVS deputy director of Healthcare Services, offered additional background on Starr’s life in the 1940s including her enlistment in the Navy on Feb. 10, 1944, and ensuing boot camp conducted in New York City.
“She decided to join, a decision not necessarily popular,” said McBride, referring to Larry’s concerns. “For a strong woman, she made a decision.”
Many women supported the war effort in the shipyards and factories that produced airplane and weapons, but the federal government sought to include more women into the workforce as well as in the military. Near the end of WWII, the WAVES attracted almost 74,000 enlisted women and 8,745 officers, figures that exceeded the Navy’s expectations.
Accordingly, though, WAVES replaced their male counterparts in shore-duty assignments.
For six weeks at Hunter College in the Bronx, Mercedes Starr attended boot camp at the U.S Naval Training Center, which observers called “precedent-breaking.” Over time, the WAVES became part of the Navy, not a corps or auxiliary like the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps or WAACs.
The U.S. Naval Training Center (Women’s Reserves) located at Hunter College, trained more than 81,000 WAVES for basic training. The WAVES also trained for the enlisted rank of yeoman at this location.
By the end of WWII, Waves served at about 900 shore stations in the U.S. and represented about 18% of naval personnel assigned to shore duties. Closer to the enemy, though, seven WAVE officers and 62 enlisted sailors died before the final Instrument of Peace was signed Sept. 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay.
WAVES served at 900 shore stations throughout the United States with the majority serving in Washington, D.C. The women were initially not allowed to deploy overseas despite Navy nurses having served in Europe during the first world war, and the WACs assigned overseas since 1942. The WAVES’s mission was to release men to fight, while they performed duties at home. On Sept. 27, 1944, Congress passed an act allowing WAVES to serve in Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean.
Starr served in the Navy WAVES during World War II.
After finishing her basic training at Hunter’s College, Starr found herself assigned to the 12th Navy District, San Francisco’s Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo. One of the major missions of the shipyard was to provide logical support for ships and services and material for other naval functions.
“She was a seaman first class and telegrapher third class,” McBride said. “She would telegraph orders for supplies and ammunition for naval warships in the Pacific fleet.
Craig Starr, one of two sons who lives in Lovelock, said his mother had talked about her days in the Navy when he was younger and what she did at Mare Island.
“She would order ammunition from Herlong and Hawthorne,” he said, noting the two ammunition plants were located at California and Nevada, respectively.
The Herlong depot built in 1942 stored ammunition in a dry, isolated area of eastern California 55 miles northeast of Reno. Hawthorne began as a naval ammunition depot 135 miles southeast of Reno with the mission to store, service and issue ammunition for the Pacific warfighting mission. During the war, the installation’s mission expanded significantly to include the demolition of both allied and enemy ammunition.
Craig remembers when his mother told the family the other sailors teased the female sailors from Nevada as Desert Rats.
“Mom said I’d rather be a Desert Rat that what they go through on the East Coast,” he laughed.
Craig said he learned a little about his parents’ military duties during the war. His father was a Seabee assigned near the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, but the most eventful event affecting the sailors while stationed there wasn’t caused by the enemy
“Dad and another man came down with chicken pox and they had to stay in quarters, and then the whole unit was then wiped out,” he recalled.
The can-do attitude displayed by his mother during World War II doesn’t surprise him. He said his mother enjoyed her time in the Navy before she returned home and assimilated into the family business. On numerous occasions, she would step in for employees who didn’t show up for work.
“Dad would say, ‘We need someone to run the batch plant. Mom, we need you,” Craig said.
During other times, it wasn’t uncommon to find his mother driving a truck or keeping the books. He remembers his mother saying she would never marry a “God-damn” rancher.
“So, what did we do?” We bought a ranch,” he grinned.
Holly Wesner, director of nursing at Pershing General Hospital, thanked the NDVS for honoring Mercedes Starr and other veterans in the community.
“What a great thing for Lovelock to have a hero in our community. We have many heroes in our community,” she said.
Debbie Balsinger, a constituent representative from Congressman Mark Amodei’s office in Reno, presented a proclamation. Devine read the governor’s proclamation which commended Starr on her commitment to duty and to her fellow veterans.
Ira Hansen, who represents Pershing County in the Nevada State Senate, and Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen, signed the proclamation, which read, in part, “Her service in the U.S. Navy was one chapter in a life that continues to inspire all who have the privilege to know her.”