Havasu veterans | Rosamond ‘Roz’ Naylor: A century of service: ‘See, I had goals. So, no matter what I went through, I had to do it’

“When I lived in Massachusetts, we were very patriotic there,” Naylor said. “My brother was stationed at Guadalcanal at the beginning of the war.”

For her boot camp, the veteran had to attend Hunter College in Bronx, New York before shipping off to complete her required courses. This included studying at the Aviation Machinist’s Mate A-School at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Millington, Tennessee. While becoming an Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Naylor also held positions as a secretary and a platoon leader.

“I was stationed at Cherry Point, North Carolina and I took a course at NATTC [in Tennessee],” Naylor recounted. “I took a three-week course in Norfolk, Virginia. Then, I was stationed at El Toro, California and that was wonderful.”

Since the military at the time did not allow women to travel overseas, Naylor says she served stateside during her time in the Marine Corps.

“[I was in] World War II,” Naylor said. “They didn’t allow the girls [to go overseas] until the end of war and that was just to Hawaii.”

What made Naylor’s experience significant is the historical factor surrounding the group of women she enlisted with.

“I was in the first regiment of women Marines,” Naylor described. “They called us “efficiency experts” because there was a new building and parts weren’t ready for us. We worked on the engine parts and replacements.”

Naylor lists off a handful of skills and duties her unit had to learn, which includes troubleshooting, lubrication, morse code, identification, hand tools, instruments and controls.

“These are all of the things we learned – principles of propeller’s aircraft, electrical, changing tires, patching holes in wings, riveting, splicing rope and cable,” Naylor continued. “It’s all obsolete now, probably.”

In 1944, Naylor became married to her husband who was also in the military at that time. She recalls meeting her husband while she was working at her first job at Cherry Point.

“We got married at the base and the chaplain married us in North Carolina,” Naylor said. “My grandfather was stationed in the same place during the Civil War, so it was fun walking on the same streets that my grandfather walked on much earlier.”

One specific memory that Naylor still keeps in mind is the fact that the first uniforms were created by the oldest department store in America, Lord and Taylor. The veteran also continues to hold a positive impression about her time in the Marine Corps.

“It was wonderful to be there with all of those girls from different places,” Naylor said. “I never knew the times were rough.”

Thinking back on how the military changed her as a person, Naylor comes up dry.

“We never thought about things like that, not like today. We didn’t talk,” Naylor explained. “I come from New England where we were supposed to not show our emotions, either good or bad and I’m one of them.”

While flipping through her blue-hued military scrapbook, Naylor comes across the songs that she used to sing in the Marine Corps.

““It’s time to get up, it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up in the Marine Corps!” Naylor sang happily.

One tune the veteran stumbles upon leaves her with a wide smile and a vivacious laugh.

“The biscuits that they give us, they say are mighty fine. One fell off the table and killed a pal-o-mine!” Naylor crooned merrily. “This was all during that time. All of the songs that we sang.”

Something that people today do not know about the military, according to Naylor, is the information that was supposed to be withheld by those who served.

“[What people do not know are] the things we weren’t supposed to tell anybody, is that a good answer?” Naylor smiled. “It’s true, too.”

When Naylor was discharged in September 1945, she was 23 years old. She remembers taking a train from El Toro to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Naylor then returned to her home state and graduated from Boston University.

“I was a substitute school teacher through the GI Bill,” Naylor said. “See, I had goals. So, no matter what I went through, I had to do it.”

Skimming to the end of her military memorabilia, Naylor hits upon photos from when two of her sisters were sworn into the Marine Corps. Turning onto a page that holds three separate patches, Naylor describes each one and points out who they once belonged to.

“This is my husband’s and that’s my brother’s, he wants his,” Naylor said, openly. “My mother was over in France during World War I with the YMCA volunteers.”

Since Naylor recently made a donation of personal military artifacts to the Mohave Military Museum, her scrapbook is one of her last remaining remnants of her time in the Marine Corps.

“You see, I saved everything,” Naylor added. “This is how I keep busy, doing all of this stuff.”