On today's program: The president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association says long-term care facilities aren’t getting the COVID-19 vaccine
World War II codebreaker Julia Parsons celebrates 100th birthday with parade, Zoom party
Julia Parsons, of Forest Hills, helped win World War II. The secret, invisible war fought behind the battlefields.
Parsons helped break the Germans’ naval codes, often locating the precise locations and plans of their fearsome U-Boat (submarine) fleet, whose Wolfpack swarms threatened to cut off the shipping lanes that connected the U.S. to England.
Parsons only started talking about her wartime experiences in 1997, taking her mission of secrecy to heart. Not even her husband knew what she did during the war.
On Tuesday, she turned 100. There was a parade (featuring local first responders, veterans and civilians) past her home in Forest Hills, and a Zoom party, during where she talked about her long life and wartime experiences. The fête is organized by the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, Veterans Breakfast Club, which collects and preserves the stories of veterans and has provided a crucial
GREENSBURG, Pa. (Tribune News Service) Julia Parsons knows how to keep a secret. She was tight-lipped about one for more than 50 years. Parsons, 99, of Forest Hills, was a code-breaker in World War II. She served in the U.S. Navy s WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), after graduating from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) in 1942. Following cryptology training at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen s School, Parsons was sent to Washington to be a code-breaker. She worked on one of the first computers to decode German U-boat message traffic sent via the Enigma machine, according to Todd DePastino, founder and executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club, a Pittsburgh nonprofit dedicated to sharing veterans stories.
Julia Parsons holds a World War II-era photo of herself. (Courtesy Veterans Breakfast Club in Pittsburgh)
1 Mar 2021
A World War II code breaker who helped hunt down Nazi U-boats turns 100 on Tuesday and will be honored with a parade past her house in Pittsburgh.
Julia Parsons, who served in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or Navy WAVES, said her work was aided enormously by the sheer arrogance of the German High Command in believing that the allies couldn t possibly break their vaunted Enigma code despite warnings from their own U-Boat commanders.
She told Military.com of deciphering messages from a U-boat commander who surfaced his submarine to contact his controllers. The gist of his message was, Every time I surface, within a half hour there s an airplane overhead. I think they re reading our code, Parsons said.
Heroes Among Us: Reba Moncus
Heroes Among Us: Reba Moncus By Emileigh Forrester | February 25, 2021 at 7:33 AM EST - Updated February 26 at 7:50 AM
SMITHVILLE, Ga. (WALB) - Each month, WALB and Montlick and Associates recognize the “Heroes Among Us.” We spotlight an active duty man or woman, a veteran or a fallen hero.
A female World War II veteran is continuing to make a difference in her community.
“How old am I? Oh, 39 and pending (pending on who I’m talking to),” Reba Moncus said.
She is actually 99 years old and lives in Smithville, but she grew up in Omega.
Almost 80 years ago, World War II was going on. She was 21 at the time, making a decision few women made.