When Bea Arthur joined the form ofThe Golden Girlsin 1985 , she had already established an impressive vocation on level and telly . But one of her most important task predates her performing career — for 2.5 years , Arthur served in the U.S. Marine Corps .
allot to theNational World War II Museum , her service of process came at a meter when women enlist in the military machine was still an anomalousness . The country had recently entered the Second World War , and the Marines began recruit woman as a way to free more man to fill fighting roles . The Marines opened the Women ’s Reserve in 1943 after every other military branch had already bulge accept distaff members .
One of the program ’s first enrollees was a 20 - year - one-time fair sex who was called Bernice Frankel at the time , and who ’s best experience as Bea Arthur today . Prior to enlisting , she had look Blackstone College in Virginia for a year , work as a solid food psychoanalyst at the Phillips Packing Company , and volunteer as a civilian tune - raid warden . As she by and by wrote in a letter of the alphabet , she joined the Marines on a whim : “ I was supposed to start work yesterday , but heard last week that enlistments for cleaning woman in the Marines were undefendable , so [ I ] decided the only matter to do was to join . ”
After attending the first Women Reservists schoolhouse at Hunter College in New York , Arthur spent the remainder of her service at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point , North Carolina as a truck driver andtypist . According to her Official Military Personnel File ( OMPF ) , she exhibited “ meticulous unspoiled gustation ” and was " argumentative , " " over aggressive , " and “ interfering — but probably a good worker if she has her own room ! ”
Bea Arthur get in the Marines a private and had risen to staff sergeant by the time she was discharged . Her release paperwork usher that she expressed pursuit in give way to drama school after the military , foreshadowing a farseeing career ahead .
