Making History: 99-year-old World War II Veteran recalls her service with the U.S. Coast Guard SPARs
Marie Julia Pfeiffer almost didn’t join the Coast Guard during World War II because her mother didn’t approve. But the then 23-year-old felt serving in the Women’s Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard would be an appropriate way to honor her brother, who had died in the line of duty in Saipan.
Now known as Marie Goff, the 99-year-old Veteran from Kenosha joined the SPARs, went to Chicago to swear in the service, and headed off to basic training at the Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel in Florida.
SPAR refers to the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus - Always Ready. More than 10,000 women served as SPARs between 1942-1946. To join, women had to be 20-36 years old, have completed at least two years of high school and not be married to a Coast Guardsman. The Florida site had three SPAR schools: yeoman, storekeeper, and cooks and bakers.
Goff trained as a baker, but when she reached her first duty assignment in Seattle, she was assigned as a storekeeper in the ship’s service. Goff said the job helped her make friends because many of the other SPARs would stop by over lunch to buy candy bars.
Goff said she “loved every minute” of being a SPAR. At the time, many saw the SPARs as “glamour girls,” more Miss America than standoffish military service member. Coast Guard recruiting described a SPAR as “an attractive, wholesome, high-spirited young woman with impeccable grooming habits, perfect teeth and no ambition beyond serving her country.” They encouraged women to join with the slogan, “Make a date with Uncle Sam.”
But for Goff, there was more to life than working in the ship store. Her memory album is full of tattered black-and-white photos of young women posing in swimsuits on the beach, performing skits and musicals, skiing the mountains of Washington and generally loving life. She fondly remembers the camaraderie of belonging to something bigger than herself.
“When I look at these photos, it makes me feel young again,” she said. “I enjoyed every minute of it, wearing the uniform and being part of the SPARs. Like the motto says, we were always ready. We all had a sense of duty to help during the war, and this was our way to contribute.”
Goff said one of her best memories was V-J Day, pointing to a picture in album that showed her and other SPARS celebrating in August 1945. The victory came several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, and Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought the war to a final, highly anticipated end.
Following V-J Day, the SPARs began demobilizing. By June 1946, all the SPARs had gone home. After she left the SPARs, the Kenosha native married her former neighbor and childhood friend Allan Goff, a sailor in the U.S. Navy. Eventually, the couple moved back to Kenosha and raised a family.
While the SPARS division of the U.S. Coast Guard would only last four years during World War II, it paved the way for other women in the armed forces. Most SPARs worked in clerical positions, but others became parachute riggers, air control tower operators, coxswains, vehicle drivers and served in other critical fields.