06/20/2025
🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Women Veterans Day: Dorothy Cole: US Marine Corps Oldest Living Veteran
"Dorothy "Dot" Cole was determined to enlist in the military after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. At age 28, she first tried the US Navy, but she was not eligible because, at four feet 11 inches, she was too short. So she set her sights on the Marines — but before she tried to enlist, she learned to fly, hoping she could be a military pilot. Cole earned her private pilot’s license and, in 1943, she became one of the first women to enlist in the newly created Women’s Reserve Marine Corps. Dot's dreams of flying for her country didn’t come true; like many women then, she was assigned secretarial duties. Cole served in the Marines in Quantico, Virginia for two years. In 1945 Dorothy was discharged from the Marine Corps with a rank of Marine Sergeant. She relocated to San Francisco and married Wiley Cole, whom she met while working in Washington DC. The couple had one daughter, Beth.
Dorothy worked as a secretary at the Ames Research Center — which later became a part of NASA – in Mountain View, California." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Dorothy turned 107 on September 19, 2020- and was celebrated as the oldest living Marine. In the same month Sergeant Cole was also awarded lifetime membership in the Marine Corps League Cabarrus Detachment 1175.
Dorothy passed away on January 7, 2021 at her daughter’s home in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Besides her daughter Beth, Cole is survived by two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Please join us in remembering Marine Sergeant Dorothy "Dot" Cole. Lest We Forget.
WWII uncovered ©️ original description and photo sourced by Cleveland Plain Dealer, USMC,Ancestry Database and Greensboro News and Record (Fair Use Photos)