A 104-year-old veteran of service in the Navy quietly celebrates Veterans Day.

There is a photograph of Anne Rasmussen wearing her dress blues. It dates from World War II, when she served in the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, a branch of the Navy.

Her daughter, Mary Anne Rasmussen, reaches into a tub containing more photos and other memorabilia. “We still have the hat,” she says, beaming as she unfolds it carefully, urging her mother to put it on.

“No,” the elder Rasmussen exclaims before bursting into laughter. Then, watching her daughter try on the hat, still a deep and vivid blue, she says, “It looks real nice on you, though.”

Despite her reluctance with the hat, Rasmussen is proud of her time in service. The WAVES performed critical duties, freeing men for service overseas. She spent much of the war decoding messages after taking basic training in Oklahoma and more specialized courses at Hudson College in New York and calls it her biggest adventure—although she is equally proud of her five children.

During the war she was stationed in New Orleans and Miami, a distinct change of scenery from the small southern Illinois mining town she called home.

“I loved the Navy,” Rasmussen says. “We were all friends to one another—everyone.”

Rasmussen is a resident of The Cottages of Carmel, a senior living facility that is home to 54 people, 13 of them veterans of military service. At 104, she is the oldest veteran residing at the facility.

Veterans Day was busy at The Cottages. Officers from the Naval Postgraduate School, along with members of the Visiting Nurse Association held a ceremony recognizing veterans. As one of the few remaining veterans from World War II in the county—there were 132 at the time of the 2020 census; one of these, a 101-year-old man, also lives at The Cottages—Rasmussen was receiving a bit of attention.

She did not want the spotlight, preferring instead to point at two of her sons, both graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy who became fighter pilots. Anne Chicas met her future husband—a Naval officer—shortly after Germany surrendered in 1945.

“It felt like we were all part of the Navy,” Rasmussen’s daughter says with a laugh.

But the elder Rasmussen smiles when shown images of her in service with a “Where did you find that?” sense of wonder. 

There is a photo of her in Miami sometime in 1944. She is in uniform, but this time it's the WAVES base softball uniform, swinging vigorously at a pitch. The picture made it to the pages of Stars and Stripes and went around the world.

One service member who saw the photo was her brother, an ensign in the Navy stationed on a PT Boat in the Pacific. He pointed out a mistake in the caption, which referred to her as Helen.

“My basis for correction is very simple—Anne is my sister,” Sam Chicas wrote in a letter published by the paper. “Thanks a great deal for a wonderful picture of a really wonderful sister and gal.”

At 104, Rasmussen may be a little weary of telling her stories. But the fondness evident on her face when shown old memories says much about what her time in service meant.