With a grateful nod to the pinup girls of World War II who did a wonderful job boosting the morale of our fighting men, there’s another group of pinup women who have been traveling the country for almost 20 years now doing the same great job for our wounded warriors and older veterans in VA hospitals and state veterans homes.
These pinups don’t pose in pictures in a bathing suit like Betty Grable, or lingerie as Ava Gardner did. That’s not the kind of morale they’re providing.
Recognition and respect is. Sitting by the hospital bed of these men sharing a laugh as they watch them thumb through the pinup calendar the women have brought with them – trying to match the face with the month.
And then it hits and a special connection forms that not even the pinup girls of WW II and USO shows could have ever imagined 80 years ago.
From Miss January to Miss December, all those attractive pinups the men are looking at in that calendar have one big thing in common with them. They all served in the Armed Forces, too.
That’s when you begin to feel the morale in the room rise.
“There’s nothing that says I can’t be a hard-charging Marine and a lipstick wearing pinup, so I choose to be both,” said Miss July, Jovane Marie.
Miss June, Army military police officer Erikka Davis, faced a different challenge putting on that red lipstick and colorful 1940s era dress for her visits. It had been a long time since she felt feminine, she said.
“As a female MP it’s difficult to be respected, so hardening my personality seemed to be an effective way to keep up with my fellow male soldiers,” she said.
“This has been a difficult switch to turn off. Pin-Ups for Vets is slowly reminding me that I am not only allowed to be a veteran, but a lady as well.”
At the West Los Angeles VA facility, recreational therapist Sarah El Hage said, “Our vets still talk about the day when the lovely ladies came to visit them. Their calendars are hung all over their rooms.”
It can be a…
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