Van Drew presents her with challenge coin at Upper Township ceremony
OCEAN VIEW — Ocean City resident Doris “Doie” Barnes, a 100-year-old U.S. Marine, was honored during the Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11 at Osprey Point in Upper Township.
A member of Morvay-Miley-Cruice American Legion Post 524, Barnes is a regular at the daily flag-raising ceremony on the boardwalk outside the Music Pier.
The city and veterans community have held two special birthday parties for Barnes, on reaching 99 and 100 years old. She was born July 20, 1921, in Norwich, N.Y.
Osprey Point resident James Joyce, who serves as emcee for the community’s veterans services, read a brief biography of Barnes, who joined the Marine Corps at age 22 in honor of a friend who had been killed early in World War II.
She enlisted April 3, 1942, in Buffalo, N.Y., and served basic training at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Barnes was then stationed at Air Station Cherrypoint, N.C., where she specialized in stenography. She managed confidential documents pertaining to aircraft weaponry and armor plating to protect the pilot and aircraft. She traveled around on a three-wheel scooter with a briefcase handcuffed to her wrist, distributing the documents to various officers.
Barnes said she joined the Marines because it was the best of the armed services. She was discharged Dec. 10, 1945, at the rank of sergeant, earning the honorable service pin and honorable discharge pin.
Barnes would march from the barracks to her work station in the morning, work an eight-hour shift Monday to Saturday, then march back. She noted it was difficult wearing high heels.
Barnes met her first husband during martial arts training for women Marines, but that marriage was short-lived. Her second husband, Harold Barnes Jr., who served in the U.S. Navy, passed away a few years ago.
Barnes now lives in Ocean City next to her daughter Suzanne and son-in-law, as well as friend Patti Rudasill, who accompanied her to the service.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, paid a surprise visit to the ceremony, providing Barnes with a challenge coin minted specifically for her.
Van Drew opened with his well-worn theme of American exceptionalism, then said it is important to honor those who help keep the United States “the greatest country on Earth.”
“Our nation is able to be the country that it is — and we have to regain that strength in some ways as well — because of the men and the women who served, the men and the women who have bled, lost limbs, the men and the women who literally have their soul and their hearts and their minds get beat up in this process,” the congressman said.
He said Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day are important because they are a physical way of showing veterans “that we love them, that they are in our heart, that we will never forget them.”
Van Drew said he longs for a day when there are no homeless veterans, no veterans who are not getting the educational opportunities that they want, no veterans who are hungry or not getting the medical care that they need.
“The commitment to those things is what matters,” he said.
The longtime Democrat, who publicly switched parties in opposition to the first impeachment of former president Donald Trump, said the American flag is an important symbol.
“The red, white and blue represent purity and sacrifice,” he said. “The red is the blood of the men and the women who gave us so much — broken minds, broken bones, broken hearts.”
Van Drew said he wants to keep people from turning their back on the flag or kneeling during the national anthem, going on to say people have the right to do so because of the sacrifices of veterans.
He cited former president Ronald Reagan’s statement that freedom is only one generation away, possibly in reference to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“He was right and he also spoke about how important it is to keep this Shining City on the Hill,” he said.
The congressman said he would make a speech about Barnes before Congress that will be part of the permanent record.
Other dignitaries who took part in the ceremony included Township Committeewoman Kim Hayes, VFW Post 8695 Commander Michael Venzie and Tuckahoe American Legion Post 239 Commander George Strunk, First Vice Commander Bill Eisele and bugler Ray Lambert.
Hayes said both of her grandfathers were veterans of World War II and that she learned at a young age to thank service members.
“I probably didn’t understand why I was thanking them but I figured if both my grandfathers were agreeing on something then it must be important,” she said.
Hayes said her grandfathers were “very different men from very different backgrounds with very different opinions about how government should be run.”
“One thing they both agreed on, that there is no sacrifice that is too great in the defense of our nation and the freedoms that we enjoy every day,” Hayes said, noting her son is in his third week of basic training.
She thanked members of Osprey Point for hosting the township’s veterans services and presented the community with a proclamation.
