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.
Women veterans from Pinups for Vets visit older male veterans and injured soldiers and Marines. (Photo Courtesy Gina Elise)
“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 challenge sometimes, said Gina Elise, who started Pin-Ups for Vets. Often, the women don’t really know what’s happened to the veteran they’re seeing. Will he be responsive or non-verbal? Will he even want them there?
Women veterans from Pinups for Vets visit older male veterans and injured soldiers and Marines. (Photo Courtesy Gina Elise)
“You never know the impact you’re making,” she said, sharing a letter she received two years after visiting a young Marine in a psych ward who was suffering from severe PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder – from his tour in Fallujah, Iraq where he received a commendation for his ability leading patrol combat missions.
She left his room after that visit not knowing if she had helped him at all, and now comes a letter two years later.
“I had gone from being a highly regarded Marine infantryman to a patient on a locked psych ward,” he wrote. “It was the most humiliating, dehumanizing experience I have ever been through. I was the only vet from the Iraq war there.
“I cannot possibly express in words how grateful I am that you visited our unit in the hospital. Your visit and calendar made me feel a little bit like a hero again.”
Women veterans from Pinups for Vets visit older male veterans and injured soldiers and Marines. (Photo Courtesy Gina Elise)
He wanted her know two years later he was in med school studying to be a surgeon. Feeling a little bit like a hero again.
Gina had just graduated from UCLA around the time many of our wounded troops were coming home from Iraq in 2006 requiring medical care equipment that wasn’t always available.
She wasn’t a veteran, but she felt compelled to help. But what could she do?
“I loved the old 40s and 50s time period, and remembered how pinup girls were in every GIs locker, and beautiful women were painted on the nose of aircrafts to boost morale.
Gina Elise is the founder for Pin-Ups For Vets. (Photo by Shane Kams/Courtesy Gina Elise)
“I decided to start a pinup calendar to raise funds to buy rehab equipment. I was the only pinup in it for five years, dressed in different 1940s-styled outfits with the victory roll hair style.”
Her calendars have bought handcycle and recumbent trikes for veterans with limited lower extremity abilities.
They’ve bought a new true stretch cage to help veterans dealing with post-surgical knee-hip-ankle replacements, and lumbar surgeries.
They’ve bought hypervolt massage guns for veterans with muscular dysfunctions, and the list goes on and on.
When word began to spread in the military community about Gina and her pinup calendars, more than 100 women vets wanted in. She stepped aside as a pinup and let the veterans fill the calendars. Every year, another 12 are chosen.
So far, the women have visited over 20,000 old soldiers and wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in VA hospitals with their pinup calendars.
Opening up and talking about things they’ve buried for years, and sharing a laugh as they try to match the face with the month.
Feeling the morale in the room rise as the men begin to feel a little bit like a hero again.
For more information about Pin-Up for Vets and purchasing calendars, go online to pinupsforvets.com
Dennis McCarthy can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.
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