WWII veteran heads to D.C. to receive congressional medal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jane Soeten of Wasilla, along with Jean White of Anchorage, will travel to the capitol tomorrow to receive bronze medals in recognition of their service to the Civil Air Patrol of the United States Air Force and the nation.

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner will present the two women’s medals as well as a single gold medal to the air patrol as a whole for its World War II service Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

According to a press release by first lieutenant Paris Morthorpe of the Alaska Wing Public Affairs Office, Soeten began her service at 14 years old as a cadet in 1943.

“That was typical for all the teens (at that time),” Soeten said. “We were all trying to figure out how we could contribute to winning the war.”

Soeten said she and her friends would go around collecting aluminum foil and scrap metal wherever they could, including the high school parking lots in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lived.

“The whole country was at war, not just here or there so everybody did everything they could think of to do,” she said. “We re-circulated or recycled everything you could think of.”

Soeten said she and her girlfriends pretty much had to do it, however, because all the young men — even those under 18 — were volunteering to fight overseas.

“All young men, soon as they could lie or cheat or steal to get into the service, they went even if they weren’t old enough,” she said.

But Soeten didn’t begrudge them that desire. She, too, wanted to be out in the field, but a WASP — the colloquial term for a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Before she turned 16, Soeten had a single-engine flight certificate and experience flying Piper Cub, PT19, PT22 and Stearman airplanes. She hoped and expected to take planes across the ocean as a WASP, but then the war ended.

“I still wasn’t old enough,” she said. “If (the war) had continued, I’m sure I would’ve been a WASP.”

In the early 1970s, Soeten began working for the Young Women’s Christian Association and soon climbed the ranks from the physical education director to executive director of the organization. She stayed at the YWCA until the mid-80s or so, and not long after ended up in Alaska.

Since then, Soeten has been an active member in the community, writing letters to the editor, bringing home medals from the Alaska International Senior Games in at least seven different events, participating in the Wasilla Fourth of July Parade and volunteering at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, for example.

Soeten said she feels “humbled” by her recent award, but is still processing what it means to her.

“You know, it’s really hard to explain what it means, ’cause you think of all the sacrifices made by the whole country in World War II,” she said. “Why single out someone like me to recognize when there were so many who sacrificed?”

Soeten resides in Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. housing located off Knik-Goose Bay Road. She recently had an operation and has been “out of circuit” for the past few months, but is getting ready to start training again for the National Senior Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota, next summer.

Soeten said she knows the current generation may never have any idea what it’s like to have a “ration book” for things like sugar and gasoline, but that’s OK — she and her WASI neighbors will have those stories to tell as long as they live.

“We’ve got people out here that wrote history,” she said.