Reservist Magazine is the award-winning official publication of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. Quarterly issues include news and feature articles about the men and women who comprise America's premier national maritime safety and security
Issue link: https://uscgreservist.epubxp.com/i/498190
was sick and her doctor kept her in as long as possible to care for her. "I was sick at the time the SPARs were being discharged," explained Hooker. "The chief surgeon [at the hospital] kept coming in telling me 'they're driving me crazy telling me I must discharge you, but I will not discharge a sick SPAR.' So finally, the time for the appropriation for SPARs was running out. He came one day and told me 'well, they're telling me I have to let you go because you'll be a woman without a country. You won't be able to be paid without an act of congress.'" Ultimately, the doctor discharged Hooker, but explained she could come back and be treated as a veteran. By this time, however, she was told there was no one to do her discharge and that she'd have to do her own. So Hooker did for herself what she did for so many of the men returning from the war. She was the last SPAR still serving, so once she finished her discharge papers the period of Coast Guard history involving the SPARs came to an end. At the time of her discharge, Hooker was a yeoman third class, but when she received her service records in the mail it was noted that she was a yeoman second class. Hooker figures that upon discharge she was advanced so in the future she could receive better veteran benefits. She had seen this happen with many of the records she processed for the men. Once healthy, Hooker used her military benefits to further her education. "I wouldn't have been able to go to graduate school without the GI Bill," said Hooker. "My savings were very small and my family was not able to pay tuition for graduate school since they were paying to send my younger sister to college. The GI Bill was great. On the GI Bill you just went down to the bookstore and showed your card and they just handed you the book free, for nothing! I was delighted about that." Aside from the financial benefit from her service, Hooker benefited from her yeoman training while attending school. In classes she struggled in, she was able to use her shorthand skills to transcribe her classroom lectures practically verbatim. Her ability to create these effective study guides helped her pass her courses. Hooker went on to attain a master's and ultimately a doctorate's degree in psychology. For the majority of her professional life, Hooker attended to the emotional and learning issues of children. Throughout the years Hooker has kept in contact with the women she served with and has attended SPAR reunions all over the country, from New London, Conn. to Portland, Ore. "Three of us African Americans went to the reunion in Portland and the other SPARs would come up to us and say 'this is just for SPARs,' because they didn't know there had ever been any African Americans in the SPARS," said Hooker. "We would say, 'well, we are SPARs' and they would be astonished." Today at 95 years of age and 64 years after her discharge, Hooker recalls her service in the Coast Guard with amazing clarity and fondness. Her braveness and determination to carve a path where none had been changed not only the service forever but has influenced the lives of so many service members who have followed in her footsteps. � dr. Olivia Hooker watches as a plaque, renaming the dining facility in her honor, is unveiled during a building dedication ceremony at Coast Guard Sector New York in Staten island, New York, March 12, 2015. Photo by PA3 Ali Flockerzi Issue 2 • 2015 � RESERVIST 29