A holiday baby, Helen Fluckey was born to Maurice “Morris” R. Fluckey and his wife, Alta Mae Smith Fluckey in Cowden, Illinois on December 18, 1921. She was welcomed at home by a big brother, R. Ralph Fluckey. Her father and mother were both Illinois natives. In 1920, two years before she was born, her father was working doing general farm labor.[i]

Ten years later, the census finds the family just outside of the Motor City, Detroit, where her dad, Morris, has found a job selling automobiles. The family lives in a rental home in Wayne. Unusual for the day, Helen’s mother is working too as a hose saleswoman. It surely helped that the children’s paternal grandmother, Janette “Nettie” Ketcham, lives with them. Both Helen and Ralph are in school.[ii]

By 1940, as the war years arrive, the family is still in Wayne but in a home they own. Morris is still selling cars. When Helen is 18 and finishing high school and her brother, Ralph, is 20 and in college, the family has another baby girl whom they name Eula Fluckey.[iii]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

Helen was a freshman student in 1941 of Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti prior to enlisting.[iv] She lived in King Hall.[v]

A little later, she is listed in the City Directory of 1943 as a defense worker.[vi]

HER MILITARY STORY

Corporal Helen Fluckey enlisted in the United States Marine Corp Women’s Reserve on August 12, 1943. Her service number was 753364.

The Marine Corp established the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve on July 30, 1942. The plan was for women to take shore duty so men could be released for combat duty. The Army, Navy and Coast Guard already had women recruits by this time. Women Marines were assigned to over 200 different jobs from parachute rigger to cook to aerial gunnery instructor. By the end of WWII, 85 percent of enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps were women.[vii]

Many nicknames for female Marines were suggested, such as the WAVES of the Navy. Major General Commandant Thomas Holcomb ruled out all nicknames. In a 1944 issue of Life Magazine, he said "They are Marines. They don't have a nickname and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere at a Marine post. They inherit the traditions of Marines. They are Marines."[viii]

Helen joined the U.S. Marine Corps. She went on active duty on October 4, 1943, at Central Procurement Division 753, in Chicago, Illinois.[ix]

She then transferred to the MCWR School at Camp Lejeune, North Carlina. From there, Helen went to the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. A muster note mentions aviation machinists’ mate instruction.

In January of 1944, she transferred to the Training Squadron 29 of the Marine Aviation Detachment Naval Air Technical Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma.[x]

By July of 1944, Helen was in California serving in the Aviation Women's Reserve Squadron #2, Mcas, Santa Barbara.

HER LAST DAY

Corporal Fluckey had served for nearly a year when she was taken ill on October 29, 1944.[xi] Reports state she fainted and never regained consciousness. Helen was taken to Hoff General Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. She passed away.[xii] It was determined later she died of a cerebral hemorrhage,[xiii] a devastating stroke with a great mortality rate.[xiv]

She was 22.

MEMORIALS

There are 347 individuals remembered on the Dearborn War Memorial in Michigan. Helen E. Fluckey is the only woman listed.

She was remembered by the League of Women Voters as part of a Dearborn Memorial Project which included yard signs in the community with Helen’s picture.[xv]

HER FUNERAL AND GRAVE

When Alta Fluckey, her mother, received the news of her daughter’s illness, she rushed from her home in Dearborn, Michigan to California but arrived too late due to plane delays. Helen’s body was returned with her mother and a Marine escort. A funeral was held on November 6, 1944[xvi] at the Howe Peterson Funeral Home.[xvii] Helen Fluckey is buried at the Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.[xviii]

AFTER THE WAR

Helen’s parents, Morris and Alta, lived long lives after their daughter was taken. They lived 48 and 57 years more following her death but were then buried in the same cemetery as Helen.

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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