She made history by becoming one of the female Marines of World War Two. Today, we’d say she and the other women she served with were pushing over barriers by doing jobs formerly reserved for men. PFC Thelma Schutte was a Marine pilot and aviation mechanic who died while in service to her country.

PFC Thelma H. Schutte was the only child of her immigrant parents. Her father, Carl (Karl) Henry Schutte, arrived from Russia into the United States in 1903. His native tongue was German. Her mother, Sadie A. Neuse Schutte, arrived from England in 1891. Both became naturalized citizens in 1911.[i] The two were married in 1916 in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts.[ii]

While they were expecting Thelma, the young couple lived on Addison Avenue in Rutherford, New Jersey. Carl registered for the draft for his new country for WWI in 1918. He listed his occupation as Assistant Manager of Flintkote Company, a manufacturer of building materials.[iii] Records show Thelma was born in New York. There is no indication the family ever lived there but it was only 12 miles from Rutherford, New Jersey, - across the river and into New York City to find a hospital.

When Thelma was one year old in 1920, the family lived in a rental home on Randolph Avenue in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Carl was still working for Flintkote but was listed as a chemical engineer.[iv]

When she was 10 years old, she suffered a great loss in the death of her father. Carl Schutte died in 1929.

In the following year, 1930, the family of two has moved 30 minutes away to Jersey City, New Jersey which lies just across the river from New York City. They are in a rental home on James Street. Sadie is employed as a “homekeeper” in the building where they live. She has 18 boarders to cook, clean and care for. Unexplainably, Sadie is listed as married and the census space noting school attendance for 11-year-old Thelma is blank.

Thelma attended Holy Angel’s Parochial School at Fort Lee and then St. Joseph’s School in Jersey City.[v]

Thelma was a very active high school student at Dickinson High School. Nicknamed “Thel” in those years, she played basketball, swam and was in the Leader’s Club. When she graduated in 1937, her yearbook quote was one by essayist Edwin Percy Whipple and it read “ Humor, warm and all-embracing as the sunshine, bathes its objects in genial and abiding light.”[vi]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

As 1940 dawns, we head into the war years and 21-year-old Thelma has completed one year of college at Saint John’s University where she majored in meteorology. At the same time, she was working as a private secretary with the vice-president of Atlantic Coast Line, a shipping company in New York City.[vii]

Thelma’s living with her mother in a different home in Jersey City, but Sadie now owns her own home. While Thelma is off at work, Sadie is terribly busy running a boarding house at her home. They have 9 boarders, both men and women, of various occupations.[viii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Thelma Schutte enlisted in the United States Marine Corp Women’s Reserve as a private on April 21, 1943, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her service number was 766990.[ix]

She did her boot camp at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. Boot camp instruction included military courtesy, close order drill, chemical warfare, map reading and other courses.[x]

She was later stationed in Washington, D. C. at a desk job. Seeking change, she applied to transfer to flying duty. Her request was granted, and she was reassigned to Norman, Oklahoma.[xi]

In the summer of 1944, Private Thelma Schutte was at the Navel Air Technical Center in Norman, Oklahoma. She was under instruction as an aviation

machinist mate. She qualified as both an airplane mechanic and pilot.[xii]

By the early part of 1945, Thelma was with the Aviation Women’s Reserve Squadron 8 and stationed at the Naval Air Station in San Diego, California. Then in the summer, she moved to the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, California as an inspector[xiii] and still with Squadron 8.[xiv]

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.[xv]

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."[xvi]

From her base in El Toro, Thelma took a month’s leave from the Marine’s for a long visit with her mother, Sadie. While visiting her home in Jersey City, Thelma bought a car and took it on a 2, 778 mile cross-cross country trip back to California. At a stop-over in Greenville, Indiana, she met up with five other Marines from her station.[xvii]

HER LAST DAY

On October 14, 1945, Thelma set out as part of a group of six female military. There were three women in the front seat and three in the back seat of their car. Near Santa Anna, California, as the group headed up the mountainous Highway 100, they were in an accident.[xviii] As the car proceeded down the road, the woman driving (name unknown) struck the rear of a car driven by Major W. R. Norton of El Toro. After striking him, the car crossed the center line and swerved head on into a huge freight line truck driven by Donald W. Greelan.[xix]

The three women. in the front of the car, were instantly killed.[xx] That included Thelma as well as Naomi Ann Bennett, a Marine, and Henrietta Mercer, a WAVE.

The three women were decapitated in what the coroner described as Orange County’s most gruesome accident at that time.[xxi] The three women in the back seat, names unknown, had only minor injuries.[xxii] Major Norton, driver of the other car was unhurt but Mr. Greelan, driving the truck suffered serious injuries when his truck and trailer overturned, and he was trapped.[xxiii]

Sadly, her letter sent back home, to tell her mother that she arrived safely back to the base after her cross-country trip, arrived one day after the telegram her mother received notifying her of only child’s death.[xxiv]

She was 24.

HER GRAVE AND FUNERAL

Private First Class Thelma H. Schutte’s body was taken back home under military escort.[xxv] A high requiem mass was celebrated at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church.[xxvi] She was buried at the Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, New Jersey.

AFTER HER DEATH

An only child, raised by her widowed mother, Thelma was survived by three aunts – Mrs. Albert Yarro, Mrs. Gelene Kaiser and Mrs. Delores Bright.[xxvii]

FIND MORE INFORMATION HERE

Read About Henrietta F. Mercer, a WAVE, killed in the Same Accident

Read About Naomi Ann Bennett, fellow Marine Killed in the Same Accident.

Read About Women Marines in WWII

Read "Free a Marine To Fight: Women Marines in World War II"

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.

ADD TO THIS STORY

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[i] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4313310-00314?pId=29879577

[ii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=9134&h=197414&tid=19211953&pid=1525428100&queryId=51abf0e7fe7962c5d3444c8067e00fab&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Boc499&_phstart=successSource

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/32144730:6482?tid=19211953&pid=1525428100&queryId=51abf0e7fe7962c5d3444c8067e00fab&_phsrc=Boc498&_phstart=successSource

[iv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4313310-00314?pId=29879577

[v] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[vi] Dickinson High School Yearbook, 1937 – courtesy of Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey.

[vii] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[viii]

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-02409-00608?pId=134300307

[ix] https://www.newspapers.com/image/98037108/?terms=%22Naomi%20Ann%20Bennett%22&match=1

[x] https://www.newspapers.com/image/103603518/?terms=%22Naomi%20Ann%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xi] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xii] Jersey Journal, October 16, 1945, courtesy of the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xiii] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xiv]

Various Marine Muster Rolls - https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/search/categories/39/?name=Thelma+H_Schutte&birth=1920_new+york-usa_35&death=1945_orange-orange-california-usa_68766&father=Carl_Schutte&gender=f&mother=Sadie+A_Schutte&residence=_jersey+city-hudson-new+jersey-usa_8017&residence2=_jersey+city-hudson-new+jersey-usa_8017&residence3=_jersey+city-hudson-new+jersey-usa_8017&residence4=_east+rutherford-bergen-new+jersey-usa_7025&searchType=t&treePerson=19211953_1775699889

[xv] https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Brief-Histories/Marines-in-World-War-II/Women-Marines-in-World-War-II/

[xvi] https://www.nps.gov/articles/womenmarinesworldwarii.htm

[xviii]

https://www.newspapers.com/image/98038305/?terms=%22Naomi%20Ann%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xix] https://www.newspapers.com/image/628658211/?terms=%22Naomi%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xx] https://www.newspapers.com/image/98038305/?terms=%22Naomi%20Ann%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xxi] https://www.newspapers.com/image/628658211/?terms=%22Naomi%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xxii]

https://www.newspapers.com/image/98038305/?terms=%22Naomi%20Ann%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xxiii]

https://www.newspapers.com/image/530144043/?terms=%22Naomi%20Bennett%22&match=1

[xxiv] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xxv] Jersey Journal, October 16, 1945, courtesy of the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xxvi] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey

[xxvii] PDF of microfilm of the Jersey City Journal supplied by the Jersey City Library, Jersey City, New Jersey