KOKOMO, Ind. — Darrough Chapel Early Learning students crowded around their playground fence Monday afternoon to watch a Huey helicopter circle over their school.

Autumn leaves flew across the Championship Park parking lot as the helicopter landed a few yards away from Howard County’s newest memorial.

A crowd that had been gathered around the monument hurried over to photograph and take videos of the hullabaloo. It was Veterans Day. The day prior marked 249 years since the birth of the Marines.

It was a fitting entrance for the monument dedication’s official party. The group of veterans climbed out of the helicopter and, after posing for a few photos, started to make their way across the parking lot to celebrate the first female Marine, Opha May Johnson.

President of the Howard County Memorial Corporation and designer of the memorial Jerry Paul said his entrance on the Huey was an emotional experience. He asked the pilots to leave the doors open, the same way he rode in Hueys during his service in Vietnam.

Paul was in a Dustoff Crew, meaning he helped evacuate wounded American soldiers.

President Joe Biden signed the Dustoff Crews of the Vietnam War Congressional Gold Medal Act into law Sept. 26. The act recognizes every Dustoff Crew member with the highest civilian award in the United States.

Paul’s Veterans Day flight brought back memories.

“Being in a Dustoff Crew, you never lose it,” Paul said. “The good and the bad.”

As Paul approached the monument, the crowd cheered and chanted his name.

Taking their seats alongside him were Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore, president of the Women Marines Association’s Indiana Chapter Kay Ross and Lt. Gen. Carol Mutter, a retired Marine who became the first female in any branch of the U.S. military to be nominated for the three-star rank.

Paul, who was dressed in a Vietnam veterans hat and POW/MIA jacket with a U.S. Marine Corps pin, gave a fist bump to the mayor before they found their seats in front of the memorial.

Behind them were three separate and staggered walls and a bench.

The first was 7 feet tall and featured a bronze portrait of Johnson.

The second wall, which was slightly taller, sported a biography of the first female Marine etched into black granite.

The third wall, standing at 11 feet tall, had a stained glass Marine emblem. A solar powered light illuminates it after sunset.

The first female Marine

Blake Dahl, judge of Superior Court 2 and a member of the Howard County Memorial Corporation, was the first to tell the crowd about Johnson’s legacy.

She was born Opha May Jacob on May 4, 1878, in Kokomo. She graduated from the shorthand and typewriting department of Woods Commercial College in Washington, D.C., in 1895. She was married four years later.

On Aug. 13, 1918, Johnson became the first female Marine. She was 39 years old at the time and World War I was still raging.

“She set the stage for women to re-enlist before the 19th Amendment was even passed,” Dahl said. “Her trail blazing lore inspired women to fortify wartime efforts and get involved.”

Johnson retired in 1943 and died approximately 12 years later. Her grave went unmarked until 2018.

“This monument here today serves to signify her significant honor to her groundbreaking legacy and her city of birth, the City of Firsts, Kokomo,” Dahl said.

Mutter was the final speaker. She was introduced as a trail blazer in her own right for becoming the first female to earn the three-star lieutenant general rank in any U.S. military branch.

“Every female Marine learns early on about Opha May,” Mutter said. “That very unique name.”

She added a bit more context to Johnson’s service.

Prior to Johnson’s enlistment, Mutter explained, a study reported it would take three women to do the job of two men. Grinning, Mutter told the crowd she was proud to say the study was proven wrong.

The women were able to accomplish more work than the men.

“The Marine Corps was unwavering in its determination to accept nothing but the best,” Mutter said. “Among the thousands of women who burned with patriotic desire to serve, it was not unusual for only one woman to be chosen out of 400 applicants.”

She later explained Johnson provided guidance to the young women who joined her in the Marines. She also helped men who weren’t used to working around women.

“They needed some education as well as to how to work with women Marines,” Mutter said, chuckling. “And the bottom line is we’re Marines.”

Ross remembered hearing about the experiences of women who served in World War II. She doesn’t agree when they make light of their own service. They paved the way for her to join the military.

“To basically trace all of that back to Opha … because of her, we can all do what we do and stand on her shoulders,” Ross said.