GYSGT US Marine Corps, Florence Catherine Offtermatt Doughty 

Born: April 25, 1920, Cleveland, Ohio 

Died: December 28, 2006, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

In February 1943, Florence Catherine Offtermatt (Doughty) enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, the same month that the Women’s Marine Corps Reserve (WMCR) was established. She was sent to Washington, D.C. in May of 1943, taking over men’s positions to relieve them for active duty. She was stationed at Headquarters, Eastern Procurement Division, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July of 1943. In October of the same year, she was stationed with Aircraft Engineering Squadron 45 in Cherry Point, North Carolina.

She was a recruiter in Washington DC, until early 1944, and then requested to be sent to short-wave radio school. In 1944, she was listed as a radio school student at the Marine Training Detachment, US Naval Training School, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Offtermatt Doughty became a code operator during the rest of her service during World War II. She was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Centro, California, until her discharge in December 1945.

Offtermatt Doughty was born to Catherine Dullea and Ernest Offtermatt on April 25, 1920, in Cleveland, Ohio. She married Francis (Skip) Doughty, also a marine, on February 16, 1946, and they moved to Albuquerque in the spring of 1961. She had a distinguished career at the Federal Aviation Agency, starting at the Albuquerque Control Tower and then at the Albuquerque Air Control Center. Offtermatt Doughty was known for her charm and wit, her litany of jokes, and her demand for perfection. She was known for saying, “If you are going to do it, do it right.”

Images & Documents

Notes:

Adapted by Susan Ruth, Central New Mexico Community College, from: 

“Florence Offtermatt Doughty.” Albuquerque Journal, January 2, 2007. http://obits.abqjournal.com/obits/email_obit/170533.  

Featured Image:

Florence Offternmatt Doughty. Photo furnished by Offternmatt Doughty’s children.