Her boat has come in

NAWILIWILI — Genevieve Andersen’s request was simple. Scatter her ashes from a U.S. Coast Guard boat after she’s gone.

“Someone at her church recently helped her contact the USCG to request that at least her ashes could be spread from one of the Coast Guard ships,” said Sandi Mabry, nurse practitioner provider from the Veterans Administration Community Based Outreach Clinic in Lihue. “The Coast Guard responded immediately and offered to take her on the boat — alive. She got very excited. This is going to be wonderful for her.”

At 97 years young, Andersen is Kauai’s oldest living female veteran, serving with the Coast Guard at a Midwest recruiting office during World War II.

“They were known as SPARs,” said Jim Jung, a USCG veteran. “The Navy had WACs, the Coast Guard had SPARs. But the women were not allowed on the boats, which is why she was assigned duty at a recruiting station.”

SPARs is the official nickname for The Women’s Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve program that was established in 1942 and included a corps of 978 women officers and 11,868 enlisted women during World War II.

Congressional law in 1973 ended the SPARs program for good, opening the door for women to join the Coast Guard and Reserve.

Mabry said Andersen was one of the first women officers in the Coast Guard, but was never allowed on a Coast Guard boat because she was female.

Friday morning, Andersen arrived at the USCG Station Kauai prepared for her ride aboard the station’s Response Boat Medium 45 through the efforts of USCG Chief Warrant Officer Rick Mahoney.

Andersen told the group that she is a Do Not Resuscitate.

“If anything happens to me during the ride, I’m a DNR,” Andersen said. “Just push me over the side the way they did in the old days. Just don’t keel haul me. If I go during this ride, I’ll be in paradise.”