Dates

• Existence: 1915-

Biography

Marion Cox Lichty was born August 28, 1915 in Waterloo, Iowa, to Burr G. and Winnifred Cox Lichty. The couple had another daughter, Jean Lichty, born in 1918. Marion attended elementary and secondary school in Waterloo, studied liberal arts and received an Associate of Arts degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri in 1935, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1950. She held a number of civilian jobs over time, but was consistently associated at varying levels with the Smith, Lichty, and Hillman Company in Waterloo, a beverage distributor which later dealt in real estate management. Her father was a president of the company.

Lichty enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on July 9, 1942, at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. She was selected as a member of the first WAAC Officer Candidate Class and received her commission as Third Officer on August 29, 1942. By 1951 she had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Her career with the Women's Army Corps (as WAAC became known after 1943) lasted until 1946, during which time she served in a number of positions that dealt with personnel, training, and recruitment. She was given duty assignments to serve at the Fifth Service Command at Fort Hayes, Ohio during 1942 and 1943; at the Air Service Command at Paterson Field, Ohio in 1943 and 1944; at Wright Field at Dayton, Ohio during 1944 and 1945; and at the headquarters of the Selective Service System in Washington, D.C. from 1945 to 1946. Upon the illness and subsequent death of her father in 1946, Lichty took leave from the military, in order to settle his estate and deal with business affairs.

After working as a program director for a radio station in San Rafael, California in 1948 and 1949, Lichty applied for commission in the United States Air Force Reserve (Women's Air Force) and received that appointment on November 18, 1948. From 1950 to 1954 she was stationed at the U.S. Air Force (USAF) headquarters in Washington, D.C. During this assignment, she completed a number of projects that focused on USAF personnel issues. Her duties were transferred to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha, Nebraska in 1955, where she performed her military duties but maintained her residence in Waterloo. Here she worked on such projects as the development of youth programs at SAC and a televised nationwide recruiting program. Her association with SAC lasted until 1965, at which time she retired from duty in the USAF Reserve and became a member of the Retired Reserve. That membership lasted until 1975, when she retired from the military altogether.

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