Eva Pinkham wasn't about to sit back and let life happen to her.

In 1938, the high school graduate left her home in Alma, Okla., to move to Texas and attend Baylor University.

"I wanted to travel and make a difference in the world," said the Ojai resident. "I wanted adventure."

After two years at Baylor, Pinkham left to join her sister in Northern California. She moved to Hanford in 1940. "I was young and everything interested me," she said.

In December 1941, everything changed.

"We all had an obligation to help and do our part," said Pinkham. "After Pearl Harbor was bombed, I went to Burbank to apply to work at Lockheed," she said.

Women from throughout the nation found work at military bases and factories to support their loved ones who were fighting overseas. Pinkham was assigned to the aircraft factory at Lockheed where the term riveter was indeed the best way to describe her duties.

"I worked on every kind of plane that went through there. From the wings to the wheels, we worked on it all," said Pinkham who later worked at a Lockheed facility in Santa Barbara.

'Help the boys overseas'

By 1943 she was ready for a new adventure and on Nov. 27, 1943, Pinkham enlisted in the U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services..

"I wanted to travel, but it wasn't very feasible at that time," she said. "I also wanted to keep doing what I could to help the boys overseas, so I figured that enlisting in the service was the perfect solution for both."

She was sent to Los Angeles, where she boarded a train to New York.

"We spent the winter training, and the freezing temperatures were hard to bear," she recalled of her time at Hunter College in the Bronx. "I kept thinking about my last day in California when some friends and I went to the beach."

Pinkham finished her basic training in May 1944 and was transferred to Bethesda, Md., where she trained as a medic. By the fall, she was ready for active duty and chose to return to California.

She reported for duty at Mare Island Hospital, where her main duty was to tend to the wounded soldiers sent there from the front lines in the Pacific.

"So many of them came in there with horrible wounds," she recalled. "A lot of them were amputees, and even though they had been through so much and were in a lot of pain, they remained optimistic."

Finally Pinkham was given a notice that fulfilled her dream to travel.

"They needed help at a Navy hospital in Honolulu, and I was among those they chose to send," she said.

After a year at Mare Island, Pinkham was sent to Base 8 near Barbers Point.

The ship docked at a more somber Pearl Harbor. Pinkham recalls the recovery work still being done, but the devastation had mostly been cleared.

"We worked in Quonset huts and had a curfew of 10 p.m.," she said.

After leaving the Navy, Pinkham began to work in the contractor's office at the Naval Base at Port Hueneme. It was there she met Lonnie Thompson.

"He had recently returned from the war," she recalled. The former Navy gunner's mate immediately caught Pinkham's interest.

The two were married in 1947, but Thompson was killed in a car accident in October 1948, when Pinkham was five months pregnant with their daughter.

"I was devastated," she said, "but I had to pick myself up and keep going."

Pinkham eventually met and married another World War II veteran, Bob Berry, who worked in the electronics division at Point Mugu. By 1961, Pinkham's family included three more children.

But tragedy struck again when Berry died of a heart attack at age 43.

Pinkham, who had stayed home with her children, had to once again pick up the pieces.

"I didn't have just myself to worry about when these things happened," she said. "I had my kids to take care of, and even if I wanted to give up, I couldn't. But I never wanted to."

She went back to work at the Ventura Elections Department and the Camarillo Youth Correctional Facility as a counselor. When her youngest son graduated from high school, Pinkham began to work in real estate.

'She was determined'

The single mother of four found love once again, this time with Al Pinkham. He, too, was a Navy veteran of World War II. They were married in 1989.

"We spent a lot of our time together traveling," she said. The two were married for 14 years before Al lost a long battle with heart disease in 2003. Pinkham moved to Ojai in 2003 to be closer to her children.

"I didn't know anyone when I came, so I just decided to get involved in as many groups as I could."

Those groups include the Red Hat Society of Ojai, the Ojai Women's Club, regular visits to Curves, and volunteer work at the library bookstore.

"My mom has always stayed motivated and has kept moving ahead," said Glenn Berry.

"When my dad died, she went back to work, which wasn't common at the time for women, but she was determined to pick herself up from her bootstraps and keep going."

Of War and Life is a weekly column by Jannette Jauregui that tells the stories of Ventura County's veterans. Jauregui is the media relations coordinator for California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Veterans who want to share their stories can contact her by e-mail at jmjaureg@callutheran.edu or by mail at Jannette Jauregui, c/o Ventura County Star editorial department, P.O. Box 6006, Camarillo, CA 93011.