TAG congratulates WWII vet on 100th birthday

By Douglas Mallary, NMNG Public Affairs

SANTA FE, N.M. – Maj. Gen. Kenneth Nava, the Adjutant General of New Mexico, visited local WWII veteran Stella Vigil Lavadie at her home here May 14, 2021, to congratulate her on her recent 100th birthday.

Maj. Denise Vargas, 111th Sustainment Brigade, accompanied the general. Vargas and Lavadie are friends who participate in Catholic Daughters together.

Lavadie’s daughter Elaine, a former employee of the New Mexico National Guard, helped welcome the two guests.

During preliminary conversation, Nava learned that Lavadie was “a very good friend of my paternal grandmother, Clorinda Nava.”

Nava read a personal congratulatory letter before presenting it to Lavadie with his challenge coin.

“The women in today’s military are there because of you,” Nava said.

As Nava and Vargas asked questions, Lavadie recounted her military service. She joined the Women’s Army Corps in 1944 and completed basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

“We did a lot of KP (kitchen police duty). I never peeled so many potatoes in my life,” Lavadie said. “You know what I liked best? It was marching on Saturday morning. I’ve always liked music, and I’ve always liked to move.”

After basic training, Lavadie served at camps in Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Dakota. Spending most of her enlistment doing supply clerical work in warehouses, she reached the rank of corporal before being discharged in 1946.

“We released the men to go fight,” Lavadie said.

One of those men was her husband Sam, who served overseas in the Army Air Corps.

Stella, Elaine, and their relatives and friends watched as City of Santa Fe employees hung banners honoring Sam and Stella from a light post at the corner of Cerrillos Road and Airport Road May 11. A long procession of well-wishers drove by Lavadie’s home May 1 to wish her a happy 100th birthday.

During Nava’s visit, Lavadie discussed going on a 2015 Honor Flight for WWII veterans to visit memorials and monuments in Washington, D.C. She shared a photo album of the trip, along with her WWII scrapbook, with Nava and Vargas.

“I’m going to be spending time with a lot of my officers this weekend,” Nava said. “What advice would you give them?”

After a brief pause, Lavadie said, “Just keep on serving. The minute you sign on that line to join, you’re a hero. You’re doing your duty for your country when you do something like that.”

While Nava calls Lavadie and veterans like her “living treasures,” she modestly said that she has never done anything special.

“I’m lucky that I belong to what’s called the Greatest Generation,” she said simply.