Wagner, non-traditional student and female military veteran, learns about history she’s part of
By CAITLIN HOFEN, Features Editor
Nov. 11 is Veterans Day, a time to honor the individuals who have served in the United States Armed Forces.
One such veteran is Northwestern graduate student Noreen Wagner.
Hailing from San Antonio, Texas, Wagner, 65, originally wanted to pursue a degree in education.
“I had taken some college courses, but I was told I didn’t have the qualities to become a teacher,” Wagner said. “One professor encouraged me to join the military. I had heard on the news about the big issue of women being in the military, so I decided to join.”
Upon visiting with an Army recruiter, Wagner joined the United States Army. She was sent to basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
She entered an early enlistment program in 1979 and went on active duty in 1980.
“We were one of the first group of women to attend basic training at Fort Leonard Wood,” Wagner said. “It was rough.
We did everything the same as the men, right down to the push-ups. We had to fight our way through an obstacle course, go through a war simulator, climb over a wall and slide down the rope of life, among other things.”
When Wagner graduated from basic training, she took on the position of chaplain’s assistant.
She was responsible for helping set up and deconstruct the Protestant service and the Catholic mass every week for her battalion.
“I chose to be sent to Germany when asked where I wanted to be stationed,” Wagner said. “I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I was in a single battalion, meaning we were in the field a lot, living in tents.”
Wagner was serving in Germany when she met her husband, Anthony. The two were married in 1981.
“He was a combat engineer,” Noreen Wagner said of her husband. “We often took a train to visit the different countries bordering Germany. We went as far as Rome one time.
“I once went with my husband to the site of the first concentration camp called Dachau. At the time we went, the snow was calf-deep. As we walked by the ovens, I could sense the burning skin that once burned there. The uniforms of the prisoners of war were hung along the walls. I could picture the guards making the prisoners march around that camp in the middle of the cold winter.”
After serving in the United States Army for three years and four months, Wagner worked as a supply clerk and a secretary at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
Wagner chose to continue her education later in life at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music. She graduated in May of 2021 and is now a graduate student.
“My daughter was going to school at Northwestern, and she talked me into joining her,” Wagner said. “I had a strong interest in music, so I made it my major.
“I started getting interested in history, so I enrolled as a graduate student in American Studies at Northwestern. I visit the Cherokee Strip Museum in Alva often, taking pictures and learning of its history. I found out that Alva used to have a German POW camp, which I found really interesting.”
Female veterans like Wagner continue to make history. In 2018, Gen. Donna Martin became the first female to lead Fort Leonard Wood since it opened.
And as a graduate student, Wagner will continue to study more about history – even the history she is a part of.
