World War II veteran gets honored nearly 80 years after serving

A World War II veteran who has lived in Naples for decades was recognized with a very special honor on Wednesday by the Southwest Florida Women Veterans group. 

Florence Weinstein, a private in the Army during the war, received three medals from her service in the 1940s. She turns 100 on August 28, 2024, but recalls her time in the Army like it was yesterday. 

“When the war broke out, I told my mother I wanted to go,” explained the spunky senior.  

She proudly wears her World War II hat like a badge of honor, and a conversation with her could be likened to a history lesson.  

“They kept girls very close, and you could not join until you were 20 years old. So, when I became 20 years old, I had a real sales talk for my mother to let me go. And finally, she said, yes,” Weinstein recalled. 

That was just about 80 years ago. Her interest in the Army came from wanting to follow in her father’s footsteps. He fought overseas in World War I. She served at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts during World War II.   

“They brought paraplegics, young boys. I had such compassion for them, and I would, after I got through working, I’d go and sit with them, and I would try to comfort them,” she said. “They just came off the battlefields, so communicating was very difficult, and I wasn’t trained for that.” 

The base also housed prisoners of war. 

“They’d be playing ball out in the sunshine, and word had come out about how they were treating our people; that was very hard for me,” she added. 

Weinstein wasn’t alone in her service. More than 350,000 American women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, performing over 200 different jobs during World War II. 

We traveled alongside Weinstein in 2016 on the first all-female Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to visit the war memorials. She was 91 then. 

“I took a desk job. I worked for the message center, and they were able to send a guy who worked a desk to fight,” explained Weinstein of her service. 

The near-centenarian still proudly displays her service to her country, along with some new badges of honor representing the Women’s Army Corps, the American Campaign, and Victory in World War II. 

You can read more about Weinstein and her service in The Naples Press, Friday, August 23rd edition.