Once and always a Marine, Dorothy Rogers is one of the few and the proud.

As a woman and a Marine, she’s among the fewest of the few.

Rogers, 73, of Brackenridge enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1966 after graduating from Tarentum High School. She served four years during the Vietnam War, working as a supply clerk and attaining the rank of sergeant.

She went through boot camp in a women’s platoon at Parris Island.

“They kind of rip you apart and build you back up. They’re tough on you, just like the men,” she remembered. “I don’t think they were quite as tough on us as the men. It was still tough. A lot of the women couldn’t handle it.”

More than 50 years after her service ended, Rogers is again blazing a path, becoming the first woman to command the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 894 in Harrison, where she also is the only woman among about 200 members.

Her election to the position, which began Tuesday, is for one year.

“I really feel honored that they asked me to run,” said Rogers, who was the only candidate. “I’m going to do the best job that I can.”

She succeeds past commander John Estok, 76, an Air Force veteran from Munhall who lives in Tarentum.

“Dorothy is one of us,” he said. “She’s got all the qualifications. She is able to do the job, so I don’t really think of anything different than I would of a guy.”

It’s very rare for women to be members of the VFW, said Jessica King, 41, of North Versailles, a commander of VFW District 29, which encompasses 36 posts in Allegheny County. Also a Marine veteran, King is the district’s first female commander and was the first female regular member of the post she first joined.

King also is commander of Post 6675 on Pittsburgh’s South Side, making herself and Rogers the only female post commanders in the county and two of the only four female officers out of about 3,000 members.

“It’s very rare for females to belong to the VFW, and we’re trying to change that,” King said. “A lot of us have children. The VFWs in the past weren’t very family-oriented. The stereotype is it’s a smoke-filled bar with men sitting around telling war stories. We’ve changed that the last couple years. We’re trying to bring in more family-oriented events.”

At the national level, the VFW doesn’t know how many of its 1 million members are women because veterans aren’t required to disclose gender when they join, spokeswoman Randi Law said.

“Women are still the fastest-growing demographic within the VFW,” Law said. “More women are serving in eligible positions within the military, seeing combat and deploying to more hostile territory.

“We’re seeing more and more women take the reins and leadership positions,” she said. “The organization stands behind all of our female members. We’re extremely proud that they’re rising through the ranks to commanders. Their leadership ability is appreciated.”

King, who grew up in Tarentum, has known Rogers for about three years. They met at the Marine Corps League in Springdale, where Rogers also was the first female member in the 1990s.

“Dorothy is a great leader,” she said. “She has a lot of volunteering work with the Marine Corps League, and she’ll be a great asset to the VFW in Natrona Heights.”

After growing up in Fawn and Tarentum, Rogers said she decided to join the military because she didn’t have the money to go to college. While her father and an uncle had been in the Navy, she picked the Marines.

“I really have no idea why I picked the Marines,” she said. “I just liked the Marine in the uniform. I thought, ‘I’m going to try for that,’ and I did, and I was accepted.”

A recruiter in New Kensington pressed her on whether she was sure.

“He said it’s going to be rough at boot camp,” she said. “I said nobody was forcing me. I wanted to go.”

Women were first allowed to enroll for clerical duty in the Marine Corps in 1918, when about 300 joined, according to the Women Marines Association.

By the height of the Vietnam War, about 2,700 women were serving in the branch, stateside and overseas. The number of women in the branch remains low, accounting for about 8% as of 2017, according to the association.

Rogers never saw combat and never expected to. “I knew it would be an office job,” she said.

After boot camp, she went to Camp Lejeune and then Memphis, where she was when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

“We couldn’t go off the base with all the riots going on,” she recalled.

While in Memphis, she also had a chance to meet Elvis Presley, who would come down to the gates at Graceland.

Her last post was in Okinawa, Japan. After leaving the service, Rogers worked at Heinz for 43 years, retiring in 2013, after which she became more active in the VFW.

When she first joined the VFW post in Tarentum in the 1980s, Rogers said she joined its women’s auxiliary because women weren’t allowed to be full members. She transferred from Tarentum to the auxiliary in Harrison before becoming a regular member of the post, where she was a service officer and a trustee before being elected commander.

Rogers said what was once called the women’s auxiliary is now just called the auxiliary — the one at her post has two men in it.

“The auxiliary is open to men and women family members of the veterans,” King said.

With the post reopening after being shut down during the covid pandemic, Rogers said they are trying to get people to come back, to replenish the money that was required to keep it afloat.

“Even though we weren’t open, the bills kept coming in for everything,” she said. “It was hard on everybody, all businesses.”

For the public, there are events such as bingo every Friday night; car cruises, the next one planned from 5 to 9 p.m. June 24; and a raffle for either a Kawasaki Mule or its cash value, $14,000.

“Little by little, we’re getting things going again,” she said.

Rogers knows there are more people, including women, eligible for membership in the VFW.

“It’s rough getting the younger people to join now,” she said. “That’s with all the groups.”

She hopes to bring more members to the post so it can continue its work helping all veterans, whether they are members or not.

“We’re here for the veterans,” she said. “We’re here to help them.”

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