Hamblet, Julia Estelle, 1916-2017

A graduate of Vassar, Miss Hamblet earned a masters degree at Ohio State. Six years later, she was sworn in as the first Marine Corps Women's Reserve Officer Candidate. Commissioned as a First Lieutenant upon completing training, she served first at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Promoted to Captain, then Major, she served as Commanding Officer of the Women's Reserve Battalion at Quantico, Virginia. At Cherry Point, North Carolina, she commanded the Aviation Women's Reserve Group, the largest Woman Marine Command in World War II with 2,500 enlisted women and 125 officers.

Discharged at the end of the war, she was called back in 1946 as Director of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve. She was the youngest director of any of the American women's services. In 1948, she accepted a regular commission as Major, one of the first three women officers commissioned as regular officers in the USMC. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, she planned and established the first Women's Organized Reserve Units in the country. Other assignments included Assistant Personnel Officer, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific in Pearl Harbor and Commanding Officer of Women's Officer training at Quantico. In 1953, she was promoted to Colonel and was appointed Director of Women Marines, a position she held for six years. She subsequently became Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe, and retired in 1965 following Command of Women's Recruit Training at Parris Island. She was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Miss Hamblet worked for the U.S. Office of Education from 1965 to 1978 in elementary and secondary education programs, the Right to Read Program and managed the Guaranteed Student Loan Program in four northwestern states. She moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where her volunteer work included being a board member of the Alexandria Red Cross and the Alexandria Y.W.C.A. She was a Ruling Elder in the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria. In 1986, she moved to Williamsburg, Virginia. She was a member of the College of Elders at the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, was a volunteer for ten years at the Williamsburg Regional Library and she served for six years on the Residents Board at Williamsburg Landing, where she lived.

Preceded in death by her brothers, Phillip Hamlet and Oscar Newman Hamblet (b. 2 Aug 1915, d. 7 Jul 2003), Miss Hamlet is survived by five nieces, one nephew, four great-nieces, three great-nephews, three great-great-nieces, seven great-great-nephews and four first cousins.

Born on May 12, 1916, in Winchester, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of Able, a chemical engineer, and Marcia (née Coburn) Hamblet. After attending the Hartridge School (Plainfield, New Jersey), she entered Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York), graduating in 1937 with a B.A. degree. She earned a master's degree in public administration from Ohio State University in 1951.[1] From 1937 to 1943, she served with the United States Information Service in Washington, D.C. In April 1943, she entered the Marine Corps and was assigned to the first Marine Corps Women's Reserve Officer Training Class at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts. On completing the course, she was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Women's Reserve, 4 May 1943. She was selected as adjutant to then-Captain (later Colonel) Katherine A. Towle at the Women's Recruit Training Center at Hunter College in New York.[1]

During subsequent tours of duty, she served at bases in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Camp Pendleton, California; and at Quantico, Virginia. Before the end of World War II, she was commanding Aviation Women's Reserve Group I, numbering some 2,600 women, at the Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina. For her service during this period, she was awarded a Letter of Commendation with Commendation Ribbon.[1]

Hamblet was released from active duty in July 1946. However, two months later she was recalled to Headquarters Marine Corps (Washington, D.C.) as a major, to serve as the third director of the Women's Reserve, from September 1946 to November 1948, succeeding Towle. In 1951, after completing graduate work at Ohio State University, she was assigned to the staff of the commander, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, with headquarters in Hawaii. The following year, she was named officer in charge of the Women Officers Training Detachment, Marine Corps Schools, Quantico.[1]

On 1 May 1953, she assumed duty as director of Women Marines, again succeeding Colonel Towle, who was retiring. The post carried with it the rank of colonel; Hamblet continued to serve in that capacity when her four-year tour of duty was extended to 1 March 1959. Later that same month, she was assigned duty in Naples, Italy, as military secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe.[1][2]

In May 1962, upon her return from Italy, she reported to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, as commanding officer, Women's Recruit Training Battalion, and served in this capacity until her retirement three years later.[1][2]