The Pentagon Just Scrubbed a Sitcom Legend’s War Record From Their Website
Donald Trump’s Defense Department has been very busy purging their website of information pertaining to non-straight white cisgender males. As part of their so-called “DEI” sweep, they have deleted pages highlighting the contributions of Black veterans, including baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and also, any pages that just kind of sound like they might threaten the masculinity of the dudes in charge at the Pentagon, such as references to the “Enola Gay.”
They have scrubbed pages listing the accomplishments of female veterans over the years as well, because apparently that whole business about “honoring the troops” only extends to certain troops. And now they’ve really crossed a line, because the government just decided to go fuck with the legacy of one of The Golden Girls: Bea Arthur.
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Arthur is obviously a TV legend. Before The Golden Girls, she starred in the boundary-pushing Maude. And, of course, she had a small role in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
But before all of that, Arthur was a U.S. Marine in World War II. According to HistoryFacts.com, Arthur — then known as Bernice Frankel — enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943, just five days after the organization began recruiting women, in order to “support the American war effort.” As the National World War II Museum points out, the Women Reservists organization was “so new” that the Marine Corps didn’t have any proper paperwork yet, and had to enlist Arthur/Frankel and other women “using U.S. Navy paperwork.”
She was “promoted to private first class” just a few months later, and transferred to the “Motor Transport School in North Carolina” eventually working “in non-combat roles as a driver and dispatcher.” She also married a Marine, Robert Alan Aurthur, in 1944. They divorced four years later, but she kept a modified version of his last name.
But, as pointed out by @swiftillery on social media, you won’t find any of that info on the DoD’s website anymore, because the article chronicling her service now contains a “404 — Page Not Found” error.
Incidentally, other members of the Golden Girls cast were a part of the war effort, too. Betty White “helped out in the American Women’s Voluntary Services in 1941.” Rue McClanahan, was actually drafted into service after high school because she was “mistaken for a man,” owing to her original first name “Eddi-Rue.” The incident inspired her to change it.
Arthur’s role in World War II is a key part of her life. She, and others, deserve to be treated with respect. If anyone was going to scrub any aspect of her biography from the internet, why couldn’t they have made it the time she serenaded a barful of drunken alien monsters?
