Korean War rigger still active with American Legion

As a U.S. Air Force parachute rigger during the Korean War, Joan Ortmann already was in a league of her own.

She was the only woman in the rigger group at the Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts that packed parachutes for the paratrooper forces. Attention to detail was paramount.

Ortmann, 85, of Columbia Falls, would go on to break down gender barriers in other ways related to her military service. After the war she became the first woman commander of the American Legion Post in Lisbon, Iowa, in 1963 at a time when the American Legion was nearly 100 percent male-dominated. Women were relegated to the organization’s auxiliary unit.

When Ortmann moved to Polson in 1983 she once again became the first woman to serve as commander of that American Legion Post.

A Denver native who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ortmann joined the Air Force more or less on a lark when her girlfriend, Betty, suggested Ortmann accompany her to take the physical exam because she didn’t want to go alone.

“That sounds like fun,” she remembers saying. At the time she was working as a lab technician for Quaker Oats Co.

Ortmann tagged along to the test site and then military personnel persuaded her to take the exam, too.

“Then I passed the physical, but Betty didn’t. That’s how I ended up in the Air Force.

“I didn’t plan it. It was a crazy decision really,” she reflected.

Ortmann’s spontaneous, up-for-anything attitude served her well both in war time and throughout life.

“They call me a firecracker,” she said with a laugh.

Ortmann loved the opportunity to travel while in the Air Force.

“I got to see a lot of the United States. There was a group of girls in the squadron with me and we’d go see the sights,” she recalled.

In her role as a rigger, she packed a booklet along with the parachute that contained the base information, date and initials of the person packing the parachute. A couple of times pilots tracked her down afterward. One gave her a set of wings; another offered up a fifth of scotch.

“I’d go back today if I could,” she said, adding that one thing she learned early on in the Air Force was “you have to be ready to require respect.”

After two years of service she left the military to get married.

Her active involvement in the American Legion also began with a bit of a dare. She struck up a conversation one day with an English woman who had married an American veteran. As they talked about activities related to the American Legion’s auxiliary unit for women, they wondered about the possibility of women joining the post.

“She made me bet I couldn’t join the American Legion,” so to prove the woman wrong Ortmann became a member of the Cyclops Post 109.

“She lost the bet and had to buy me lunch,” Ortmann said with a laugh.

She served in every office in that post, named after the World War I warship Cyclops that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918. When she moved to Polson in the early 1980s she joined the post there and once again stepped into the commander’s shoes.

During her time in Polson she led an effort to establish a veterans section at the Lake View Cemetery.

In 1993 Ortmann moved to Kalispell and worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 20 years as a distribution and window clerk. She relocated to Columbia Falls about five years ago and wasted no time in becoming active with American Legion Freedom Post No. 72.

“There are four women in the Columbia Falls post and we’re the first post [in the area] to have a number of women,” Ortmann said proudly, adding that she also helps out with the auxiliary. “We work together with the auxiliary. I put in my two cents.”

She said she’s proud of her role in the American Legion because it’s a service to the community. Ortmann’s life has been full of community service, including stints as an ambulance crew member, school bus driver for developmentally disabled children, 4-H leader and church work. She raised five children, too.

In the early 2000s she delved into understanding the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and became a volunteer coordinator, helping fellow seniors understand the process of enrolling.

These days Ortmann still makes the rounds at the senior center to keep a pulse on local current events and issues. She’s always been a proverbial social butterfly. And at the heart of her gregarious nature is a passion to help.

“If anyone needs a helping hand I help,” she said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.