Two months ago Scottie Lingelbach turned down an invitation to watch the May 29 dedication of the National World War II Memorial in a Washington, D.C.-area armory.

“I can do that in my own living room and do it much more comfortably,” the 82-year-old Lawrence woman said.

But Lingelbach — who worked with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington while serving in the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service during World War II — will be at the memorial dedication after all.

She will be attending as a special guest of longtime NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw. Lingelbach and her late husband, Dale, were among those featured in Brokaw’s 1998 book, “The Greatest Generation.”

Moreover, Lingelbach will be a house guest at the home of Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I told them I’d be black and blue by the time I got there from pinching myself,” Lingelbach said.

Lingelbach’s travel arrangements are being taken care of by Brokaw’s and Myers’ staffs.

Lingelbach, who met Myers as a result of Brokaw’s book, also has stayed in touch with Brokaw. Although she is looking forward to the trip and the dedication ceremony, Lingelbach also expects the dedication to be an emotional one.

“I’m not going to be thinking of myself,” she said. “I’m going to be thinking of Dale, who was wounded at St. Lo (France) and all those other people who were over there from high school and college. It’s been so long in coming. So many of us aren’t around anymore.”

Lingelbach

Brokaw is planning a follow-up to the book in which he will discuss how the lives of those he wrote about have changed since the first book, Lingelbach said.

“I sent him an e-mail and said, ‘The question you should be asking is how has it not affected my life,'” Lingelbach said.

Since the book, Lingelbach has often been asked to speak at schools and colleges. It allowed her to meet and strike up a friendship with Myers and his wife, Mary Jo Myers. She stayed with the Myerses last year during a trip to Washington.

Newest D.C. memorial honors WWII veterans (05-12-04) WWII memorial taking shape (07-24-04) Long-awaited WWII Memorial opens (04-30-04)

“One of the most exciting things to happen to me was a phone call I got one night from a woman in Wichita,” Lingelbach said. “She said she had just finished reading my story, and she wanted to tell me that her husband had been standing next to mine when they were both wounded. I just got chills talking to her.”