Once a Marine, always a Marine. Even when giving birth.

Since joining the Marine Corps at the age of 20 in 1945, Anna Carol Wright – like all Marines – knows the corps’ birthday is Nov. 10.

It also was on that day in 1953 when Wright gave birth to her third daughter.

Now 82, the Lawrence resident chuckles at the coincidence. But on that day, the fact that it was the Marine Corps birthday was the last thing on her mind.

“I was just thinking what a pretty baby and she’s got all her fingers and toes,” said Wright, who spent a little over a year in the Marines at the end of World War II. “I just had too many things on my mind.”

Caylen Vickers, also of Lawrence, was the baby born to Wright that day. She grew up knowing that her birthday coincided with that of the Marines. But her mother never talked much about being a Marine, Vickers said.

“It just wasn’t a big deal to her then,” Vickers said. “She talks about it more now as she’s gotten older.”

Wright agreed. “I’m very proud of it. I’ve always been proud of it,” she said about being a Marine. “I think it has meant more to me in later years because when I was younger I had so many things going on.”

Joining the Marines was one of the best decisions she has made, said Wright, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo. Her father was dead and her mother died just a few months before she enlisted. An only child, Wright said she needed the discipline the Marines practice.

“My mother spoiled me a little,” Wright said. “I was thrilled with the discipline and the responsibility (the Marines) gave me.”

Wright went through the women’s version of boot camp and graduated in the top 10 percent of her class. After boot camp she worked the mandatory one month in the mess hall. Then she went to work as a clerk in the office of Lt. Col. Victor Krulak, commandant of the Marine schools at Quantico, Va. She was later promoted to Krulak’s secretary. One of Krulak’s children, Charles C. Krulak, grew up to be a commandant of the Marine Corps.

Her memories of being in the Marines are good ones, Wright said. The closest thing to sexual harassment that she experienced was being called a BAM, which the men said stood for “broad-ass Marine.” The women, however, said it stood for ‘beautiful American Marine.” They took the men’s acronym as good-natured.

“To this day I have people say to me, ‘Oh, you were a BAM,'” Wright said.

In June 1946, with World War II over, Wright was mustered out of the Marines. She went on to marry and became a marketing executive and head of a division of the Bristol-Myers Squibb. Now widowed, she lives in a downtown condo. She has made a name for herself as a local artist and some of her paintings – mostly of flower arrangements – have appeared in local galleries.

None of Wright’s three daughters was interested in joining the Marines, but she would recommend the corps to any young woman who is interested.

“I think it’s a wonderful career,” she said. “I would have been tempted to stay in if I could have, because I enjoyed it.”