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3rd generation Airman explores WAF grandmother's history

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Phelps
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FACE BASE, S.C. --  For many military members, serving their country is almost a family tradition. Looking down their lineage they may find many generations spanning across several branches.

Senior Airman Christine Ann Clucas, 20th Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management technician, Tower Hill, Ill. native, is the fourth generation in her family to serve in the military and a third generation Airman.

One of the unique aspects of her family history is she is not the only female to have served. Her grandmother, Edwina (Hamby) Nix was also an Airman in the 1950's.

Unfortunately, Clucas did not know much about her grandmother since she passed away from pneumonia while Clucas was still very young.

"With my grandmother being the only woman other than me to have been in the military with my family's extensive military history, I felt there was a connection," she said. "I didn't have any memories of her and I began to wonder if there was anything else we have in common."

So, a couple weeks ago Clucas began a search to find out about her grandmother. She started out with a Google search.

"The only things I knew about her was her name, her maiden name and that she had served in the Air Force," Clucas added. "I also knew that she and my grandfather had divorced and remarried each other, then divorced again. But, I didn't know the last name of her latest husband after my grandfather. I didn't know her hometown, where she was born or anything else."

Through the Google search she was able to find information on her grandfather, her dad and even herself, but nothing on her grandmother.

"I was beginning to wonder if she even existed," Clucas joked.

Everything that she found on her was through various ancestry sites that charged what seemed like a fortune, Clucas remarked.

"I just kept hitting a lot of dead ends," Clucas said.

After Clucas's grandmother married her latest husband, she moved to California, so even her dad didn't know her that well, Clucas explained.

She went to her dad, Larry Clucas, a retired Air Force master sergeant, for help and found her grandmother had a sister that lived in Lompoc, Calif., and received the number for her great aunt.

"I ended up giving her, my great-aunt Audrey Hamby, a call and fell into a wealth of information," Clucas remarked. "She was so bubbly and easy to talk to. Turns out I had even met her at a super-young age as well and didn't realize it."

Through her first conversation with her aunt, Clucas discovered that her grandmother, Edwina, had graduated from Lompoc High School in Lompoc, Calif., in 1955, joined the Air Force in November, graduated from basic training in January 1956, and then went to her first duty station at McChord Air Force Base, Wash.

She also found out her grandmother was the first woman from Lompoc to join the Air Force.

Another interesting tidbit she found out about her grandma was that she had to leave the military after having her first child with her then husband, retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Harry Clucas, Clucas's aunt said. She also added that she would have probably been happier had she been able to stay in and have children, but that was not allowed for women at the time.

After finding out where her grandmother went to high school, Clucas checked out the school's website and e-mailed some of the people on the alumni list from her grandmother's class. She also e-mailed the school's librarian.

The first response she got was from the librarian, Erin Simons, "I have before me your grandmother's picture from the 1955 yearbook. She has a very pretty face. Under her name it says 'A bonnie lass is she.' Other students have different sayings, so I don't know if she chose that expression herself. She was in Girls' Athletic Association, Future Homemakers of America, the Service Club and was an usher for the junior play."

She also received an e-mail from one of her grandmother's old friends, Gail Benson, "It seems so recently that Edwina and I were classmates. In fact, we became rather close friends immediately when the Hamby's moved to Lompoc ... Guess I should say that she and Audrey (her sister) put on a fun sleepover on occasion. Their mother was the most tolerant of the noisy teenage girls who filled the house with their screams, giggles, etc. We also walked their neighborhood late at night and wondered who we could torment by waking them up ... Be happy that she was a neat girl who never forgot her friends ... Last time I saw her was at a class reunion and she was as pretty as ever and just as smiley as she always was."

"It's been fun getting these stories about my grandma," Clucas said. "I just think, 'Wow, that's where I got that from.'"

Clucas also recently received some photos of her grandmother and started filling out some forms to retrieve her grandmother's records from the National Archives.

"I'd really like to find out what she did in the military," Clucas commented. "After talking to and connecting with my Aunt Audrey I thought, 'I'm so much like these people. How did I not know them?' It's been the most exciting to find out what my grandma was actually like. As I keep finding out things about her, the more I want to know."