News Photo by Darby Hinkley Alpena VFW Post 2496 member Nancy Flasck stands next to a display for “Operation Jiminy Cricket” a birthday card drive to honor Ethel Louise Wilson, who will turn 103 on Oct. 10.

ALPENA — At 102, this World War II Navy Code Girl has seen a lot.

Cricket Poland, A.K.A. Ethel Louise Wilson, will be turning 103 on Oct. 10, and the Alpena Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2496 is collecting birthday cards to send to her.

With over a century of living under her belt, Cricket has outlived most of her friends and family. She lives downstate, which is where Nancy Flasck met her and befriended her through the Rochester Garden Club.

“We’re best friends now,” Flasck said of Cricket. “We’re soul sisters.”

Flasck is an Alpena VFW member and Marine Corps League member. She is the Buddy Poppy chair for the local VFW Auxiliary.

“I live downstate and up here,” Flasck said.

She splits her time between Alpena and Rochester

“We’re always doing something to support the veterans,” Flasck said.

This project, called “Operation Jiminy Cricket,” involves sending cards to Cricket. Anyone interested can come into the Alpena VFW Post 2496 through the bar door and either bring their own card or fill out a provided card for Cricket, sharing a bit of your own story and your connection to the military or veterans. VFW Post 2496 is located at 2900 Connon St.

“She deserves so much more than to survive so many monumental historical events to only be forgotten,” Flasck wrote in a description on the display board. “She is sharp-minded and quick-witted … She loves learning of others’ service stories and how they served our beautiful country.”

As a Code Girl, Cricket helped break the Enigma Code to save U.S. ships from being located and destroyed.

“She was a part of locating the U-Boat that the Enigma machine was on and still has the Navy blanket it was wrapped in,” Flasck noted.

She added that Cricket is “sassy” and fun to be around.

“She is humble and proud of her service, but wishes she could have done more to keep our soldiers safe,” Flasck continued in the written description. “So many stories to tell.”

Flasck said the women behind the scenes during WWII were sworn to secrecy.

Cricket told Flasck that, by threat of death, they were sworn not to tell anyone, not even their husbands or their roommates.

“She was stationed in Washington, D.C.,” Flasck said. “And she cries when she talks about it because there were the four girls, and she was in college, and her dad was too old — he couldn’t enlist — and everyone she knew was sending their son or their father, husband, so she enlisted.”

At that time, women were not considered welcome in the military, Flasck said.

“People were upset that the women were enlisting,” Flasck said. “She went into intelligence in Washington. She did so well. People were mad at her because they were taking away jobs from men that were being sent overseas to die.”

Because the Code Girls were sworn to secrecy, many of their relatives and descendants had no idea that they were involved with cracking codes behind the scenes in the military.

“They didn’t talk to anybody,” Flasck said. “They worked in a room alone. They didn’t talk to their roommates. No one knew what each other did.”

To learn more about Cricket and other Code Girls, pick up the 2017 book by Liza Mundy, “Code Girls — The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II.”

“She’s got great stories,” Flasck said of Cricket. “She’s wonderful. She loves her country.”