An Alaska Native SPAR - The Story of Seaman First Class Sophia Thadei

On Jan. 1, 1944, tragedy struck the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARS) in Charleston, South Carolina. A young seaman serving as a telephone operator died in a Coast Guard ambulance enroute to the Navy hospital. She was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Who was she? Lacking a name to research, I entered her date of death into the Arlington National Cemetery Gravesite locator, revealing her name. Her headstone reads: SOPHIA THADEI, OREGON, S1, WOMEN’S RESERVE, US COAST GUARD, WORLD WAR II, JAN 1, 1944. Despite the reference to Oregon, she was an Alaska Native who wanted to serve her nation and was the first known SPAR to die while serving. 

Eighty years later, a seaman and I quietly stand beside her grave. He is a Coast Guard Honor Guard member; I am an Arlington Lady. The seaman is from Oregon. He and Sophia graduated from different high schools in the same town. 

The young seaman broke the silence. “We learned about SPARS at bootcamp. After the war ended, they were all discharged.” 

“That is true,” I told him. “They joined knowing they would serve for the duration of the war plus six months.” We did not linger too long, but he noticed that her headstone did not list her birthdate. I did not want to tell him that she was his age when she passed away. 

Sophia was born in Ketchikan, Alaska, on Dec. 16, 1919. Tragedy marred her childhood, but she was determined to succeed. Her mother was an Alaska Native with Unangan ancestry: her father was a French-born fisherman. The family of nine was intact in 1920. By 1922, her two eldest half-brothers resided at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, and two other half-siblings lived at St. George’s Indian School in Tacoma, Washington. Sophia, her brother Louis, Jr., her half-sister Johanna, and their parents still lived in Ketchikan. Unfortunately, Sophia’s mother died soon after giving birth to another child.  

Her mother’s death destroyed the family. The children were effectively orphans. Sophia joined her siblings at St. George’s Indian School in 1926, but sadly, one of them died there from tuberculosis the same year Sophia arrived. By 1936, she was in Juneau, attending Juneau High School and working as a nurse’s aide at a hospital. Sophia then transferred to Salem High School in Oregon, completing coursework at a Salem business college during a summer break and after graduation. 

Though she studied at a public school, she boarded at Chemawa Indian School. The clerk there quickly formed a favorable opinion of her. He wrote, “Sophia bears an excellent reputation at Chemawa where she resided while attending Salem Hi; ambitious and a hard-working student; no trifler.” Sophia overcame a challenging childhood and graduated into a wartime world. 

She found employment at a local hospital as a nurse’s aide and telephone operator. A year later, the Kaiser Company, Inc. hired her at its Vancouver shipyard. As a shipping clerk, Sophia created notices and government bills of lading, ensuring timely deliveries. A woman she likely knew from Kaiser wrote, “...she meets and gets along well with people. Sophia is very considerate and agreeable. She is capable in everything she undertakes...” 

Why did Sophia choose to enlist in the SPARS? A newspaper article mentioned that her brother Louis was serving in the Canadian army. Perhaps she read articles in the local newspaper about the new SPAR recruitment office in Portland. The SPARS recruiter there sought women like Sophia who were capable and adaptable. Sophia completed her application on Aug. 3, 1943. Her responses were all business, save one that was personal. She enjoyed collecting poems. The recruiter described Sophia as poised, smart, attractive, eager, quick, clever, fluent, adaptable, and concise.  She immediately enlisted her. 

On Aug. 17, 1943, Sophia boarded a train that transported her to bootcamp in Palm Beach, Florida. The assignment interviewer gave her a choice. She could serve as a pharmacist’s mate or telephone operator. Seaman Second Class Thadei reported for duty as a telephone operator in Charleston on Sept. 20, 1943. 

During World War II, SPARS like Seaman Thadei replaced Coast Guard men at shoreside jobs, relieving them for service at sea, as the nation desperately needed more men on ships to beat the Axis powers. At the time, Charleston’s District Coast Guard Office did not have telephones with direct dial-in capability. Operators answered incoming calls at the switchboard and connected them to the requested extensions by plugging a cord into a jack. At a busy switchboard, Sophia and the other operators had to be courteous, alert, articulate, and able to work under pressure. A little over two months later, on Dec. 1, 1943, Sophia was advanced to Seaman First Class. 

At approximately 6 p.m. on Dec. 31, 1943, Sophia became acutely ill with nausea and stomach pain. Though she received care at the infirmary, without medical imaging, no one knew that Sophia was internally bleeding from an undiagnosed condition. Her pulse slowed the next morning. A Coast Guard ambulance rushed her toward the Naval hospital. Seaman Thadei breathed her last breath on the way.  

Her death shocked the community. The SPARS, Coast Guard men, and officers paid respect to her, sending flowers and attending the local funeral. Sister Johanna wanted Sophia’s remains transported to Alaska for burial. However, that was impossible due to the war. Seaman Thadei’s body went by train to Arlington National Cemetery, with Thadei’s roommate, Seaman First Class Margie Taenzer, accompanying her fellow telephone operator on that last journey. 

Since her sister was in Alaska and her brother was serving in the Canadian army, Seaman Thadei’s interment could have been a cold January burial without anyone present except the standard attendees of a chaplain, casket team, firing party, and bugler. Today, an Arlington Lady and her Honor Guard escort attend every Coast Guard funeral, ensuring that no servicemember or dependent is buried without the presence of a Coast Guard family member. For Seaman Thadei, there was no danger of a routine funeral. 

Her body was interred on Jan. 5, 1944, at 1 p.m. Outside the chapel at Fort Meyer, Virginia, the officer-in-charge saluted as the casket team removed the flag-covered casket from a hearse and carried it up the chapel steps. Inside, daylight streamed through the windows. Organ music filled the chapel as Seaman Taenzer and Headquarters SPARS rose from the wooden pews where they sat waiting, and watched the casket move down the aisle. The dignified chapel was a fitting place for a religious service. 

After the chapel service ended, the SPARS followed Seaman Thadei’s casket to the gravesite for military funeral honors. Seven riflemen fired their rifles three times, sending ear-piercing cracks reverberating across the cemetery. A nearby bugler played the melancholy Taps. The casket team folded the flag, remembering and honoring the young Alaska Native woman who served her nation to hasten peace and preserve freedom. 

Seaman First Class Sophia Thadei served in the U.S. Coast Guard with distinction. She was among the first minority women as well as one of the first Native American women to wear the uniform. The first SPAR to cross the bar while serving, she embodied the Coast Guard Core Values of Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty. 

-USCG-