Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Diana Murar of Boardman displays her service ribbons she earned in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.
BOARDMAN -- When Diana Murar graduated from Campbell Memorial High School in 1967, she had no idea of the exciting military career that awaited her.
"I had a one-year scholarship to Youngs-town Univer-sity," Murar said. "I ran out of money for a second year, so I ended up joining the Air Force."
She said 1967-68 was when Youngstown University added State to its name. It was in 1969 that she talked with a recruiter and started on a new path in life.
"Originally, I wanted to join the Navy, but I didn't know how to swim," she said. "So I turned to the Air Force. I enlisted because I knew I wouldn't be sent to Vietnam."
She said women were just being accepted into the armed forces, but they were not allowed to serve overseas and instead served stateside in support positions.
Murar took her oath in Cleveland and was sent for training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. The base housed a top training facility for technical positions, and she took three months of computer classes.
After her training, she was sent to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to begin her work in the Strategic Air Command HQ.
"I was with the first group of Air Force women at the base," Murar said. "We worked two and three levels underground."
She said the computers were very large and took up an entire room. Magnetic tape reels were used and stored in temperature-controlled rooms.
"There were a lot of security doors and people checking identifications," Murar said. "We processed a lot of data coming out of Vietnam. I had to learn to create maps from aerial photos, run the computers and make daily reports."
She also had to clean up classified materials when a VIP tour would come to the base. She said her unit dealt with unclassified, classified, secret and top secret documents and data.
"We had to keep all the magnetic tape reels separate as to classifications. There were rooms filled with the reels, and we had to know where each was and what it was," Murar said.
As for living quarters, she said they had rooms and she kept a wig instead of cutting her hair. The Air Force regulations said women had to keep their hair no longer than shoulder length. Her wig helped her meet that regulation.
Murar stayed with the computer career at Offutt until her active duty was up in 1973. After receiving her honorable discharge, she was offered a civilian base job by the many contractors that worked on the base. She returned to the SAC base, but worked above ground with a lot of the same computer data.
In 1973, she used her G.I. Bill to take night classes at a local Omaha university and earned her bachelor's degree in geography. She stayed on the base 3 ½ more years before heading to Nevada.
"I grew sick of the tornadoes and winters in Nebraska," she said. "The area had bad snowstorms that would trap people on the base for as long as three days."
One of her good Air Force friends had married and moved to Reno. After leaving Nebraska, Diana decided to head there for a while. She continued to use her G.I. Bill to take classes at the University of Nevada. Since the university didn't offer a master's degree in geography, she switched and earned a bachelor's degree in political science.
While in Reno, her friend convinced her to join the Nevada Air National Guard, which she did in 1977. Murar said there were no computer jobs open, so she entered the Guard as a key punch operator in the supply unit, which was a busy position.
As a member of the guard, she worked one weekend a month and put in two weeks of active duty each year. She was also able to continue her training at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. The training saw her get a promotion to tech sergeant.
"I still remember being in Biloxi," she said. "I was there on March 30, 1981, when there was an attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life."
She stayed with the National Guard and in July 1984, she was honorably discharged.
Back in civilian life again, Murar was able to get a job with Honeywell in Minneapolis. She moved there in 1986 and worked in Honeywell's research and development.
"It was fascinating working with top scientists and researchers," she said. "I got to meet people from all over the world."
In the late 1980s, Honeywell began to downsize. Murar said she decided to move back to the Mahoning Valley in 1991.
Over the next two decades, she held jobs as a librarian, a corrections officer, a banker, and several other positions before officially retiring in 2012. She also served as a volunteer at Mill Creek MetroParks prior to staff cutbacks. But did she really retire?
"I don't understand why people retire and say they are bored," she said. "I'm not."
Today, Murar serves as secretary of her bowling league at Holiday Bowl in Struthers, is active in the local chapter of the Nature Book Club, and is a member of the Butler Institute of American Art, the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, the Uptown Association and the Ohio Living Senior Community.
She is also involved with several veteran organizations and is heavily active in MWAN (Military Women Across the Nation).
"We have a tent at the Canfield Fair each year," she said.
Another organization she is involved in is the Northeast Ohio Women Veterans Unit 21. Next year, in September, her group will host a national convention of women veterans at Put-In-Bay near Sandusky.
She also squeezes in trips to Washington, D.C., and enjoys symphonies and plays.
Murar said her time in the Air Force and the Guard gave her a lot of important tools in life that help her live life to the fullest.
"I learned how to take care of myself and to appreciate my family (her brothers and sisters)," she said. "I don't see any chance of slowing down right now."
She is also active in gardening and lawn care at her Boardman home.
She will always carry with her the honor of being among the military's first women recruits during the Vietnam War. She and her military sisters proved they could handle themselves in the world once reserved for men only.