Page 1 of 2
Regular Session, 2014 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 99
BY SENATORS ADLEY, ALARIO, ALLAIN, AMEDEE, APPEL, BROOME, BROWN,
BUFFINGTON, CHABERT, CLAI TOR, CORTEZ, CROWE,
DONAHUE, DORSEY-COLOMB, ERDEY, GALLOT, GUILLORY,
HEITMEIER, JOHNS, KOSTELKA, LAFLEUR, LONG, MARTINY,
MILLS, MORRELL, MORRISH , MURRAY, NEVERS, PEACOCK,
PERRY, PETERSON, RISER, GARY SMITH, JOHN SMITH,
TARVER, THOMPSON, WALSWORTH, WARD AND WHI TE
A RESOLUTION
To commend Dorothy Bell Jeter Bauer for her brave and faithful service to the United States
during World War II as a member of the U.S. Navy's WAVES.
WHEREAS, Dorothy Bell Jeter Bauer is a native of Castor, Louisiana, who moved
to Baton Rouge in 1938, and graduated from Istrouma High School in 1941, just as World
War II was raging across the globe; and
WHEREAS, on January 9, 1945, Mrs. Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Navy's Women
Approved for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) and headed for Hunter College in
the Bronx, New York, for basic training; and
WHEREAS, she later transferred to Flight Orderly Training School at the Naval Air
Station in Olathe, Kansas, and trained successfully to become a flight crew member of the
Naval Air Transport Squadron; and
WHEREAS, when Mrs. Bauer completed her training, she received orders to transfer
to Air Squadron 1 in Patuxent River, Maryland; and
WHEREAS, during Mrs. Bauer's service, she participated in international flights to
Newfoundland, the West Indies, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, as well as many domestic flights
along the east coast and California, averaging about one hundred hours of flight time each
month; and
WHEREAS, she saw the terrible results of war as many of her passengers were
wounded military personnel from the war in the South Pacific; and
WHEREAS, during Mrs. Bauer's dedicated service for her homeland, she was one
of only about three hundred female flight orderlies in the entire Navy, and she took special
pride in knowing that she was performing a critical job for America during some of the
darkest moments of the war; and SR NO. 99 ENROLLED
Page 2 of 2
WHEREAS, Mrs. Bauer would meet and marry Navy aviation machinist Thomas F.
Bauer in 1947, and follow him as he continued to serve and make the Navy his career; and
WHEREAS, she received an Honorable Discharge on March 21, 1947, at the Naval
Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland, but she remained a military wife until her husband
retired in 1961 and they returned to Baton Rouge; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Bauer worked at Moore Products Company until she joined her
husband in retirement and together they raised a family of three children: Stan, who made
the Navy his career; Keith, who retired from the Baton Rouge Police Department and
currently works with Louisiana Senate Security; and Tanya, who currently works for the
Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Bauer lost her beloved husband in 1992 when he succumbed to
cancer, but her life has been full, blessed with five grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren who always provide her with their stories and their love; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Bauer has also remained an active member of the Greenwell
Springs Baptist Church and military organizations such as the Navy Club, Fleet Reserve
Association, American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby express its highest commendations and its sincere gratitude to Dorothy Bell
Jeter Bauer for her service in the highly important and dangerous air missions she flew
during World War II in support of American troops as a member of the United States Navy
WAVES.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Dorothy Bell Jeter Bauer and her family.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE