Pfc. Valborg Ottilia Scharling (Rasmussen)
(1898 - 1961)
Profile
Pvt. Valborg Ottilia Scharling enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1944. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Valborg Ottilia Scharling (originally Starling Rasmussen) was born on 25 February 1898 in Grenaa, Denmark, to Jens Kristian Rasmussen and Helene Nicoline Kirstine Rasmussen (née Willesen).[1]
Scharling emigrated to the United States in 1923. She arrived in New York from Copenhagen onboard the SS Oscar II on 22 May 1923 on her way to join her sister Anna in Kenosha, Wisconsin.[2] In 1933, she works as a nurse.[3]
Scharling enlisted as a Private (A-608788) in the Women’s Army Corps in Chicago, Illinois, on 3 June 1944.[4] She served until 5 December 1945. The records states that she served at the ‘WAC AUS STAGING Det’. It is not clear if this unit was involved in sending personnel overseas to Australia.[5] The sources do not indicate if she served as a Army Air Force WAC.
She died on Michigan on 20 June 1961.[6]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Grenaa sogn.
[2] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[5] Ancestry: U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963.
[6] Ibid.