TWIST OF MILITARY FATE LED TO LOVE.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

LANCASTER - Janice Walker got the urge to enlist in the military when money for her schooling ran out.

She had completed a little more than two years at Virginia Union University in Richmond, majoring in sociology and psychology, and felt she had a good chance to go to Officers Candidate School.

``That didn't pan out but I'm glad I went in,'' she said. ``It was a good experience. It was also time for me to get away from home. The Janice Walker people see now is not the Janice Lockley of back then. We are two different people. Janice Lockley was very timid. I don't think I could have grown if I hadn't gone into the service.''

When Walker enlisted in 1949, it was a pivotal year for minorities.

``It was felt by the Defense Department that not enough black people - we were called Negroes in those days - were joining the services and they sent out the word to recruiters. Recruiters then began to put more effort into taking us in, even though the services were still not integrated,'' Walker said.

Her service was between wars, but peacetime duty didn't mean easy duty.

``Especially for us women,'' Walker said. ``I had to go through calisthenics and obstacle courses during basic at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, just like the men.''

Women in the military were not accepted well by the men.

``I think we had to go through all that stuff in basic because the wheels didn't know what to do with us,'' she said. ``Some, not all of the guys but some, thought we had to be either lesbians or harlots. They called us a lot of names until we could prove ourselves.''

It was only a quirk of fate that put her in the Air Force instead of the Navy, she said.

``Everybody else in the family was in the Navy, so naturally I went down to the Navy recruiting office initially. But one of the first questions they asked me was could I swim. I couldn't,'' she said.

One of the requirements for joining the Navy was being able to swim. ``They weren't too happy about it when I said no,'' she laughed, ``but what else could I say?''

She explained she'd been raised in a household that frowned on young ladies exposing themselves in bathing suits so she'd never learned to swim.

``But I still wanted to go into the service so I just went next door to the Air Force recruiter,'' she said.

In those days women had to have at least two years of college before they could get into the Air Force, she said.

``I had that qualification without question so she (the recruiter) signed me up right away,'' she said.

She soon found out that it wouldn't be easy to get into OCS. There was a quota system and only two African-American women could be in the OCS at the same time.

``They had to put me somewhere, so I was sent off to the 405 clerk/typist school in Cheyenne, Wyoming,'' she said.

Romance reared its head there in the form of Sgt. Leon Walker, one of the instructors. It didn't take long for them to fall in love. It was a forbidden liaison. He was a buck sergeant and she was only a private first class, plus, the brass didn't believe Leon was African-American and interracial marriage was not allowed.

``Some of them thought he was Indian and the rest didn't know what he was,'' she said. ``So, on Nov. 4, 1949, we just took a couple of hours off duty and went off base to a justice of the peace.''

That signaled a hasty end to her military career.

``Only three or four weeks after we were married I got orders to ship out to Ellington Field, in Texas,'' she said. ``I didn't have time to let Leon know. I didn't know where he was, so I relayed a message to him through a friend. He got to the station just as my train was pulling out.''

When she got to Ellington Field she took an early pregnancy test and the doctor told her the test was positive, so she told her superior officer that she was pregnant.

``The rule then was that you could only stay in as long as you could wear a duty uniform,'' she said. ``All that has changed now. They even have maternity uniforms. But then, it meant I had to get out.''

Leonard was the first of their six children. The others came along as Leon served out his years, moving from station to station including a time in Korea.

In addition to Leonard, who lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, they are: James, deceased in 1996; Janine Fairley, Hawaii Kai, Hawaii; Bryan, Honolulu; Linda Walker, Mountain View, Calif.; and Leslie Fagan, Palmdale.

For many years the family moved from base to base. Stations included Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan; Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C.; Westover Air Force Base in Springfield, Mass.; Camp Drum in upstate New York; Griffis Air Force Base at Rome, New York; and Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.

They loved Hawaii so when Leon retired as a master sergeant, in 1971, they all returned to the islands. In 1977 they came to Edwards Air Force Base where Leon worked as a civilian ground safety specialist and Janice became a classification specialist in the civilian personnel office.

Leon died peacefully in his sleep, Nov. 13, 1999, only eight days after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Janice remains active in the community. She is a member of the auxiliaries of VFW Post 7283 and American Legion Post 311 and is a past matron of the Order of Eastern Star High Desert Flower 93.

She is a member of Ladies of Courage breast cancer survivors; a charter member of the Women in Military Service; a member of Agape Community Church and serves as secretary of the Lancaster Veterans Home Committee.

During the Walkers' station changes, Janice worked in many capacities in many base offices, including the Judge Advocate General's at Griffis Air Force Base, as an administrative assistant.

As someone who served in peacetime, Walker believes she doesn't deserve accolades on Memorial Day.

``The ones who held the fort in time of battle are the ones we need to remember,'' she said.

``I cut a lot of overseas orders for a lot of other women, many of whom never came back,'' she said sadly. ``I think they, and all the others who didn't return, are the ones who should be remembered on Memorial Day.'' Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and South Valley have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk for a donation of $2.

Monday: Closed. Memorial Day.

Tuesday: Polish sausage, parslied potatoes, cooked cabbage, garden salad, banana.

Wednesday: Beef tips, parslied noodles, brocco lettuce/tomato salad, ice cream.

Thursday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, fiesta coleslaw, Jell-O with fruit.

Friday: Oven-fried chicken, rice pilaf, spinach, citrus salad.

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Photo: After being rejected by the Navy, Janice Walker enlisted in the Air Force, where she later met her husband of 50 years.