BATON ROUGE — Louise "Gidget" McIntyre has dedicated her life to serving her community and her country.

McIntyre, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1968, recently traveled to Washington, D.C. with Honor Flight Louisiana. She visited the Vietnam Memorial Wall to find the name of John F. Pender, a U.S. Army soldier killed in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam in 1967.

"We were married five months. We were young," McIntyre said. "Then he got his orders for I don't know how long. They let him come back to their duty station for another week, and that was the last time I saw him."

"They had incoming, and John, for some reason, was running out of camp and going to a place where they could hide in a hole, and the explosion hit by him and he was killed instantly," she said.

It's been nearly 60 years since his death. But this visit to the wall alongside other Louisiana veterans brought back those memories.

After graduating from high school in Southport, Maine, McIntyre hoped to get into X-ray technician school. But the program was full.

She discovered a military recruiting center near her home. One poster piqued her interest.

"I looked at the Navy one, and I said, 'Oh, I'd look good in that," she said.

At basic training, she picked up the nickname Gidget. It's also where she first started hearing stories about the war in Vietnam and where she met the soldier she married before he deployed overseas to fight.

The Navy stationed McIntyre to a hospital in South Carolina. She worked alongside medical personnel caring for family members of servicemen.

"That's where you did everything from blood pressure checks, temperature, inoculations," she said.

She continued working in the medical field for 30 years, mostly at a doctor's office in Baton Rouge. She remains an active member of the American Legion, Louisiana Women Veterans, and the Baton Rouge Navy Club. She has also served as an honor guard at funerals statewide.

On this Honor Flight Louisiana experience, McIntyre got to see up close monuments built as a special thank you to her and all the women and men who faithfully serve and sacrifice.

Tomorrow, WBRZ Anchor Sylvia Weatherspoon talks to Vietnam Veteran Ronald Clark from Lutcher about why seeing the war monuments and museums has left a lasting impact on his life.