Harriet Lum Meid (1924-1992), one of 15 children of Tai Young Lum and Annie Yim, was born and raised on Kaua‘i and was educated at Olohena Grammar School in Wailua Homesteads and at Kaua‘i High School, Class of 1942. In
Harriet Lum Meid (1924-1992), one of 15 children of Tai Young Lum and Annie Yim, was born and raised on Kaua‘i and was educated at Olohena Grammar School in Wailua Homesteads and at Kaua‘i High School, Class of 1942.
In July of 1942, during WWII, Harriet joined the Women’s Air Raid Defense, which had been founded in Hawai‘i on Christmas Day, 1941 as part of the 7th Fighter Command.
WARD personnel were appointed to the civil service with nine pay grades ranging from Plotter to Chief Supervisor, were furnished uniforms with unique insignia and were considered to be officers.
Harriet’s duty in WARD was to plot the movement of aircraft detected by radar in the Hawaiian Islands in the WARD operations center at Hale Nani, then located about the center of today’s Ewalu Street, Lihu‘e. Judge and Mrs. Philip Rice had donated Hale Nani, which had been their home, for the operations center and WARD quarters.
Following her discharge from WARD in January, 1944, she joined the WAC, the Women’s Army Corps, at ‘Iolani Palace on Oct. 3, 1944 with more than 50 other women — the first women to be inducted into the WAC in Hawai‘i.
At Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, she was trained to be a phone operator, was later stationed at Frankfurt and Stuttgart, Germany with Company A, 3341st Signal Service Battalion and was discharged in 1946 from the WAC as a Technical Sergeant.
Harriet and fellow veteran Frank Meid were married in Indiana in 1950 and had three sons: Steve, Jeff and Frank Jr.
In Indiana, she helped organize the Indianapolis Chapter of the Women’s Overseas League, a national organization of women who have served overseas in or with the Armed Forces, and held several offices during more than 30 years’ service with WOSL.
