George Gongora/Caller-Times

Jean Dotts (left) and her daughter, Katie, show the war bond poster that features Dotts’ late mother, Helen.

   One of Jean Dotts' most treasured mementos in her family photo-filled den is a 1940s Pearl Harbor poster that features her late mother, Helen McMaster.
   "She was very definitely a woman of strength," said Dotts, whose mother died of cancer in 1977 at age 56.
   With "Pearl Harbor" in theaters now, Dotts can't help but think about the real-life role her mother played as a Navy nurse during World War II.
   The government-issued World War II poster was released in 1944 to encourage Americans to buy war bonds. Dotts' mother, dressed in nurse's uniform and cap, is shown guiding a wounded American soldier.
   "I'm real proud of who my mother was and I'm glad I have this remembrance of her," Dotts said.
   Still a mystery
   How Helen McMaster was picked to represent all Navy nurses in the war bonds campaign remains a mystery. The poster was produced before Dotts' mother, whose maiden name was Helen Gajda, met and married Dotts' father, Tom McMaster. Although Helen McMaster kept her copy of the poster, which she gave to Dotts when she was a teen-ager, the family recalls little about the poster.
   What Tom McMaster does remember vividly is how he met his wife and the first time he came across the poster.
   Tom McMaster was a Navy instructor pilot stationed at Beeville's Naval Air Station Chase Field during the war. Gajda was a Navy nurse lieutenant stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
   "We met at Chase Field and it was pretty much love at first sight," said Tom McMaster, 81, an insurance and securities agent living in Houston.
   'I'm going to date her'

George Gongora/Caller-Times

Helen McMaster was a Navy nurse during World War 2.

   Their first encounter came in 1945 when a supply truck, dubbed the Gray Goose, came to the Beeville base bringing supplies and food from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Beeville pilots had gotten word ahead of time that the Gray Goose would also be bringing two Navy nurses on this particular trip.
   "When we heard two nurses were aboard the Gray Goose, all the pilots were there to meet them," Tom McMaster recalled. "And when I saw Helen, I told the guys, 'I'm going to date her.'"
   It was no idle talk on McMaster's part.
   The following day the two went on a date to Beeville's country club. And it was during their courtship that McMaster first saw the war bonds poster, which he came across one day when he stopped by her officer's quarters and found it rolled up. Tom McMaster would later note that copies of the same poster were on display at post offices and other public buildings at the time.
   A year later, the two married in a Beeville church and eventually had two children. In 1948, Helen, who had since left behind her naval career, began her work as a school nurse.
   "She loved nursing and helping people, especially children," Tom McMaster said. "You can see her love of nursing in the poster. The look in her eyes was real. She just had a lot of compassion for people. I still miss her. This 'Pearl Harbor' movie has brought back a lot of memories, especially of that poster."
  
  

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