Robotham receives medal for WWII service

Tuesday was a big day for Hamilton County World War II veteran Carol Robotham. The 101-year-old resident of Memorial Community Care (MCC) in Aurora was presented with a special medal of recognition for her service by Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly at a ceremony in the activity room at MCC that afternoon. Robotham, who served in the Women's Air Corps (WAC) in Atlantic City, N.J. in 1944-45 near the end of the war, received a medal from the Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs (NDVA) as part of its new World War II Recognition Program designed to honors vets during this year's 80th anniversary of the end of the war. 
Approximately 75 people including Robotham's son, Steve from Marquette, crowded into the room for the event and her daughter, Carolyn Skordes was watching from her home in New York via the internet. One of the first to speak was Aurora Mayor Marlin Seeman who said he had gotten the idea to submit Robotham's name from a Veterans Day article about her that had been published in the News-Register in November. Also on the program was state Veterans' Affairs Director John Hilgert who talked about how the program had come about and why Robotham was selected. 
There to present the award on behalf of Gov. Jim Pillen, who had originally been scheduled to appear, was Lt. Gov. Kelly.
Kelly apologized for the governor's absence, saying he was still recovering from his horse riding accident several weeks ago and also needed time to prepare for his annual State of the State address the next day. 
“This is Nebraska doing a Nebraska thing,” Kelley said in remarks made before presenting the award. “We have a chance to say thank you again to, in this case one of our World War 2 Women's Corps members and one of our great citizens of Aurora.”
Following the presentation Robotham provoked laughs and applause from those in attendance when she remarked, “Thank you so much. I want to thank all the other WACs and members who worked all over in World War 2, because without it I don't think we would have won.”
“Although the men did a good job,” Robotham added, prompting more laughter and applause from the audience. 
Robotham was also presented with a Quilt of Valor by the Nimble Thimble Quilt Guild and posed for pictures with Kelly, Hilgert and Seeman. Hilgert said the idea for the awards being presented to WWII veterans across the state this year was prompted by the 80th anniversary of the end of the war and a desire to recognize those who helped win it. 
“Our department is always trying to figure out how to do more and recognize their service,” Hilgert said. “And this was an easy way that would be highly visible and and get communities together to remember some of the lessons from World War 2 such as everyone pitching in... everyone doing their part.” 
Earlier in the event Hilgert reminded the crowd of how much average Americans did on the home front to help with the war effort. He said there had been memorials of previous wars that were torn down and used for scrap metal. 
Hilgert said state officials had already presented more than 50 of the medals since the program began the first of the year.  
See an expanded version of this story and more photos to be published in next week's edition of the News-Register in our annual Prime Time issue.