“Aloha ” A


s she steps up to lead the Ladies Auxiliary VFW, the guiding light for new


Top photo: At 7, her dance group’s hula performance at the Tripler Army Medical Center was one of Gwen’s first experiences giving to veterans.


Above inset: Our future leader: Gwen when she was around one year old.


4 LADIES AUXILIARY VFW MAGAZINE


National President Gwen Rankin is, and always has been, what she calls “the Aloha spirit.” Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, her warm and welcoming presence came naturally and was nourished by her family. Her parents, Alice Carlos and Phillip De Silva, a World War II veteran, met when her father was fresh out of the Navy. Gwen was their first child, a tomboy in the midst of three brothers, Reggie, Roger and Roland “Pal.” Gwen has many fond memories of camping on the beach with her family, of Hawaii’s glorious sunsets and years of Polynesian dance lessons. Some of her dance group’s earliest performances were comic hulas for the veterans at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. She danced her way all


through high school until graduation in 1965, when her

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