101-Year-Old Bridgewater Veteran Gets Birthday Visit From Sheriff

BRIDGEWATER, NJ - One of Bridgewater’s oldest residents celebrated her 101st birthday with none other than Somerset County Sheriff Darrin Russo this week.

On Wednesday, Russo and his staff visited the home of Bridgewater resident Marian Cole, a World War 2 veteran who was celebrating her 101st trip around the sun.

Cole joined the Army despite being underage at the time of her enlisting, according to the Foundation For Women Warriors.

“While her 21st birthday was in August, and women were not able to enter the armed service until 21, she altered her birth certificate to read Aug. 9, 1921, and by February was not only in the Army, but leaving Newark,” Cole’s daughter, Karen Bradley, told TapInto Bridgewater in 2022.

Over the course of World War II, Cole worked for the Army in New York, California, India and Sri Lanka before returning to New Jersey as a guidance counselor.

“The best thing she ever did was raising her right hand (to get sworn in the Army),” Bradley told TapInto. “And after that, it was marrying my dad.”