For decades, Julia Parsons maintained that she worked a quiet, ordinary desk job during World War II. But her job was anything but ordinary. Parsons is a Veteran of the Navy’s all-female WAVES unit, one of thousands of women whose work decrypting Japanese and German communications played a pivotal role in helping the Allies win the war.

Parsons remains tight-lipped about her time in the service.

At 100 years old, the retired lieutenant is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She lives alone and tends to her house with “no problems at all.”