A young Navy WAVE in her new Mainbocher uniform and just out of storekeepers school in Bloomington, Indiana, was assigned to duty in Bremerton, Washington, where she learned that the reception awaiting women in the Navy was less than enthusiastic. She had no idea that cold day in 1943 would leave her with searing memories.
WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) at that base were assigned to the chiefs mess hall. She was taking her coffee mug to the dish rack when a brawny chief boatswain's mate accosted her. He reached out and grabbed her arm with a viselike grip and in a roaring voice yelled, "I've been in this damn Navy 20 years and never thought I'd live to see lipstick on my coffee mug!" Since that day, thousands of WAVES would leave their marks on the Navy.
The chief was one of many diehards who, during World War II, believed that a woman's place was in the home. This was true even after Congress voted to establish the Women's Army Corps (WAC) on 14 May 1942. The act establishing the WAVES followed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing Public Law 689 on 30 July. Lives suddenly were changed as women began pioneering new roles in all branches of the armed services. Being in uniform provided them with a sense of camaraderie that had been unattainable in the prewar years. Looking back, these proud women still see themselves as young and bold and daring.
During World War I, the Navy Department assigned more than 11,000 female yeomen to clerical duties. It took another war before women were once again allowed to serve. The women who enlisted in 1942 increasingly have become the focus of scholarly attention and works of popular history. Unaware that they were history makers, they let years pass before realizing their stories were worth saving.
Women were transformed quickly from jaunty apprentice seamen into spirited naval personnel. They faced many discomforts while also having an eye for quirky details and a lot of humor. They worked hard and morale was high even though they were confronted with a new language of arcane naval jargon. They did it all—spread scuttlebutt, drank their joe, and hit the sack. But they did not identify themselves as veterans until years later, and, until recently, not much was done to recognize their work.
In 1942, when a man was commissioned in the Navy directly from civilian life, he was classified as VS (volunteer specialist); when women were commissioned, they were classified WVS, which became the basis for the nickname WAVES. A newsman in Hawaii guessed that the letters stood for "Women Are Very Essential—Sometimes." Captain Mildred McAfee Horton, first director of the WAVES, said at the first graduation exercise for women midshipmen at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School, "Indoctrination into the Navy is like shoe polish. It is sticky and very dull until a bit of elbow grease is applied. Only then will the results begin to show."
Enlisted WAVES and SPARs ("Semper Paratus—Always Ready," the women's branch of the Coast Guard) began boot training on I February 1943 on the Hunter College Campus in the Bronx, which consolidated several previously disparate training facilities into a single location for the rest of the war. (Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, played a similar role for officer training.) There were no dormitory facilities and WAVES were quartered in apartments, displacing 513 families in the Bronx Kingbridge neighborhood.
Blacks continued to be barred from enlistment, creating a great exchange of letters and accusations of discrimination. Navy Secretary Frank Knox argued that such enlistments ought not to be permitted, regardless of whether to replace a black or white sailor.
"WAVES are being recruited to replace men to active duty," he said, "and the Navy does not at present have any substantial body of Negro men available or qualified for general service." He suggested experimenting with a "Negro Navy," but black community leaders protested, calling it a form of "Jim Crowism." It was not until 1945 that a bill passed allowing black WAVES .
In September 1944, following a long battle against one man, David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts, the Senate finally passed a bill allowing WAVES to go overseas—but only as far as Hawaii, Alaska, and the Caribbean. WACs long had been overseas, but Senator Walsh continued to object until he could offer no valid reason for keeping all of the tens of thousands of WAVES at home. By the end of the war, ratings varied from parachute rigger to pigeon trainer, aerological engineer, hydrographer, and sonar technician.
"USS Hunter," as the Bronx training facility was called, was deactivated on 2 February 1946. In all, more than 86,000 women had passed through the school: 80,936 WAVES, 1,844 SPARS, and 3,190 women Marines. These brave women helped win the war and carved a permanent niche for women in the military that has only grown in the 60 years since their pioneering sacrifices.
Mrs. Alsmeyer entered the WAVES in 1943. She is the author of several books, including Six Years after D-Day: Cycling through Europe (Denton, TX: University of North Texas, 1995).