A Girl Joins the Navy

Part of the WAVES recruitment efforts were to show the experiences of women in the Navy, and boot camp was no exception. This photo essay followed one woman, Maria Ramona Espinosa, through boot camp at Hunter College.

In this photo, she arrives at the gate of the Navy facility, dressed in her civilian clothes. The caption reads:

Maria Ramona Espinosa goes thru some of the steps necessary to become a WAVE at Hunter College, Bronx, N.Y. Arriving at school she gets her first directions from a Shore Patrolman at the gate.

The photograph comes from the National Archives. It dates from September 1943.