A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
WAVES marching to inspection by Mildred McAfee and White at Naval Air Station Brooklyn, New York, July 31, 1943. Check out the sign at the bottom of the photo. It looks to be hand painted – certainly wouldn’t see that today!
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
The junior class in anatomy gets facts on figures from instructor Pharmacists Mate First Class Dorothy Payne. The trainees are gathered about the model for a few questions at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, MD.
The 1943 photograph comes from the National Archives.
WAVES check on the pulse and reactions of a group of aviation cadets in the pressure chamber at U.S. Naval Training Center, Pensacola, FL.
The c. 1944 photograph comes from the National Archives.
WAVES at Naval Air Station Seattle, WA find time for recreation in various forms. Here, a party for the WAVES first anniversary in 1943 featured the swearing in of recruits at a downtown Seattle theater.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Ethel E. Helter, Aerologist’s Mate, keeps tabs on a weather recording instrument at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, CA.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
WAVE Jean Selby, who was an illustrator at the Walt Disney Studio, now makes celluloid for training films at the Navy’s Photographic Lab, Anacostia, Washington, DC.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
WAVES on duty at the Naval Air Station, New Orleans, Louisiana, c. 1944.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
In late 1944, the WAVES finally got approval to allow women to go “overseas.” This included the now-US states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Previously, women were only allowed stateside berths.
This article from the WAVES Newsletter explained how women could apply for the service post. It comes from the Schelsinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University.
WAVES at work in the control tower at Naval Air Station Norfolk. WAVES in this job needed clear speaking voices, and worked guiding plane traffic.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
WAVE Commander Mildred McAfee addresses personnel at Naval Air Station Brooklyn in this undated photo from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 