WAVE Lt. Tova Peterson Wiley, in this undated photo from the National Archives. Wiley was a part of the first group of WAVE officers in late 1942.
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Frances Roth
WAVE Lt. Frances Roth, in this undated photo from the National Archives.
A Pose with a Plane
Joy Bright Hancock, the former Yeomanette who would eventually become WAVES commander, poses in front of a plane during a visit to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Sea of Faces
This is another shot from the rally we posted about yesterday. Here, more than 4,000 attend the July 1943 rally in Washington, DC celebrating the 1st anniversary of the founding of the WAVES.
It comes from the National Archives.
Rally Girls
WAVES Commander Mildred McAfee and Navy Secretary Frank Knox are at a rally celebrating the first anniversary of the WAVES founding. The celebration was in Washington, DC on July 27, 1943.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Page Out of the Newsletter
Taking a look at a page out of the WAVES Newsletter, it shows how the Navy uses its photographs to talk about the work of Air Gunnery Instructors. We saw this image earlier in the week. The women are working on .50 caliber machine gun turrets, and needed to learn how to shoot the guns in order to take over in training men in the skills needed for war.
According to the article
The instructor of these WAVES will see its results in the war zones.
The clipping comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Partnership First
This image demonstrates the importance of partnership between the WAVE gunnery instructor and her pupil, who will later fly missions overseas. Here is WAVE Instructor Gladys Cox and Rex E. Bisbee, who graduated at the top of his class.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Switchboards + Guns
The Navy’s description of this photo from the Naval Air Gunners School in Hollywood, Florida:
‘Telephone girls’ at a deadly switchboard wear head-phones hooking them to their pupils as the tell the latter the ‘wrong numbers’ they get in firing at targets on the high-speed range. The turrets are identical to the ones the future gunners will occupy on warplanes.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Gunners on Duty
WAVES Florence Johnson and Rosamund Small walk out to the target range at the Naval Air Gunners School in Hollywood, Florida. They were among the first WAVES to qualify as instructors of electrically-operated 50 caliber machine gun turrets in April of 1944.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Flagging the Plane
It was a chilly day in March 1944 when WAVE Betty McIntire signals a plane to taxi out onto the runway at the Naval Air Station Anacostia. She’s an Aviation Machinist’s Mate.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 