Uncategorized – Page 47 – Hinges of History

Model Ships

WAVE officer Elizabeth Reynard designed the training at the Hunter College boot camp so that women would learn from real life examples – or, in the case of ships, models of the ships the Navy used. Here, 1943 trainees crowd around a WAVE officer to learn about the different types of ships that made up the Navy fleet (and those that the enemy used), with the idea that they would be better able to identify them once they were at their permanent stations.

The photograph comes from the U.S. National Archives.

High Dive

Here’s a photo to make you swoon on a sultry summer day. The WAVE is Margaret Rheinhold. 1943 American amateur diving champion, in mid-spin during a plunge off the high dive at the Hunter College boot camp in the Bronx during her training in 1943.

The photo is held by the National Archives.

Getting Fit!

Exercise was an important part of the WAVES regimen. Here, WAVES at Hunter College boot camp in the Bronx, New York, take an exercise drill on one of the campus’s outdoor lawns. The National Archives photo dates from 1943.

Packing the ‘Chute

Getting the plane prepped includes making sure all the safety equipment is one board. Here, WAVE Mary Arnold puts a parachute into an SNJ. ,Today’s entry in our series of photographs of WAVES at work in the Naval aviation was taken at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in September 1943.

The photograph comes from the National Archives.

Parachute Riggers

WAVES were assigned to make and do the upkeep on parachutes Navy men would use to leap from planes during battle. In this 1943 photo from the U.S. National Archives, a WAVE packs a ‘chute.

USS Lewis Hancock

Joy Bright Hancock had been married to Navy man Lewis Hancock, Jr., a submarine officer during World War I. During the early 1920s he served on various battleships, and in 1922 he was assigned to be executive officer of a Navy dirigible, the Shenandoah. The Shenendoah crashed in Caldwell, Ohio in 1925.

In this photo, Hancock is christening a ship named after her late husband. The ship set sail in August 1943.

The photograph comes from the U.S. National Archives.

Joy Bright Hancock

One of the WAVES officers in charge was Joy Bright Hancock. She served in the Navy during World War I as a Yeomanette, or Yeoman (F), and worked as a civilian for Navy aviation during the years between World War I and World War II. This portrait of her dates from 1943.

It comes from the U.S. National Archives.

Ship Ahoy!

In this photo from 1943, Navy WAVE Ensign Margaret Idol, of Greensboro, NC, watches a ship come into the Charleston Harbor. She is on duty in the Port Director’s office, Sixth Naval District Headquarters.

The photo comes from the U.S. National Archives.

Conning Tower

Every Naval station and training center had its own newspaper. The WAVES even had a monthly newsletter that was sent to all members from Naval headquarters in Washington, DC. Conning Tower was the base newspaper for the Hunter College WAVES boot camp in the Bronx, New York.

This edition is from August, 1943. The headline of the day? First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt would be visiting the facility.

The newspaper is held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Birthday Girls

Yesterday was the Coast Guard birthday, last week was the anniversary of the founding of the WAVES and today is my sister’s birthday. So it only seems appropriate to continue the birthday theme, with this ad from the August 1943 edition of Conning Tower, the official newspaper of the WAVES boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York.

Happy birthday all!

The newspaper is held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.