A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
The initial training schools which opened in October of 1942 combined boot camp and specialty training in one place. Indiana University at Bloomington was selected for storekeepers (accounting and bookkeeping in Navy parlance).
The newspaper clipping from October 9, 1942, is from a story about 31 Iowa women leaving from Des Moines for Navy WAVES training. Fourteen of them headed to storekeeper training at Indiana University. It comes from the University of Iowa Digital Libraries.
In October, 1942, enlisted women also began training to become WAVES. Initially, three schools were set up on college campuses: Madison, Wisconsin, Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Bloomington, Indiana. Each would eventually become a specialty training center after the Hunter College boot camp was established in February 1943. University of Wisconsin, Madison trained radio operators. Oklahoma A&M University (now Oklahoma State University) was a training facility for yeomen. Indiana University at Bloomington trained storekeepers (interestingly, the school’s records indicate that the WAVES didn’t arrive until mid-1943 but the Navy and individual correspondence with women who trained there tell a different story).
This photo shows women arriving at the Madison, Wisconsin radio training school It comes from the National Archives.
WAVE Annabell Dean gets her first stripe sewn onto her uniform after graduating as an ensign from the Women’s Reserve Officers Training School at Smith College in Northampton, MA. She is being assisted by Ensign Mabel Theobald.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
The media was very interested in the training the WAVES officers-to-be would receive at Smith College in Northampton, MA. Here, Captain Herbert Underwood holds a press interview with local media. Note that most of the reporters are women.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Women in the classroom at the Women’s Reserve Naval Training School, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Lt. Elizabeth Boland (left) greets Lt. Eleanor Denton Rich as Lt. Cmdr. Wilson McCandless looks on. Rich was the first member of the WAVES to arrive at the Women’s Reserve Naval Training School at Smith College in Northampton, MA.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Women arrive at Smith College for their officer’s training. Only four of the women are identified in the photo: Billye Wilde, Bette Evans, Eleanor Rich and Frances Rich. The other woman (partially hidden behind the suitcases) and the two helpful sailors are not identified.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
The main officers of staff at the Women’s Reserves Officer Naval Training School, Smith College, Northampton, MA. They are (left to right): Lt. Bonnie Stewart, Lt. Cmdr. Wilson McCandless, Lt. Elizabeth Crandall, Captain Herbert Underwood and Lt. Cmdr. Philip Baker.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
This photograph, dating from August 1942, shows the first WAVES’ officers class at Smith College, who Joy Bright Hancock referred to as the “great unwashed.” The officers didn’t have uniforms when they began and the Navy was developing policy as the women went through training. They would later be the women to train other officers at Smith, as well as enlisted women at facilities around the country.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
It was 70 years ago today, October 6 1942, that the first full class of officers would come to Smith College for training in the WAVES. Northrup and Gillet Halls, shown here, were used as dormitories for that first class of officers.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 