A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
This is a photo of a commemorative stamp honoring the U.S. Coast Guard. It was released after World War II had ended, on November 10, 1945. The Coast Guard itself was originally founded on August 4th, 1790.
The stamp comes from the Better H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Merrily Kurtz served in the WAVES until 1947, then eventually got married and had a family. She later joined WAVES National, the group for female sea services veterans.
She says of her time in the Navy and WAVES National:
I wanted to get away from home. I wanted to get out and see the world. And I did, I really did. And I have since. I’ve been lucky. I’ve gone to conventions and stuff. Met a lot of good people. That’s something. And I don’t know, isn’t that enough?
This photograph comes from the collection of Merrily Kurtz Hewett.
After boot camp, Merrily Kurtz headed to training to become a Storekeeper, the Navy parlance for a bookkeeper. Training took three months, and then Kurtz got her first assignment, in San Francisco. She had a week before her job began, and was traveling with several other WAVES across country by train. The group stopped in Chicago, and Kurtz and three other women spent a day on the town – and ended up getting left behind.
They were all gone. Except for the four of us girls. Nobody’s there. They hadn’t left a note for us or anything. So we went down to the train and finally got connections. One of the girls took over and asked about it. And then, so, our tickets were gone but they put us on a train. I guess they knew we weren’t lying. We were military or something. So they let us on the train and let us pick out the car we wanted to be on. So we went through two or three and said, “Oh, this will do.” And it was the worst one! (laughs) No air conditioning or anything. Oh, golly, and this was summer! So one of the girls, this Margaret Chan who lived here in Portland, she and I got off the train in Cheyenne. Which is definitely not the thing to do in the Navy. And we took the train home. Instead of going on to San Francisco, we took the train from Cheyenne to Portland and came home that way. Which made sense to a normal person (laughs). We paid for it. Oh, gee. I think we got bawled out for it but they didn’t do anything else to us.
This portrait of Kurtz in her Navy summer uniform comes from the collection of Merrily Kurtz Hewett.
One reason Merrily Kurtz selected the Navy was because of the fashionable Mainbocher-designed uniform.
We had measurements and tried them on. They came up to us, oh gee! You know, “What size are you?” They’d look at you and give you a size approximately (laughs). I didn’t have to have my altered. They gave me a buxom, and I’m glad. I don’t think that I’m a buxom, but they through I was. Evidently it gave me a little bit more room in the front. I don’t remember having to be altered. Then we got our shoes, and our hose and — it was so cold back in New York. We went in February. You marched everywhere, and the wind blowing off the reservoir was colder than blazes. I don’t know what the temperature was, but it was awful cold.
This photograph shows Merrily Kurtz and another WAVE marching. It comes from the collection of Merrily Kurtz Hewett.
For Merrily Kurtz, joining the Navy was a family affair.
My dad had been in the Navy and he kind of encouraged me to go in the Navy. When we’d talk about it, he’d say what a good time he had. Saw the world. Well, he didn’t see much of the world, Chicago, mostly, and the Great Lakes. But he encouraged me to go in, through it would be good for me to see some of the world. I signed up to go in the WAVES.
This photo shows Merrily Kurtz on the job. It comes from the collection of Merrily Kurt Hewett.
After Merrily Kurtz graduated from high school, she began working at a local department store.
Well, every girl in town almost worked in Meyer and Franks. My first job was J.C. Penney’s. I went to a business college for awhile and got some training that way and improved my typing.
Eventually, Kurtz was hired by Meyer and Franks, but by that time the country was at war.
Just outside of the building in the next block they (the military) had their stand where the people came up for the bond drives and you know encouraged people to sign up and they had famous people come and I remember seeing the three sisters… the Andrews Sisters I guess it was, you know, and you would go out and see that stuff and hear that “Rah rah.”
The photo comes from the collection of Merrily Kurtz Hewett.
Merrily Kurtz was one of the WAVES stationed in Hawaii – and so a perfect transition for us from our feature on Hawaii is a feature on Merrily.
This is a photograph of Merrily and some of her WAVE colleagues in Hawaii. She’s in the center. Merrily grew up in Portland, Oregon and was a storekeeper in the WAVES. She served in Florida and Hawaii during her World War II military career.
On this Memorial Day, we offer a salute to the men and women who have served, and those who have died in service to our country.
This photograph, circa 1943, shows WAVES at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York, saluting the flag. It comes from the National Archives.
The commanding WAVE officer for the first transport was Lieutenant Winnifred Love. This image shows her being greeted upon arrival by Lieutenant Commander Eleanor Rigby and Captain H.K. Lewis.
It comes from the National Archives.
The WAVES travelled aboard an L-S-T ship, or troop transport ship. It was mostly women aboard – the only sailors were the crew.
It was fun being aboard ship. We did zig-zag, we could see where we zig-zagged. Didn’t need to, but taking precautions, I think. This was early in ’44 — no later in ’44. But anyway, a couple of the girls fell in love with the sailors. That was the disease, I think, with the women, with the sailors (laughs). Away from home. We had a good time aboard ship. We didn’t have any rough weather, I didn’t get seasick.
– Merrily Kurtz Hewett, WAVE
This photograph shows WAVES leaving their ship in Hawaii. It comes from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 