A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
Captain Herbert Underwood, who came out of retirement to head the WAVES officer training facility at Smith College with trainee Lt. Elizabet Boland Crandall in early October 1942. Note that she isn’t even in a WAVE uniform yet.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
In this photo, Capen House is in the foreground and the Alumnae House is in the background. The two buildings are attached by a small breezeway located directly behind the mailbox. Alumae House was used as the WAVES headquarters during their officer training program at Smith College during World War II.
The photograph comes from the National Archives.
Another shot of Capen Hall, now the Alumnae House, used as quarters for WAVES officers in training at Smith College during World War II. It comes from the National Archives.
Capen House, in this photograph, is located at the corner of Elm and Bedford Terrace in Northampton, across the street from the main Smith College campus. It’s part of the larger structure currently known as the Alumae House. During World War II, it was used as the WAVES dormitory.
This photograph comes from the National Archives.
The Navy is known for its tough training programs – and the Navy SEALs are among the toughest. This year’s U.S. Olympic sailing team received part of its pre-Olympics preps from the SEALs.
As the opening ceremonies begin tonight, think about those Navy trained Olympians.
This image is of World War II-era WAVES training in boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx. It comes from Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.
After boot camp, Josette Dermody was tapped to become a Gunner’s Mate. She would be training men to shoot at moving targets.
We went to gunnery school because they said we had to be able to face down the sailors. “We don’t need girls who’ve never even fired a shot.” So they, you know, being in the gunnery thing was hard work. It was hard work because the guns were so big. You had to break them down and put the back together again and all that. They were always laughing. “It takes two of you to carry what one guy can carry!”
This is the cover of her memoir about her experience as a WAVE. You can buy the book here. It’s a great read!
I grew up in Detroit. And Detroit is on the river. There are a lot of boats and a lot of ships. We were Depression kids, but various people had uncles who had boats and they would take you sailing and stuff. I read every book about sailing there was. Sea Here, Mr. Boditch and All Sails Set and all that stuff. It seems if I was going to be doing something adventurous, it might as well be something with the sea. I still love being by the water.
– Josette Dermody, World War II WAVE
This photograph comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.
You had to be 20 to go in. Your brothers could go in at 18. And so I had a lot of friends that spent their 19th year trying to persuade the old man to sign for you. “What about Rosie O’Donnell’s father letting her join the Marines and you don’t mean to say the O’DConnells have more moxie than the Demodys!” It was a campaign.
-Josette Dermody, World War II WAVE
This photo from the WAVES Hunter College boot camp shows Josette Dermody at front lower right (with her head turned). It comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.
This comic (using a modified version of the “little girl” look seen on WAVES’ greeting cards) pokes fun at the disorientation women felt when entering boot camp. It also offered a pretty clever way of getting out of trouble – the “I’m new” approach.
This cartoon comes from the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Lots of Navy photographs show the WAVES marching or standing in formation. And many of the women we’ve talked with shared these pictures, telling us that they were there.
The trick, as Marjorie Sue Green so humorously illustrates in this image from her booklet From Recruit to Salty WAVE! The Ordeal of Seaman Green, is to find the individual woman in the sea of WAVES. Some women actually circled themselves. For others, we weren’t so lucky.
Green’s book is held by The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Hinges of History 