WAVES Marion Linderberg (left) and Doris Smith (right) take to mop duty at NAS Los Alamitos to clean up their barracks.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Tag Archives: navy
The Launching
The USS Franklin launches after its October 1943 christening at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock. WAVES were invited to attend the launch, WAVES commander Mildred McAfee christened the ship.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
The Gift
Lt. Cmdr. Mildred H. McAfee, USNR, Director of the Women’s Reserve, shows the gift she received during the USS Franklin ship christening ceremony to a group of WAVES who were there.
The October 1943 photo comes from the National Archives.
Photo Op!
WAVES at Port Magu, California, shoot photographs of the LST landing there 70 years ago today, October 15, 1943.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Can I Help You?
In this day of automated answering services, it seems almost quaint to think that a real live person might answer the telephone at a Navy base. But WAVE S.M. Pugh had that duty during World War II at the Acorn Training Detachment, Port Hueneme, California.
Here, she learns the ropes on the base switchboard in October 1943.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Shopping Duty
WAVES worked in a variety of jobs. Here, a WAVE is on duty at the ship’s store, working as a cashier. The photograph from October 1943 was taken at Port Huenume, Acorn Training Detachment.
It comes from the National Archives.
New Uniforms, Part 3
October, 1943 saw another uniform addition for the WAVES. Dorothea Jameson models the working smock for pharmacists, laboratory technicians, parachute riggers, and other technical specialists. It would only be worn by enlisted officers.
The photographs come from the National Archives.
The Pharmacist’s Mate
This WAVE is working in the dispensary at California’s Port Hueneme as a pharmacist’s mate, c. 1943.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Air Traffic Control
This image looks really similar to the one we featured yesterday, from the cover of the WAVES Newsletter. But in this image from October of 1943, the two WAVES are studying the technique of air traffic control at the Air Traffic Control Tower Operators School, NAS Atlanta, Georgia.
The women’s course of study was six weeks long beyond boot camp. When they completed, they received a rate at 3/c petty officer and were assigned to air traffic control towers across the country.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Newsletter, October 1943
The October 1943 edition of the WAVES Newsletter features Machinist’s Mates measuring to some pretty exact specifications – look at all the tools they’re using.
It comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University.
Hinges of History 