Tag Archives: navy

Hinges of History

WAVES received this notice from President Harry Truman at the end of their military service.

I think the WAVES are kind of the hinges of history. They were there when the world changed.  And they didn’t cause it particularly bu t it wouldn’t have happened in the same way if the women hadn’t have been there. The Navy was such a different world. Men and women learned to get along with each other in different ways.  (laughs) As I say, we were the hinge. We grew up in this old world watching our mothers and our fathers and then our marriages were completely different.

– Josette Dermony, World War II Navy WAVE.

This comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.

Blackie

Of course, where there are young men and young women during wartime, there is a chance for romance and adventure. And for the oh-so-innocent Josette Dermody, romance and adventure came in a dashing package known as Blackie.

Blackie was my epitome of being a sailor. He loved his ship. He loved being a sailor and in a sense he loved me. But, I found out that one day he was dating me, but he would drop me off and go find the other kind of woman for the evening and stuff. He was scary but he was exciting.

This photo comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.

12th Naval District

The Navy divided up the country into various Naval Districts, or administrative hubs. Josette Dermody was stationed in the 12th Naval District, which was headquartered in San Francisco and included Colorado; Utah; Nevada except Clark County); northern part of California (basically north of tSan Luis Obispo, Kings, Tulare, and Inyo counties).

This is a copy of the WAVES newsletter for the District 12. The cover is especially striking – an art deco-style image incorporating a WAVE and what appears to be a stylized ship. It comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.

Meet Josette Dermody

Josette Dermody was born in Detroit, Michigan. She grew up in a Catholic family, attended parochial school and really really didn’t want the future she thought was mapped out for her:

I was supposed to go to the Convent.  The nuns had me. They were zeroed in on me and I didn’t want to. Becoming a nurse, becoming a teacher, working in an office or a nun and that, that was about it.  And of course getting married and having twelve kids.

So first chance she got, she enlisted in the WAVES.  This photograph comes from the collection of Josette Dermody Wingo.

Scuttlebutt

Scuttlebutt in slang usage means rumor or gossip, deriving from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water (or, later, a water fountain).[1][2] The term corresponds to the colloquial concept of a water cooler in an office setting, which at times becomes the focus of congregation and casual discussion. Water for immediate consumption on a sailing ship was conventionally stored in a scuttled butt: A butt (cask) which had been scuttled by making a hole in it so the water could be withdrawn. Since sailors exchanged gossip when they gathered at the scuttlebutt for a drink of water, scuttlebutt became Navy slang for gossip or rumors.

– From Wikipedia

This image comes from Marjorie Sue Green’s booklet From Recruit to Salty WAVE! The Ordeal of Seaman Green held by The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.