A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
In late 1944, the WAVES finally got approval to allow women to go “overseas.” This included the now-US states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Previously, women were only allowed stateside berths.
This article from the WAVES Newsletter explained how women could apply for the service post. It comes from the Schelsinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University.
WAVES at work in the control tower at Naval Air Station Norfolk. WAVES in this job needed clear speaking voices, and worked guiding plane traffic.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
WAVE Commander Mildred McAfee addresses personnel at Naval Air Station Brooklyn in this undated photo from the National Archives.
WAVE Lt. Tova Peterson Wiley, in this undated photo from the National Archives. Wiley was a part of the first group of WAVE officers in late 1942.
Joy Bright Hancock, the former Yeomanette who would eventually become WAVES commander, poses in front of a plane during a visit to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
This is another shot from the rally we posted about yesterday. Here, more than 4,000 attend the July 1943 rally in Washington, DC celebrating the 1st anniversary of the founding of the WAVES.
It comes from the National Archives.
WAVES Commander Mildred McAfee and Navy Secretary Frank Knox are at a rally celebrating the first anniversary of the WAVES founding. The celebration was in Washington, DC on July 27, 1943.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Taking a look at a page out of the WAVES Newsletter, it shows how the Navy uses its photographs to talk about the work of Air Gunnery Instructors. We saw this image earlier in the week. The women are working on .50 caliber machine gun turrets, and needed to learn how to shoot the guns in order to take over in training men in the skills needed for war.
According to the article
The instructor of these WAVES will see its results in the war zones.
The clipping comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
This image demonstrates the importance of partnership between the WAVE gunnery instructor and her pupil, who will later fly missions overseas. Here is WAVE Instructor Gladys Cox and Rex E. Bisbee, who graduated at the top of his class.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
The Navy’s description of this photo from the Naval Air Gunners School in Hollywood, Florida:
‘Telephone girls’ at a deadly switchboard wear head-phones hooking them to their pupils as the tell the latter the ‘wrong numbers’ they get in firing at targets on the high-speed range. The turrets are identical to the ones the future gunners will occupy on warplanes.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 