A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
Classroom instruction at boot camp for WAVES uses innovative techniques, including showing the women the equipment they might be working with during their Navy career. Here, women at the USS Hunter see a Link Instructor, a flight simulation unit used to train pilots.
The c. 1943 photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Another important thing for WAVES boots to know: where the Navy was fighting during World War II. The Hunter College boot camp instructed them in the various battle arenas, including how ships would travel across the seas.
The photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Classroom instruction at Hunter College in the Bronx also included the rich history of the Navy, including songs, as these WAVES boots learned in 1943.
The photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
WAVES at the Hunter College boot camp learned every aspect of military life. Here, they’re leaning the various Naval protocol, including the process for a regimental review.
The photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
One of these things is not like the other….
A (male) guest stands out from the crowd as he listens to a lecture at the WAVES boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx, c. 1943.
The photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Today we begin a series of posts about WAVES boot camp at Hunter College.
WAVE boots learn about the chain of command at the USS Hunter, the boot camp training facility in the Bronx, New York. USS Hunter was the former Hunter College, a women’s college commandeered for the WAVES for the duration of the war in early 1943.
The photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
Part of Naval duty is keeping things shipshape. here, WAVE Aspasia Phoutrides, Master at Arms, makes sure the cots are up to snuff in the WAVES barracks in NAS Seattle, Washington in September 1943. WAVES say the blanket at the foot of the bed was known as “the admiral.”
The photo comes from the National Archives.
WAVES in the dining hall during boot camp in Cedar Falls, Iowa, early 1943. They are (from left): Paula Weis, Ann Walus, Edna Brown and Esther Swenson.
The photo comes from the National Archives.
After training at specialty schools, WAVES traveled on trains to their station assignments. Here, WAVE Doris Green is shown the engine of the train she’ll be taking from the Cedar Falls, Iowa training facility by Engineer W.J. Cherney.
The 1943 photograph comes from the National Archives.
In our final photo in our series of WAVES in naval aviation, WAVE Mary Anne Gasser assembles a generator that has been cleaned and overhauled. The photograph was taken in September 1943 at NAS Jacksonville, Florida.
The image comes from the National Archives.
Hinges of History 