A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
Before WAVES recruits would get their uniforms at boot camp (which needed to be personally fitted), they would receive 
the WAVES hat.
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.
I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Marjorie Sue Green’s booklet From Recruit to Salty WAVE! The Ordeal of Seaman Green comes from The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The next step after signing the paperwork? Becoming a recruit, or seaman.
Marjorie Sue Green’s booklet From Recruit to Salty WAVE! The Ordeal of Seaman Green illustrates Green’s transformation from civilian to military.
It comes from The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Marjorie Sue Green’s booklet From Recruit to Salty WAVE! The Ordeal of Seaman Green showed the before and after in the transition from civilian to WAVE. This image appeared on the page immediately following the image in yesterday’s post, demonstrating the Navy’s addiction to paperwork.
It comes from The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The WAVES base newspapers also reminded women of what they had left behind. In this comic, a WAVE (dressed in her summer grey seersucker uniform) wistfully remembers the fashions she was able to follow before joining the WAVES.
Before thinking that the comic was criticizing the uniform, remember that the WAVES’ uniform was couture-designed by the famous designer Mainbocher – and that while WAVES did wear a uniform on the outside, they could choose their own nightclothes and undergarments.
So even though they “gave it all up” they did so to become a part of what newspapers and magazines said at the time were “the best dressed women in America.”
This comes from the archives at the University of Northern Iowa.
The instructions on how to tie a proper knot for the WAVES tie were pervasive. This is another image published in a different base newsletter.
It comes from The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The base newspapers not only gave WAVES information about the uniform of the day: they also gave women guidance about how to assemble the uniform.
This comic shows newbie WAVES how to tie the “proper” knot for their uniform tie. It was published in the base newsletter for the Cedar Falls training center.
The image comes from the collection of the University of Northern Iowa archives.
This image comes from the newsletter at the Cedar Falls training station for WAVES. It shows how the daily base newspaper was used to communicate information with WAVES about things like the uniform of the day – in this case women were assigned to wear their grey striped searsucker dresses (the summer uniform) with raincoats.
The image comes from the archives of the University of Northern Iowa.
This odd snipped from a newsletter is another example of the comic-inspired images used by WAVES. The newsletters were generally run off on a mimeograph machine. For those who came of age after the 1970s, the mimeograph was a forerunner of the photocopy machine that used used a stencil for duplication. The stencil/printing ink combo had a very distinctive smell, and it wasn’t photo-friendly. Hence, the drawings.
It comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.
We’re beginning a series on cartoons and other WAVES drawings for the HH blog. This image (from an orientation booklet) is typical of the images made during the time. The WAVE looks young and a little overwhelmed or excited by her new experience at WAVE Quarters D (which was in Washington, DC).
It comes from the Schlesinger Library at the Racliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.
Hinges of History 