Words on Wednesdays: WAVES

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Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) were a unit of the U.S. Naval Reserve. Mildred McAfee served as the first director of the WAVES. The first class consisted of 644 women, and subsequent classes produced a maximum of 1,250 graduates and by fall 1942, the U.S. Navy had produced a record 10,000 women for active service. WAVES were not eligible for combat duty and duties included everything from patching bullet holes in a naval boat to performing engine checks on a seaplane.  (See more here).

An undated photo from the personal collection of Alice Virginia Benzie, a Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service -- WAVES -- sailor stationed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in the 1940s, shows WAVES standing in formation outside the hangars. By the time recruiting ended in 1945, the WAVES boasted a force of 86,000 enlisted and more than 8,000 female officers -- around 2.5 percent of the Navy’s total strength at the time. Courtesy photo

Photo Source: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/1102371/remembering-navy-waves-during-womens-history-month/

March is Women History Month and Women in Aviation Month.

See Also:

The WAVES of World War II