WAVES
WAVES was the bacronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, the World War II women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve. It was established on 21 July 1942 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the president on 30 July 1942, as the Title V amendment to the Naval Reserve Act of 1938. This authorized the U.S, Navy to accept women into the naval reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and replace them with women in shore stations.
The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in the congress or by the Navy, although some members did support the need for uniformed women during wartime. Nonetheless, the persistence of several women laid the groundwork for success. The congressional act allowing women to serve in the Navy became a reality, in large measure, through the efforts of the Navy’s Women’s Advisory Council, Dr. Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president.
Mildred H. McAfee became the first director of the WAVES. She was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy on 3 August 1942, and was the first woman commissioned in the US Naval Reserve. McAfee, on leave as president of Wellesley College, was an experienced educator and highly respected in her field.
Contents
History[edit]
Background[edit]
In May 1941, Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to establish a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). The word auxiliary meant women would serve not in the Army, but with it; deprived of full military status and denied the benefits of their male counterparts. Opposition delayed the passage of the bill until May 1042.[1] At the same time, the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics believed the Navy would eventually need women in uniform, and had asked the Bureau of Personnel, headed by Admiral Chester W.Nimitz, to propose legislation, authorizing women to serve in the Navy. Nimitz was not considered an advocate for bringing women into the Navy, nor was he about to change course. Soon, the Navy Department began receiving inquires whether WAAC legislation for the Navy might be imminent. In response, the head of the Naval Reserve expressed the view that the Civil Service would be able to supply any extra personnel that might be needed.[2]
The response did not put the questions to rest. On 9 December 1941, Representative Rogers telephoned Nimitz and asked him whether the Navy was interested in a bill that would allow the Navy to use women similar to that of the WAAC legislation. In her book, Lady in the Navy, Joy Bright Hancock quotes his reply: “I advised Mrs. Rogers that at the present time I saw no great need for such a bill … ”[3] Nevertheless, within days Nimitz was in touch with all Navy Department bureaus asking them to assess their needs for an equivalent to the WAAC. With few exceptions, the responses were negative. Yet, Congressional inquiries continued to increase about the Navy’s plan for women.[4]
Then on 2 January 1942, the Bureau of Personnel, in an about face, recommended to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, that Congress be asked to authorize a women’s organization.[5] The following month, Knox recommended a women’s branch as part of the Naval Reserve. The director of the Bureau of the budget said no, but would agree to the Navy adapting legislation similar to the WACC – where women were with, but not in the Navy. This was unacceptable to Knox and the standoff began. Still, the Bureau of Aeronautics continued to believe there was a place for women in the Navy, and appealed to an influential friend of naval aviation, Margaret Chung.[6] In Crossed Currents, the authors describe Chung and her involvement. “ … Dr. Margaret Chung of San Francisco, a physician and surgeon, had a long time interest in aviation, particularly naval aviation … She had many naval aviation friends who referred to themselves as “sons of Mom Chung.” Having learned of the stalemate, she asked Representative Melvin Maas of Minnesota, who had served in the aviation branch of the US Marine Corps in World War I, and was one of her “sons”, to introduce legislation independently of the Navy. On 18 March 1942 he did just that, … ”[7]
Creation of program[edit]
Representative Maas’s House bill was essentially the same as the Knox proposal, which would make a women’s branch part of the Naval Reserve. At the same time, Senator Raymond E. Willis of Indiana introduced a similar bill in the Senate. On 16 April 1942, the House Naval Affairs Committee reported favorably on the bill. It was passed by the House the same day and sent to the Senate.[8] The Senate Naval Affairs Committee was opposed to the bill; especially chairman Senator David I. Walsh of Massachusetts. He did not want women in the Navy because it “would tend to break-up American homes and would be a step backwards in the progress of civilization.” The Senate committee eventually proposed a naval version of the WAAC, and the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, approved it. But Knox asked the president to reconsider. [9]
It was apparent that women would eventually be allowed to serve in the Navy: the question was, in what form? The quandary for the Navy was how to administer a woman’s program, yet fashion it to its own liking. Then they did what they had often done before, turn to academia for help.[10] This time the Navy asked women educators for assistance, first contacting Dr. Virginia Gildersleeve, dean of Barnard College. She suggested that Professor Elisabeth Reynard, also of Barnard, become a special assistant to Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of Naval Personnel. Reynard was well known for the academic work she had done on women in the work place. But her first-rate performance as Jacob’s assistant silenced any fears the Navy may have had about women educators. Reynard quickly formed the Women’s Advisory Council to meet with Navy officials. Gilder sleeve became the chairperson. Because of her efforts eight prominent women agreed to serve on the council, they included: Dr. Meta Glass of Sweet Briar College; Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, a national authority on efficiency in the workplace; Dr. Ada Comstock, President of Radcliffe College; Harriet Elliot, dean of women at the University of North Carolina; Dean Alice Lloyd of the University of Michigan; Mrs. Malbone Graham, a noted lecturer from the West Coast; and Mrs. Thomas Gates, wife of the president of the University of Pennsylvania. Dean Elliot later resigned and was replaced by Dr. Alice Baldwin, dean of women at Duke University.[11]
The council knew the success of a fledging program would depend on the woman chosen to lead it. A prospective candidate would need to possess proven managerial skills, command respect, and have an ability to get along well with others. Their recommendation was Mildred H. McAfee, president of Wellesley College, as the future director.[12] The Navy agreed. Yet, the task of convincing MacAfee to accept and to persuade the Wellesley Board of Trustees to release her was difficult but successful.[13] Mildred McAfee was an experienced and respected academician, whose background would provide a measure of creditability to the idea of women serving in the Navy.[14]
They also recognized the importance of a name: agreeing it should be one suitable for the organization envisioned. To Reynard fell the task of finding such a name.[15] In explaining how she came up with the nautical name, Reynard said: “I realized that there were two letters which had to be in it: W for women and V for volunteer, because the Navy wants to make it clear that this is a voluntary service and not a drafted service. So I played with those two letters and the idea of the sea and finally came up with Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service – WAVES. I figured the word Emergency would comfort the older admirals because it implies that we’re only a temporary crisis and won’t be around for keeps.”[16]
Then on 25 May 1942, the Senate Naval Affairs Committee recommended to the president that the legislation to create a women’s reserve correspond with the WAAC legislation. He called on Knox to reconsider his position, but Knox, who did not favor the WACC concept, stood his ground. Another deadlock, but council members Gildersleve and Elliot took it on themselves to write the president’s wife, Eleanor. They explained their objections to the WAAC legislation and reasons for it. Eleanor showed Elliot’s letter to her husband, the president, and she sent Gildersleves’s letter on to the Undersecretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, a former naval aviator. Within days Forrestal replied, saying that Secretary Knox had asked the president to reconsider. Then, on 16 June 1942 Knox informed Admiral Jacobs that the president had given him authority to proceed with a women’s reserve; urging him to push for quick passage of such legislation. Days later, Knox informed Senator Walsh of the president’s decision, and on 24 June the Senate Naval Affairs Committee reported favorably on the bill. By 21 July, the bill had passed both houses of congress and sent to the president, who signed it on 30 July 1942 as Public Law 689. This created the Women’s branch of the Navy reserve, as amended under Title V of the U.S. Naval Reserve Act of 1938.[17]
The idea behind the law was to free-up officers and men for duty at sea, with women standing in for them at shore stations on the home front. Women could now serve in the Navy as an officer or at an enlisted level, with a rank or rating consistent with that of the regular Navy. Volunteers could only serve for the duration of the war, plus six months, but just in the continental United States. They were prohibited from boarding naval ships or combat aircraft, and were without command authority, except within the women’s branch. Officer ranks were limited to one Lieutentant Commander, 35 Lieutenants and no more than 35 percent of he remaining officers could be Lieutenants (junior grade).[18]
Less than a year later, 1 July 1043, congress refashioned the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) into the Women's Army Corps (WAC), providing its members with similar military status as the WAVES.[19]
Getting Started[edit]
Mildred H. McAfee became the first director of the WAVES. She was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander on 3 August 1942, and was the first woman officer commissioned in the US Naval Reserve. A few days later, Elizabeth Raynard was commissioned as a Lieutenant.[20]
After taking office, McAfee discovered that no organizational plans existed to help guide her: in fact, no planning had been done, by anyone, in anticipation of the Women’s Reserve act. For insights, McAfee turned to Joy Bright Hancock, a Navy Yeoman (F) during World War I, and a career writer and editor for the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronauts. She was asked to examine the procedures employed by the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force, which had a complement of 6,000 members. Many of her findings were later used by the WVES.[21]
August and September saw 108 more women commissioned as officers in the Women’s Reserve, selected because of their educational and business backgrounds. They were drawn to the program by the good standing of McAfee and the Advisory Council. Four of these women would later become directors of the WAVES and another the director of the SPARS (Coast Guard). The new members began their work routine with no grasp of Navy traditions, or training in the operating methods in use, resulting in some difficult times. However, on 16 September 1942 the Bureau of Personnel issued a memorandum for the organization of the Women’s Reserve. It said the director would administer the program, set policies, and coordinate work within the bureaus operating divisions. Soon, McAfee was able to bring together a capable staff, building a sound internal organization.[22]
Recruiting[edit]
Job Assignments[edit]
The WAVES could not serve aboard combat ships or aircraft, and initially were restricted to duty in the continental United States. Late in World War II, they were authorized to serve in certain U.S. possessions, and a number were sent to Hawaii. The war ended before any WAVES could be sent to other locations. Within their first year, the WAVES were 27,000 strong. A large proportion of the WAVES did clerical work, but some took positions in the aviation community, medical professions, communications, intelligence, storekeeper, science and technology.
African-Americans[edit]
The WAVES did not initially accept African-American women into the division. In November 1944, Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills graduated from the United States Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School (Women's Reserve) at Northampton, Massachusetts, and became the first female African-American WAVE officers. From the fall of 1944 onwards, the Navy trained roughly one black woman for every 36 white women enlisted in the WAVES; this was about 2.77%, below the 10% cap agreed upon by the armed services in 1940.
Evaluation[edit]
According to historian D'Ann Campbell, American society was not ready for women in military roles:
- The WAC and WAVES had been given an impossible mission: they not only had to raise a force immediately and voluntarily from a group that had no military traditions, but also had overcome intense hostility from their male comrades. The situation was highly unfavorable: the women had no clear purpose except to send men to the battlefront; duties overlapped with civilian employees and enlisted male coworkers, causing confusion and tension; and the leadership cadre was unprestigious, inexperienced, and had little control over women, none over men. Although the military high command strongly endorsed their work, there were no centers of influence in the civilian world, either male or female, that were committed to the success of the women's services, and no civilian institutions that provided preliminary training for recruits or suitable positions for veterans. Wacs, Waves, Spars and women Marines were war orphans whom no one loved.[23]
Permanent status[edit]
With the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Public Law 625) on 12 June 1948, women gained permanent status in the armed services. The new unit became a small cadre that could be expanded in wartime. The V9 and V10 Volunteer Reserve programs were discontinued and renamed the W9 Women's Officer Training and W10 Women's Enlisted Training programs. Although the official name WAVES ceased to exist, the acronym was in common use well into the 1970s.
On 7 July 1948, Kay Langdon, Wilma Marchal, Edna Young, Frances Devaney, Doris Robertson, and Ruth Flora became the first six enlisted women to be sworn into the regular U.S. Navy.
On 15 October 1948, the first eight women were commissioned in the regular Navy: Joy Bright Hancock, Winifred Quick Collins, Ann King, Frances Willoughby, Ellen Ford, Doris Cranmore, Doris Defenderfer, and Betty Rae Tennant took their oaths as naval officers.[24]
List of directors[edit]
The director held the position of Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for Women during the years of 1942–1972. In 1972, the office was disestablished in favor of integration of women into the main force. There still remained, however, the office of Bureau of Personnel Special Assistant for Women's Policy] (PERS-00W), which existed until 1991.[25][dead link]
- Captain Mildred H. McAfee (1942–1946)
- Captain Jeanne T. Palmer (1946)
- Captain Joy Bright Hancock (1946–1953)
- Captain Louise K. Wilde (1953–1957)
- Captain Winifred Collins (1957-1962)
- Captain Viola B. Sanders (1962–1966)
- Captain Rita Lenihan (1966–1970)
- Captain Robin L. Quigley (1970–1972)
WAVES song[edit]
The WAVES kept the homefront affairs of the US Navy going while the men were assigned to ships serving around the globe. While the official song of the US Navy men was "Anchors Aweigh," the WAVES official song was sung in counterpoint to the men:
-
- WAVES of the Navy
- WAVES of the Navy,
- There's a ship sailing down the bay
- And she won't slip into port again
- Until that Victory Day.
- Carry on for that gallant ship
- And for every hero brave
- Who will find ashore, his man-sized chore
- Was done by a Navy WAVE.[26]
Music and words to this and other songs sung by the WAVES can be found in Marching to Victory,[27] a 1943 booklet published at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School (WR), Northampton, Massachusetts.
See also[edit]
- SPARS (United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve)
- United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve
- Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), US
- Women in the Air Force (WAF), US
- Women in the United States Navy
- Women's Army Corps (United States Army)
- Women's Auxiliary Air Force (British)
- Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service "Wrens"
- Women's Royal Naval Service (British)
- Women's Royal Australian Naval Service
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^ Ebert and Hall P. 27
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 28
- ^ Hancock p. 50
- ^ Hancock p. 50-52
- ^ Hancock p. 53
- ^ Goodson p. 110
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 30-31
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 31
- ^ Goodson p.110
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 31
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 32
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 32
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 34.
- ^ Goodson p. 111
- ^ Goodson p. 111
- ^ Hancock P. 61
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 35
- ^ Ebert and Hall p, 36-37
- ^ Ebert and Hall p. 27
- ^ Goodson p. 113
- ^ Goodson p. 113
- ^ Goodson p. 113-114
- ^ D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America: Private lives in a Patriotic Era (Harvard University Press, 1984) p 49
- ^ Jean Ebbert and Marie-Beth Hall, Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook (Brassey's, 1993).
- ^ "Records of the Bureau of Personnel Special Assistant for Women's Policy (PERS-00W), 1947-1991". history.navy.mil. July 2, 2003. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
- ^ Great Lakes Naval Museum; Marching To Victory. WAVES of the Navy. Lyric by Betty St. Clair
- ^ Marching To Victory
Bibliography[edit]
- Collins, Winifred Quick Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired) with Herbert M. Levine (1997). More Than A Uniform:. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1-57441-022-9.
- Ebbert, Jean & Hall, Marie-Beth (1993). Crossed Currents:. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's. ISBN 978-1-57488-193-6.
- Goodson, Susan, H. (2001). Serving Proudly. Anapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1- 55750- 317-6.
- Hancock, Joy Bright Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired) (1972). Lady in the Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-336-9.
Further reading[edit]
- Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War With America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. OCLC 10605327.
- Campbell, D'Ann. "Women in Uniform, the World War II Experiment." Military Affairs 51 (Jul. 1987): 137-39 in JSTOR
- Disher, Sharon Hanley. First Class: Women Join the Ranks at the Naval Academy (Naval Institute Press, 1998)
- Ebbert, Jean and Marie-Beth Hall. "Navy Women's Reserve: WAVES," In In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II edited by Jeannee M. Holm and Judith Bellafaire. Washington: Military Women's Press, 1998. OCLC 38173523
- Gildersleeve, Virginia C. Many a Good Crusade (New York: Macmillan, 1954)
- Holm, Jeanne Maj Gen, USAF (Ret) (1972). Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution [Revised Edition]. Novato, CA: Presidio Press. ISBN 0891414509.
- Litoff, Judy Barrett, and David C. Smith. "The Wartime History of the Waves, SPARS, Women Marines, Army and Navy Nurses, and WASP's." in A Women's War Too: US Women in the Military in World War II ed. by Paula Nassen Poulos.(Washington: National Archives and Records Administration, 1996)
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. |
- Department of the Navy - Naval Historical Center: World War II era WAVES
- Documents and a Bibliography on Women in the Navy
- "Sources" annotated bibliography of books and films
- Women of the Waves - online presence for WAVES National
- Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Collection, the University of North Carolina Greensboro - digitized letters, diaries, photographs, uniforms, and oral histories from WAVES and other female service orgs
- WAVES: Women in the World War II US Navy
- Marching To Victory, on-line version of a 1943 booklet of songs from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School (WR), Northampton, Massachusetts.
- Women's Reserve of the United States Naval Reserve (WAVES)
- Oral history interview with Constance Sullivan Cain, a member of the WAVES from 1944-1946 from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
- Summary of Ranks and Rates of the U.S. Navy Together With Designations and Insignia NAVPERS--15004 | MAY 1943.
- Bureau of Naval Personnel, "History of the Women's Reserve." (2 vol 1946, 322pp); summary
- Campbell, D'Ann. "Servicewomen of World War II." Armed Forces and Society (Winter 1990): 16#2 pp 251-270(1990): online