On July 30, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the
course of Naval History when he signed Public Law 689 (Navy women's Reserve Act), creating the Women's Reserve of the Navy. By the time the war was over in l945, approximately 8,000 officers and 76,000 enlisted WAVES were on duty, with 8,000 more in training; further, there were ll,000 Navy Nurse Corps officers, ll,000 SPARS (Coast Guard) and l8,000 women Marines on duty with the Navy, a total of 132,000 women serving in the Navy. In l956, legislation was enacted that proclaimed women as part of the regular United States Navy, making the WAVES a special and unique group of women.
The experiences of the first groups of girls who reported to Hunter
College and other Boot Camps were varied, but all had one common thread
-- it was hard; it was scary; and it was exciting! Many lifetime
friendships were forged during that time. That is why WAVES National was
formed -- a group of former WAVES met and decided it was time!
For far too many years we had all kept quiet about our experiences;
actually, no one appeared to be interested in what we had done; we came
home from service, resumed our civilian clothes and went about the
business of picking up our lives from where we had placed them on hold.
Perhaps we were just too busy living to exchange confidences; for
whatever reason, people worked side by side for years without realizing the
other was a WAVE.
But, one by one, we began to search out our old friends and find new ones, right in our own backyard, so to speak.
Regular meetings of WAVES National Units give us the opportunity of
talking with women who shared the same experiences, knew some of the same
people we knew, and to relive our own youth. Even, in some cases, find a
friend with whom we had lost contact.
We are proud of our accomplishments when we were WAVES. We are equally proud of the young women who are presently on active duty in the various branches of the Armed Forces. they are experiencing situations which we certainly never encountered and are serving in positions which we never, in our wildest dreams, thought women would be serving. And they, as well as we, can thank the Yeomanettes of World War I, because they went in
service in l9l7-l8 and performed ably in positions which they never
thought would be filled by women.
