Despite public relation challenges, the navy continued to depict female service members as serious, noble, feminine and patriotic. Other controversies followed when WAVE enlistees were pasted with the stereotype that they were too masculine - or the worst calumny, government-sanctioned prostitutes. Civilian women did not want their husbands, brothers, sons or fathers to go off to war. Men with stateside assignments did not automatically want to go into combat overseas. While women filled in where needed, which released men into combat, that reality was not favorable to some. At least one third of the WAVES were assigned to naval aviation duties during World War II. Thereafter a WAVE parachute rigger could jump, but was not required to do so. While the navy required the men to test the parachutes, Kathleen impressed them when she successfully and happily executed a jump. While attending parachute school at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, Kathleen Robertson influenced navy policy when she went beyond her normal duties of inspecting, repairing and packing parachutes. WAVES were not eligible for combat duty, so as more men went off to war, positions in other fields became available. Recognizing their natural talents and the ability to perform as well or better than men, the Bureau of Aeronautics restricted aviator operator positions to the WAVES in the fall of 1942. quick reactions in stressful situations.For that position the preferred candidate had to meet the following criteria, to be and to have: The navy established the WAVES to perform the same assignments as the WACs with such duties as control tower operations. Later serving in a wide range of occupations, the WAVES performed jobs in the aviation community, medical professions, science, technology and communications. Navy had produced a record 10,000 women for active service. The results exceeded expectations by fall 1942, the U.S. The first class consisted of 644 women, and subsequent classes produced a maximum of 1,250 graduates. The women, equivalent to yeomen, were trained to perform secretarial and clerical functions. The intensive 12-week training course entailed eight-hour days of classroom study. Navy and the first director of the WAVES.īy early August 1942 a great number of women from every state applied for the general navy service positions offered in Bainbridge, Maryland. Mildred McAfee, president of Wellesley College, was sworn in as a naval reserve lieutenant commander, the first female commissioned officer of the U.S. Congress was slow to recognize the need for women in the navy, but President Roosevelt realized that servicewomen would be a wartime plus, and signed the corps into law on July 30, 1942. Their numerous contributions proved to be a vital asset to winning the war as well as proving that mixed-gender forces could be successful.Ī nudge from Eleanor Roosevelt prompted the navy to consider a women’s reserve corps. Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), a unit of the U.S. Throughout World War II women contributed to the war effort in various fields of endeavor.
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