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WAVES of change: The legacy of women who took the Navy by storm, broke barriers during World War II

WAVES unit of the US Naval Reserve established women in new military roles, including at NAS Jacksonville

WAVES Aviation Machinist’s Mates (AMM) working on a SNJ training plane and its Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial engine at Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida, circa 24 July 1943. They are (from left to right) Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Inez Waits, Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Lucille H. Henderson, Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Mary Anne Gasser, AMM 3rd Class Helen Adams, and Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Leona Curry. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

NAS JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Aviation mechanics, pilots, control tower operators, intelligence personnel, engineers, weather forecasters. In the early 1940s, many of these jobs were almost exclusively open to men.

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But as more and more men in the U.S. Navy deployed overseas during World War II, someone needed to fill these positions on the bases back home, including at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

Enter the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). The U.S. Naval Reserve unit was established on July 30, 1942, seven months after the U.S. entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Navy WAVES Elizabeth Thomson (at age 19) in 1943 at basic training in New York City during WWII. (Courtesy of Thomson- Imsande family)

The first commander of the WAVES was Mildred McAfee, who as a civilian was the president of Wellesley College.

While other military branches also had units for women during the war, the WAVES held status comparable to their male counterparts in the reserve. They also received equal benefits (such as pensions and disability protection) as the men in the Navy.

According to an article by Bill Delaney in The Jaxson, as one of the largest Naval Air Stations in the world, NAS Jacksonville was a significant destination for WAVES during the war, and their service helped establish Jacksonville’s position as a major Navy city.

Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class Violet Falkum, a member of WAVES, starting an airplane at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida in 1943. (U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives Collection/U.S. Naval Historical Center (80-G-43935))

Women at work

Throughout the war, women in uniform performed more than 200 different jobs.

Some 100,000 WAVES served in a variety of capacities from nurses, storekeepers, clerks and administrators to photographers, mechanics, air traffic control operators and instructors.

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) receive training from Hospital Corpsmen at Naval Hospital Jacksonville on July 26, 1943. WAVES enabled Corpsmen to deploy during World War II. (Photo by Yan Kennon/Naval Hospital Jacksonville)

At least one-third of the WAVES were assigned to naval aviation duties, they served as pilots and repaired planes as metalsmiths and aviation machinist’s mates.

In Jacksonville, the WAVES supported the early days of the Blue Angels, which was then named the United States Navy’s Flight Demonstration Team.

Other women served as drivers, postal workers and translators. Some worked in coding and intelligence, requiring top-secret government clearance.

The Navy also brought in college-educated women with backgrounds in mathematics, the physical sciences, and engineering to carry out complex and precise operations -- like calculating bomb trajectories.

By the end of the war, over 84,000 women served as WAVES with 8,000 female officers, making up 2.5% of the U.S. Navy’s personnel strength.

The Navy came under fire for excluding African-American women from the ranks, but in late 1944, about a year before the end of the war, the WAVES program began accepting African American women. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had ordered racial integration.

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Harriet Ida Pickens (left) and Ensign Frances Wills, photographed after graduation from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (WR) at Northampton, Massachusetts, in December 1944. They were members of the school’s final class, and were the Navy’s first African-American WAVES officers. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

The WAVES accepted one Black woman for every 36 white women enlisted in the program.

The first commissioned African-American WAVES officers – Lt. (Junior Grade) Harriet Ida Pickens (left) and Ensign Frances Wills -- graduated in the final class of the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (WR) in December 1944.

Blazing the trail

Many women in uniform risked their lives and safety. Four hundred and thirty-two servicewomen died. Eighty-eight were taken prisoner.

Initially women were not stationed overseas, but their contributions at home proved not only that they were vital in winning the war but also that men and women could serve together successfully.

This paved the way for change.

WAVES Aviation Metalsmiths and Aviation Machinist’s Mates (AMM) working on an SBD Dauntless aircraft in the Assembly and Repair Department at Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida, 24 July 1943. Working on the wing, at left, are Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Annia Marie Garman and Seaman 1st Class Frances O. Culpepper. On and inside the plane are (left to right) AMM 3rd Class Audrey Anderson, AMM 3rd Class Jane Carlisle, AMM 3rd Class Betty Jo Visson, Seaman 1st Class Mary Jane Boring and Seaman 1st Class (AMM) Clara R. Bumgarner. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

When the war ended, many women in service were discharged, and the WAVES demobilized.

But the success of the women military units created by the “emergency” demands of the war created a lasting future for American women in military service.

On June 12, 1948, Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which granted women the right to serve as regular, permanent members of the military for the first time.

While the new law made the WAVES program obsolete, people still referred to female members of the Navy as WAVES well into the 1970s.

About the Author
Francine Frazier headshot

A Jacksonville native and proud University of North Florida alum, Francine Frazier has been with News4Jax since 2014 after spending nine years at The Florida Times-Union.

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