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WAVES |
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Our regular meetings are from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. on the
fourth Friday of February, April, and September, and we
have luncheons on the first Saturday of June and
December.
During WW II, the WAVES relieved male officers and seamen
in the fields of communication, supply, hospital corps, machinery,
mechanics, administration and many others fields, as the abilities of
women became apparent. We were not assigned overseas except for Hawaii and
Alaska late in the war, nor could we serve aboard ships on the high seas.
See a special page of photographs by clicking here.
Many WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) officers were trained at Smith College and Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The majority of them were recommended by the deans of their respective colleges. The women are now part of the regular Navy, but WW II and Korean War WAVES still have fond memories of their service during those challenging times.
If you are a woman veteran, please join our unit. Call Ellen Diming at (434) 971-8166 or the Senior Center for more information. Activities include speakers, trips and an annual picnic. We support WIMSA (Women in Military Service for America) and the building of the WW II Veterans' Memorial in Washington, DC.
Officers:
President: Ellen
Diming - Secretary: Anne Waldner - Treasurer: Marilyn
Kray
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click to enlarge |
click to enlarge |
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WAVES disembark from the NAS Barge, at the Air Station waterfront, 30 October 1943. |
A pigeon trainer holds one of the 200 carrier pigeons "based" at NAS Santa Ana, circa June 1945. |
(For more pictures like the above Click Here)
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| A brief story of Hunter
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The U.S. Naval Training School at Hunter College (Bronx, NY) was the largest naval boot camp for WAVES during WW II in the country. It was large enough to accommodate up to 6,000 women at a time. In Early January 1943, Captain William Amsden managed to add 17 neighboring apartment buildings to be used as barracks.
WAVE recruits had to be U.S. citizens between the ages of 20 and 36 with a high school diploma. Many were college graduates. We came from all over the country and from all walks of life, inspired by a sense of patriotism and a love for adventure.
Training varied from six to eight weeks in length, including class room instruction, drill, physical education and regimental reviews. We all remember the hours spent marching in either the heat of summer, or the wind and rain of spring and fall, or the cold and snow of winter.
Hunter trained 80,000 enlisted WAVES in the course of its existence, and approximately 1,900 SPARS and 3,300 Marines during 1943. The last class of WAVES trainees graduated in October 1945.
For many WW II WAVES, the Boot Camp at Hunter was a time of mental and physical testing, of long days and inadequate sleep at night. But it was also an exciting time for us to learn new skills, make new friends and to look to the future with pride and confidence. We will never forget Hunter and the experience of WAVES.
