Women's Reserve of the US Naval Reserve
(WAVES)
I. Development
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-. The United States Navy
The Early US Navy
The US Navy in the Civil War
The US Navy in WWI
The US Navy in WWII
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-. Foundation of the WAVES
-. WAVES during WWII
-. Strength of the WAVES
-. Postwar WAVES
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Foundation of the WAVES
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Picture Source: U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Navy doctor and nurse in the U.S. Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C. during the 1930s 
..... The only women allowed to serve in the Navy before World War II were nurses, with one important exception. 

During World War I, women had filled several different jobs formerly reserved for men, but this limited female progress was terminated immediately after the wartime emergency ended (see US Navy in World War I ). 

The only accepted role for women in the Navy remained as nurses. 

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However, the situation in the Navy changed soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which brought the United States into total war. The Navy faced an overwhelming shortage of personnel for its rapidly expanded mobilization. 

The availability of dedicated and qualified women was seen as an expedient new wartime measure that could place men in the “fighting fleet”, by filling all possible noncombatant jobs with female volunteers in their place. 

..... Picture Source: Poster: To Make Men Free by John Falter, 1944
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Picture Source: WAVE Radio Operator, Oil on canvas by John Falter, 1943
WAVE Radio Operator
.... The situation thus forced the Navy to call upon the services of available military-fit women. Female personnel were especially desired for critical support roles, such as the important naval communications network. 

Such jobs could not be filled by male civilians because of the military nature of the duty and the secrecy requirements involved in national defense. For instance, the handling of vital military messages required military-type security clearances. 

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An Advisory Council, later known as the Advisory Educational Council, was established to plan for the contingency of women serving the Navy, and continued to function throughout World War II:
Council Members
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.. Miss Mildred McAfee
President of Wellesley College
.. Miss Virginia C. Gildersleeve
Dean of Barnard College
Picture courtesy of MSUM .. Miss Ada Comstock
President of Radcliffe College
.. Mrs. Thomas S. Gates
Wife of the President of the University of Pennsylvania
.. Miss Meta Glass 
President of Sweet Briar College
.. Miss Alice M. Baldwin
Dean of Women's College, Duke University
Miss Alice C. Lloyd
Dean of women, University of Michigan
Mrs. Malbone Graham
Professor, author and lecturer of Santa Monica, California
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This council decided that a Women’s Reserve Corps was urgently needed as a component of the Navy because of personnel accountability, military proficiency and other unique service needs that civilians could not meet. The Navy demand for its own corps of woman volunteers also represented an important and novel step forward, since the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (which was established 6 months before the WAVES law passed Congress) had not yet been granted military status. 
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Legislation was needed to permit women to serve in an official capacity. Rapid military expansion required the Navy to transfer male sailors, wherever confined to shore jobs, as crews for the huge number of projected ships. This could only be done by replacing manpower ashore with womanpower. 

House Resolution 6807 was introduced in Congress on March 18, 1942, to amend the Naval Reserve Act of 1938 by including an organization to be known as the "Women's Auxiliary Reserve." Less than a month later, on April 16, 1942, the House Naval Affairs Committee reported favorably on this resolution.

.... Drawing: Another Fighter Released For Sea Duty by McClelland Barclay,1943
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Poster: This Is the Team That's Sweeping the Seas,1945 .... Despite the emergency, details of the idea were debated for the next four months by the men in Congress. The main problem was whether women should serve merely with the Navy, or actually in the Navy. 

It was grudgingly decided that females could serve in the Navy (that is, as an actual part of it), but on a strictly experimental basis. More objections were overcome by renaming the "Women's Auxiliary Reserve" as the "Women's Reserve" and changing proposed requirements as to age, education, and other matters.  

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Restrictions on rank were emplaced to insure only 1 lieutenant commander, 35 lieutenants and that no more than a third of the officers could be lieutenants.

Finally, on June 24, this legislation was passed by the Senate and approved by the House of Representatives. It was sent to President Roosevelt on July 21, and he signed the legislation into law on July 30.

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Franklin Delano Rooselvelt
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Oil on canvas: WAVE With Gun Crew in the Foreground by McClelland Barclay .... The term WAVES for this newly established women’s organization was chosen as an abbreviation for "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service." 

The WAVES were intended to fill vacated and newly created positions within the Navy shore establishment, allowing male sailors to be displaced forward or aboard ships. The Navy did not want to put women into its combat sea or air squadrons. Women were not to be assigned to Navy ships, except for hospital ships, or aboard aircraft, except for planes devoted to medical care and evacuation purposes. 

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The first Director of the Women’s Reserve was a former member of the Advisory Council and President of Wellesley College, Miss Mildred H. McAfee (who later became Mrs. Douglas Horton). 
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She was directly commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander on 3 August 1942, and given the task of leading the WAVES. In November 1943, provisions were made for one officer over the Women's Reserve in the temporary rank of Captain and she was promoted. 

Captain Mildred McAfee Horton, USNR, served as Director of the Women's Reserve until February 1946, when she left the service and went back to Wellesley College. She was replaced by Captain Jean T. Palmer, USNR.

.... Official U.S. Navy Photograph, ca.1945. now in the collections of the National Archives.
Captain Mildred H. McAfee, USNR

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continue to:
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-. The United States Navy
The Early US Navy
The US Navy in the Civil War
The US Navy in WWI
The US Navy in WWII
-. Foundation of the WAVES
-. WAVES during WWII
-. Strength of the WAVES
-. Postwar WAVES
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[ I. Development ]..[ II. Facts about the WAVES ]..[ III. Uniforms ]..[ IV. Sources ]
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