Making Waves: Women in the Navy During World War Two

BY DARCI GARDNER, BETTER DAYS INTERN

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“I told them I will go AWOL before I would be a secretary,” said Kathryn Klaveano, one of the many Utah women who served in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II. She went on to become a flight orderly for domestic military flights. Like Kathryn, many women wanted to do more to help during WWII than just work at a desk. The WAVES gave them that chance. Women in the WAVES held jobs ranging from flight orderlies to code breakers. They helped reshape the U.S. Navy and the public mindset of what women could contribute in a time of crisis.

The WAVES were established by Public Law 689 on July 30, 1942 “to expedite the war effort by releasing officers and men for duty at sea” and replacing them with Navy women serving in non-combat positions on the homefront. In response, nine women from the University of Utah entered the Naval Recruiting Station in Salt Lake City on February 25, 1943 and enlisted as Utah’s first contingent of WAVES. By the end of World War II, nearly 100,000 women throughout the nation had served as WAVES, including many Utah women. 

WAVES were fully-enlisted in the Navy, just as they had been years earlier as female Navy yeomen during World War I.^[1] Eligibility for enlistment extended to women between the ages of 20 and 35 who had completed two years of secondary school and could volunteer for training. Officer candidates could be up to 50 years old and needed at least two years of college training before being accepted into the program. Women were excluded from enlistment if they had children or if their husband was serving in the Navy. The women held many jobs in the Navy, including secretaries, cooks, printers, photographers, personnel supervisors, control tower operators, hospital and pharmacists’ assistants, telephone and radio operators, code-brakers, parachute riggers, and gunnery instructors. 

Women joined the WAVES for many different reasons. Many were motivated by their patriotic desire to contribute to the war effort. Some also felt that it was a chance to boost their economic status, while others wanted to experience what the world had to offer. Eula Kimber grew up in Grouse Creek, Utah and wanted to travel. She ended up joining the WAVES to see the world, gain a steady income, and do her part for the war effort. Of all the female military programs offered at the time, the WAVES was the most enticing to her because their uniforms were designed by Mainbocher (a famous New York fashion house at the time). These designer uniforms were used by the Navy as a recruiting tool, and they bolstered WAVES’ authority as an official part of the military.

Rosalind Johnson-Henneman from Salt Lake City became a Special Technician and an Instrument Flight Instructor. She joined because one of her brothers was unable to fight in the military. She decided that she was going to join in his place. Similarly, Marjorie Campbell from Laketown, Utah became a Commissary Worker because she had a dear friend who was shot down over England. She wanted to finish out his service for him and joined the WAVES in his honor. 

Ruth Klein from Sandy joined the WAVES because she had three brothers fighting in the war. She explained, “We saw posters for women a lot. I just got itchy feet, and as long as my brothers were in, I did too.” She became a gunnery specialist because of her experience growing up pheasant hunting with her dad and brothers. She would train the men at the skeet-shooting range. To prove she was qualified to be their instructor; she would challenge them to see who was the better shot. “They were usually quiet after that. Fortunately, I didn’t have to prove myself very often. The majority of the boys were very respectful and eager to learn. You see, they felt they were doing their patriotic duty, just as I felt like I was doing mine.”

Ruth was also responsible for teaching the men how to recognize different aircraft in the sky. In less than one second, they were required to determine if an aircraft was American, British, German, or Japanese. She felt the hardest part of her job was never knowing if the men she trained would make it back from their missions. She recalled: “When the USS Franklin was attacked by the Japanese, almost everyone was lost, including a large group of boys we’d just trained. I could remember their faces and their determination to do a good job for their country. That was a really tough thing.”

Norma Anderson-Day grew up in rural Monroe, Utah and enlisted in the Navy at the same time as her younger brother. She worked for two years as a top-secret code-breaker in Washington, D.C. She recalled crying when she first arrived at the WAVES Quarters D barracks: “I thought I would die. It looked like a prison camp….I thought, boy, what have I gotten myself into here,” but over time  “I got so I loved it.” Norma excelled in code-breaking and developed deep and lasting friendships with many of the other WAVES. She later acknowledged the doors that the war and Navy had opened for her: “It’ s sad that it took something like that to get me out of a little town….I’ve never been sorry that I went in because I felt that I contributed something. And I saw places that I would never have seen otherwise; I did things that I would never have done.”

The WAVES program freed up men to fight in combat zones and inspired a sense of national unity. The Navy was able to function at full capacity as women took over the roles that the combat soldiers once occupied. Their roles were essential to national security and success in combat. Many women entered roles that had previously been closed to them, and their competence helped to shift public perception about women in the armed forces. After the war, many naval officers and former WAVES successfully lobbied for women to have permanent status in all branches of the armed forces under the Women’s Armed Service Integration Act of 1948. The WAVES created a legacy that helped reshape the military, the workplace, and women’s roles in American society.

^[1] In contrast, the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was first created by Congress on May 15, 1942 as a supplemental organization, but it was later officially integrated into the Army as the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) on July 20, 1943.