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As might have been expected, its reception was less than enthusiastic. Even after Congress moved to establish the WAAC for the Army, there was within the Navy a feeling that there was no great need for women in uniform, although possibly a few jobs could be handled by them. The details of how a great many objections to women in service were overcome, in ensuing months, have been well told by Joy Bright Hancock and there is no need to mention them here, except to point out that there is nothing new about the slogan "Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman." The ladies had power in 1941 and 1942, chief among them being Representatives Edith Nourse Rogers and Margaret Chase Smith, who, together with Eleanor Roosevelt, pressed for the idea of women in uniform. Eventually, on 30 July 1942, President Roosevelt signed the bill which established the Women's Reserve of the Naval Reserve. Among the women officers first commissioned was the author of this book, Joy Bright Hancock.

Since that day, thousands of young women, officers and enlisted, have proudly served the Navy—some of them for a short wartime cruise, some of them through full and distinguished careers. They have been teachers, mechanics, technicians, control tower operators, photographers, draftsmen and printers, aeronautical engineers, attorneys, psychologists, aerographers and cryptanalysis experts.

It is of interest, sociologically, to note that those women who served in the armed forces were never confronted with the question of equal pay for equal performance, The standard had been set by the Navy when women were enlisted in World War I. The position of the Armed Services in this respect was and is entirely justified.

Anyone who served in the Navy during World War II or the Korean War will remember with pride the WAVES––enthusiastic, determined, helpful, and resourceful. It would have been impossible to issue enough ribbons and commendations to commend them all for their service.

Officers and enlisted, they have now become so much a part of the Navy that I doubt we could ever get along without them. I hope we never have to.

ARTHUR W. RADFORD
Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired)

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Introduction

No WAVE of the Navy knows more about the experience of women in the service than Joy Hancock, a veteran yeoman of the First World War, a civilian employee in the Bureau of Aeronautics, the widow of three naval officers, WAVE representative in the Bureau of Aeronautics in the Second World War, and from 1946 to 1953, Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for Women.

Supplementing her personal reminiscences and observations with a wealth of documentary evidence, she tells a story which serves two valuable purposes. It is sure to rouse nostalgic memories as Second World War WAVES remember the chaotic early days of the service, and it provides them more factual material for their memories than has ever before been collected between the covers of one book. More significantly, it serves as a needed chapter in the history of the Navy and of American women. Chaos did end and 86,000 women did make a contribution to the winning of a war they sincerely believed was a necessary one. They were "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" and the Navy did in truth accept them as colleagues, rallying from utter skepticism to possessive satisfaction. Under the leadership of Captain Hancock, they became a part of the regular Navy after the war emergency was past, accepted still as volunteers.

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