STATUE WAVE 8

The Wave Statue 8 inch Bonded Bronze.

The WAVES were a World War II-era division of the U.S. Navy that consisted entirely of women. The name of this group is an acronym for "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" as well as an allusion to ocean waves.

The WAVES began in August 1942, when Mildred H. Fover was sworn in as a Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander, the first female commissioned officer in U.S. Navy history, and the first director of the WAVES. From the very beginning, the WAVES were an official part of the Navy, and its members held the same rank and ratings as male personnel. They also received the same pay and were subject to military discipline.

Within their first year the WAVES were 27,000 strong. A large proportion of the WAVES did clerical work but some took positions in the aviation community, Judge Advocate General's Corps, medical professions, communications, intelligence, storekeeper, science and technology.

With the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Public Law 625) on June 12, 1948, women gained permanent status in the armed services. Although the WAVES officially ceased to exist, the acronym was in common use well into the 1970s.

FRED PRESS ROYALTIES

2006 GL p14