Artifact Friday: W.A.V.E Uniforms

WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, was established on July 21, 1942. The purpose of this program was to allow the Navy to accept women into commissioned officer and enlisted positions within the Naval Reserve. Women in this program filled the roles of their male counterparts so that more men would be available for service aboard Navy ships in the ever-raging Pacific Theatre.

It took until 1942 to create WAVES due to the controversial decision of the time to allow women into the armed forces. Thanks to pressure from Margaret Jesse Chung, a well-respected Chinese-American women’s physician, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States, Public Law 689 was passed. Law 689 officially permitted women to serve in the US Navy.

Eventually, 72 African-American women also served through WAVES. WAVES served in over 900 locations in the United States as well as Hawaii, which was not a state at the time, technically classifying it as an overseas post.