The New Navy

The United States entered WWII in 1941 and soon was facing a serious shortage of manpower in the military. Congress, along with public interest and backing up from various National organizations, forced the Department of the Navy to start accepting women into their service to enlarge the many thousands of men already active in the war effort. On June 24, 1942, Congress passed an act to create a women’s reserve as a branch of the Naval reserve. It was to be governed by the same rules and privileges. It was limited by only letting the women work non-combat duty in the continental U.S.

            The idea was to free trained Naval men from desk jobs in order to increase the active fighting force–thus the rallying theme, “Free a man to fight.” The new women’s Naval Reserve units were called the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services).