The WAVE and a Man with a Gun

We're very proud of my mother.   She was one of the U.S. Navy's very first women officers.

It was an exciting experience, especially for a young woman who was the first in her family to go college and was having trouble finding work as a teacher in the Depression years.

After completing training at Smith College, she asked the Navy to send her to Hawai'i,  close to the action in the Pacific war and lots of handsome Navy pilots.   Instead they stationed her at the Boston Navy Yard where the Navy didn't have to provide her housing.  She lived at home in Cambridge and commuted to work on the MTA.

It wasn't all glamour.  The old Navy chief petty officers refused to salute the young women officers.  In retaliation, the women refused to salute anyone.   When the admiral walked into a room, everyone stood up and snapped to attention... except my mother an the rest of the girls.




Eventually the issue of carrying secret messages around the Navy yard and Boston came up.   "You're carrying secret messages.  You'll need to learn to fire a .45 caliber pistol, which has a big kick and you'll need to hold with two hands,  and wear the weapon whenever you're carrying secret messages. Or you'll need to be accompanied by an armed Marine."

My mother thought about this for a moment and replied:   "Give me the man with a gun."