WAVES

Who is WAVES?

WAVES on 30 July 1942 was established as a World War II division of the U.S. Navy, that consisted entirely of women in the 1940s, but on 12 June 1948, women gained permanent status in the armed services of the United States. The name was the acronym for "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service". The word "emergency" implied that the acceptance of women was due to the unusual circumstances of World War II, and at the end of the war the women would not be allowed to continue in Navy careers, but it or its successors continued for decades afterwards.

Their official name was the U.S. Naval Reserve, but the nickname as the WAVES stuck.