January 1, 1943: Welcome to the WAVES

August 12, 2013

I keep forgetting how drastically my Grandmother's life changed when she entered the service.  Her first letter feels shallow compared to this one.  She writes of her everyday life, but then she stops reporting and starts to tell of her worries and doubts that were brought to the surface by a lecture given the night before.

The lecturer addresses the separation anxiety the girls are experiencing.  She says,".. (that) Our folks were more than likely all sitting around talking about us being in the service and what not."  She mentions that many of the girls start to cry.  She didn't but she did, "... get a lump in her throat and had a hard time swallowing it."

These women left their families and often moved across the nation in service to their country.  My Grandmother was 21 years old!  In that decade, my Grandma should have been married with a child on her knee.  Instead she was off joining the war effort.  It wasn't unheard of, but it was completely different from what Grandma expected.  

She mentions a man named Roy in her letters.  I spoke with my Mother and discovered that Roy was my Grandmother's beaux in high school.  When he enlisted, he wouldn't commit to my Grandma and so she joined the WAVES.  Now, she met my Grandfather in the Navy so, I can't thank her enough for that.  But, a large part of me wonders did she join the Navy in an effort to escape her life in Montana?  Did everything remind her of him and she needed to get away?  In the end, My Grandmother made the right decision and found the love of her life.  Roy came back from the war and married my Grandma's best friend, Marilynn.  Isn't that a fine kettle of fish?

Although Grandma's heart was potentially broken and she joined the service to start a new life; it was where she wanted to be.  She says, "I'd hate to be put back in Civilian life until after the war." Grandma considers returning to civilian life as a step back and she only wants to move forward.  She doesn't want to miss out on the greatest possible adventure of her life.

On this day in WWII history