[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 502--ACKNOWLEDGING AND COMMEMORATING THE WORLD WAR II 
   WOMEN IN THE NAVY WHO SERVED IN THE WOMEN ACCEPTED FOR VOLUNTEER 
                     EMERGENCY SERVICE (``WAVES'')

  Ms. WARREN (for herself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Ossoff, 
Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Braun, Mr. Scott of 
Florida, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Wicker, and Mr. Moran) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 502

       Whereas, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the 
     Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (referred to 
     in this preamble as ``WAVES'') on July 30, 1942, when he 
     signed the Act of July 30, 1942 (56 Stat. 730, chapter 538) 
     into law;
       Whereas, despite social stigmas and public opinion averse 
     to women in uniform, women applied for WAVES in such numbers 
     that enrollment ceilings were reached within the first 
     several years;
       Whereas, while women had served in the enlisted ranks of 
     the Navy in a variety of positions during World War I, 
     legislation passed after World War I limited women to service 
     as nurses until the creation of the WAVES;
       Whereas, during World War II, women in the United States 
     were recruited into the Armed Forces to perform military 
     assignments so that men could be freed for combat duties;
       Whereas, under the direction of Lieutenant Commander (later 
     Captain) Mildred Helen McAfee, the WAVES peaked in 1945 at 
     nearly 80,000 officers and enlisted personnel, or 
     approximately 2.5 percent of the wartime strength of the Navy 
     and was composed of women from urban and rural communities 
     across many socioeconomic backgrounds;
       Whereas, the Secretary of the Navy's Annual Report Fiscal 
     Year 1945 stated that there were 8,475 officers and 73,816 
     enlisted WAVES serving in the spring of 1945;
       Whereas the WAVES worked at large and small naval commands 
     from Florida to Washington and from California to Rhode 
     Island, as well as overseas;
       Whereas the WAVES numerous and diverse contributions ranged 
     from yeoman, chauffeur, and baker to pharmacist, artist, 
     aircraft mechanic, and dental hygienist;
       Whereas during World War II, WAVES served as training 
     instructors throughout the country for newly recruited WAVES 
     as well as thousands of aspiring male naval aviators, 
     gunners, and navigators destined for combat units;
       Whereas the WAVES who served in naval aviation taught 
     instrument flying, aircraft recognition, celestial 
     navigation, aircraft gunnery, radio, radar, air combat 
     information, and air fighter administration but were not 
     allowed to be pilots;
       Whereas the WAVES served the Navy in such numbers that, 
     according to a Navy estimate, enough men were freed for 
     combat duty to crew the ships of 4 major task forces, each 
     including a battleship, 2 large aircraft carriers, 2 heavy 
     cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 15 destroyers;
       Whereas, at the end of World War II, Secretary of the Navy 
     James Forrestal stated that members of the WAVES ``have 
     exceeded performance of men in certain types of work, and the 
     Navy Department considers it to be very desirable that these 
     important services rendered by women during the war should 
     likewise be available in postwar years ahead'';
       Whereas, by the end of World War II, more than 400,000 
     women had served the United States in military capacities, 
     with every Navy aviator who entered combat having received 
     some part of his training from a WAVE;
       Whereas the WAVES, despite their merit and the recognized 
     value and importance of their contributions to the war 
     effort, were not given status equal to their male 
     counterparts, and struggled for years to receive the 
     appreciation of Congress and the people of the United States;
       Whereas the WAVES helped to catalyze the social, 
     demographic, and economic evolutions that occurred in the 
     1960s and 1970s and continue to this day; and
       Whereas the pioneering women who served in the WAVES are 
     owed a great debt of gratitude for their service to the 
     United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors the women who served the United States in the 
     Navy Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service 
     (``WAVES'') during World War II;
       (2) commends the WAVES who, through a sense of duty and 
     willingness to defy stereotypes and social pressures, 
     performed military assignments to aid the war effort, with 
     the result that men were freed for combat duties; and
       (3) recognizes that the WAVES, by serving with diligence 
     and merit, not only opened up opportunities for women that 
     had previously been reserved for men, but also contributed 
     vitally to the victory of the United States and the Allies in 
     World War II.

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