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BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!
My search for books and periodicals about Navy women began in 1974 while
working on my manuscript for Ihe_WJl.Y_QUbe_W AVES. Even though a great many
changes have been made since WW II, researching through computerized bibliographical
bases yield only a small range of current citations. Online catalogs of the library of
Congress and the excellent web site of the Naval Historical Center provide other select
books. A reference librarian at the U.S. Naval Academy published a list of interesting
citations in the !LS_l'lIa'LaLInsliiule...ELoceed.in9s-CUmuLative Index, 1874-1977. The most
complete bibliographies can be found at the Naval Historical Center in Washington. A few
books about women in the WAVES were cited in C_umujatL\Le.-Bo..o.ksJndJ~K..1.943.=19AlL
The lack of seriousness concerning WW II Navy women is evident when They're
AIL't'o!JIS.-U..oc.le..ltam (Stephen Daye, 1943) by Max Baris and ..U.P....C-ome~~a..Bippjft
(Greenwood Press, 1945) by Dorothea J. Barley were primarily devoted to cartoons,
caricatures and simple text in slap-stick humor about boot camp at USS Hunter. Another
book worth mentioning is By Your Le..alle~_S.iL:...Ib.e_S~OljLoLLWA..\LE, (New York: Dodd,
Mead & Co., 1945) by Helen Hull Jacobs, a fictional novel about officer's training school.
Nancy Ross, war correspondent and author of several books, wrote The WAVES, Story
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OUbe_GlrJsJD_Blue.., (New York, Henry Holt Co., 1943). Most of these books have long
been out of print.
MINER V A: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, is the brainchild of Dr.
Linda Grant De Pauw, professor of history, now retired, at George Washington University.
First published in the spring of 1983, it has been an important information center for women
in the military. Dr. De Pauw deserves high commendation for her broad intellectual interest in
such women.
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alsmeyer, Marie Bennett. "Preliminary Survey of literature about WW II Women in the
Navy under caption Not-So-Recent Publications of Interest ". MINER VA: Quarterly
Report on Women and the Military. (Winter, 1983) 71-76.
Wcw....oUhe..w.A'lLES~ Conway Ark. HAMBA Books, 1981. (out of print)
A classic memoir written forty years after entering the military when most women
who had served in uniform still hesitated to identify themselves publicly as veterans.
Book of Navy Songs.., U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. Music arranged by Joseph W.
Crosley, organist and choirmaster of the United States Naval Academy ,Garden
City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc. 1926, 1937.
Butler, Elizabeth Allen, Navy WAVE..S_, Charlottesville, Va.: Wayside Press, Inc., 1988
An excellent book on 'why' and 'how' the Women's Reserve was organized.
Campbell, D'Ann. Wome.n.at War With America., Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1984. A look into the lives of American women in the twentieth century.
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DEP ARTMENT OF THE NAVY
NA V AL WAR COLLEGE
686 CUSHING RD
NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND 02841-1207
October 27, 1997
Mrs. Marie Alsmeyer
1118 Clyde Drive
Tyler, Texas 75701-8024
Dear Marie:
I want to thank you so much for answering my questionnaire
on your service in the WAVES in World War II.
Your reminiscences will be catalogued and preserved in the
College archives where they will be open to scholarly
researchers who have an interest in women in the military.
I hope to make the Naval Historical Collection a major
depository for information on military women in wartime.
Your'memories of that special time in your life have helped
immensely in this effort. I appreciate your cooperation and
your support of this project.
Sincerely yours,
~}11.~L
Evelyn M. Cherpak
Head, Naval Historical
Collection
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Collins, Winifred Quick and Herbert M. Levine. MoLe Than a Uniform: a...t'4a..\lY Womao.ill...a..
Nayy..Mao'.s.w.oIld~ Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1997. Admiral
Arleigh Burke writes that Captain Quick was "the right person at the right time."
Godson, Susan H. .8.enling..Er.o..udly: A Histol}o'...O.f....\lILom.en in the....LLS Navy. Annapolis,
Md: Naval institute Press; Also Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Naval Historical
Center, 2001. A comprehensive book rich in historical detail and essential to any
study of women in the Navy.
Hancock, Joy Bright.Lad..~n..tb.e_l'lIaI,I)" A Personal Remmc.en~a..Annapolis, Md.: Naval
Institute Press, 1972. A 'must' on the history of women in the Navy. Captain
Hancock wore "many hats": WW I Yeoman (F), with the Bureau of Aeronautics,
the WAVES, and after WW II, as Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for Women.
hOeJ..ens..e_oLa Nation: Servicewomen in World War.lL Jeanne M. Holm and Judith
Bellefaire, eds., Washington D.C., Military Women's Press. 1998. The book tells a
story that needs to be told, with a select bibliography about Army and Navy Nurse
Corps, WAC, WAVES, Marines, SPAR, and WASP.
Larson, C. Kay. .IiLLC..ome Marching Home: A B..rielliistory of American Women in World_
WarJL John Eisenhower, foreword, Pasadena, Md.: The Minerva Center.
1995. An eye-opening account of the gallant efforts of military and civilian women.
'Ol.d....W~....IaJ..es: Nay;' Women:..Mem.o..r.i.es of World War II. Marie
Bennett Alsmeyer, compo Conway Ark.: HAMBA Books, 1982. WAVES tales
received in response to WaJ'.-o1Jhe WA'1E....8.. contributed by those who wanted
to keep their "old WAVES tales" alive.
Schneider, Dorothy. Into the Breacb;..Amelican Wom.eD-C2',IeLsaasJrLlb'-D.dd...war...L New
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York: Viking Penguin, 1991. An account of the 25,000 American women who
crossed the Atlantic to take part in WW I, this book not only rescues them from
obscurity but reminds us once again of the range of women's public activism.
Terkel, Studs. :Ihe_G..Qo..dJ.llLac."..an O..raL.l::listQfY-OiWoLld War II. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1984. Sights, sounds, smells and, above all, feelings of the war years.
Thomas,Walter "R". Complete Pentagon Capers. Springfield, Va: G&W Publications,
1978. A regular feature in Navy Times, includes a few 'chauvinistic' references to
WAVES as "GI Jane," "Midshipperson," "Skirts Ahoy," etc.
U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. HandbQQls....aUbeJ:io..sp!tal..CJXlls_Urlitad..
S..tate.s_NaY)'. GPO 1939. 1,000 page hardback gives a vivid description of
nursing, ward duty and operating room techniques for WW II hospital corpsmen.
U. S. Air Force Academy Library. Wom.eo...in..1be..Mili.tal)',.. Betsy Coxe and Florence
Klemin, comps. Special Bibliography Series. Air Force Academy, 1975. Cites
series of books and periodicals carrying the history of service women through 1970.
Published in response to a "groundswell of interest."
Wingo, Josette Dermody. Molb.eLWas..a....G.unner'.s-.M.ate..:-"'lorld War II in the WAVES,
Annapolis, MD. Naval Institute Press, 1994. A fast pace story with great wit by a
W AVE who spent the war teaching sailors to use the ring gun sights on antiquated
Oerlikons.
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