 It was a dramatic first. The first time in American naval history that women were assigned to the crew of a ship. On a soggy November 18, 1972, at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in California, the USS Sanctuary, a dependent-support ship, was recommissioned. The Navy's first woman admiral, Eileen Dirk, gave the commissioning address. The sanctuary is being recommissioned as a new and unusual type of ship with a new mission to assist the Navy's effort to improve morale and flexibility by home porting combatant ships overseas. This ship will provide medical and resale services to deploy dependents wherever the fleet may be assigned. In addition to this forward step, the sanctuary has also been selected, as you know, as the ship to participate in the pilot program, which will evaluate the utilization of women for shipboard duty. It will be home for about 80 women, half in the crew and half at the hospital. With these innovations, you can see that the sanctuary is truly unique in many respects. The sanctuary is an experiment to see how well women and men can work together at sea. It is also a symbol of the Navy's changing view toward women. For in the Navy, equal rights means equal opportunity. However, women in the Navy are not new. Dating back to World War I, Navy women have had a long history of proud service. Back in those days, they were known as yeomanets, and they provided much valuable assistance in the war effort. Joy Hancock, whose Navy career would span four decades, was one of those who volunteered. Our secretary of the Navy at that time was Josephus Daniels. He didn't cut the corners, but he found a very easy and practical way, John, to do things. And when we found that civil service couldn't supply the number of women they wanted in the clerical ratings, he said, well, is there any reason why they shouldn't be sworn into the Naval Reserve? And his aides looked up the law, the legislation, and much to their surprise, they found that someone had neglected to write in the word male into the legislation. So Mr. Daniels said, all right, bring in the women, and that was it. We were accepted because we had certain skills to offer, mostly in the clerical field. And of course, they did expand to communications, cryptology, and telephone operators. 1918, the war ends and women are mustered out. No thought is given to keeping them in service. Not until 20 years later does that thought reappear. 1938, Hitler begins the inextricable march toward war. Some Navy leaders realize that women will be needed again when the conflagration occurs. Yet there is opposition. Joy Hancock was a Navy civilian employee at the time. Well, those objections came from various fields. The first that was a very positive objection came from the Congress itself. And I think that had its basis in the feeling of chivalry, which the men had. I mean, I heard the expression so many times, oh, the women shouldn't be brought into the war. Women are to be protected and so forth and so on. And some of our senior senators were guilty of those remarks. And as far as the Navy was concerned, except for the very few older officers, no one seemed to remember that women had already served and that the experiment had been carried out in World War I. Very early in the program there arose a need for some sort of a catchy thing. We tried saying the women's reserve or the naval reserve or the women in role for this, that and the other. And finally, among the various suggestions that were given was one by Lieutenant Elizabeth Reiner. She's given credit for this slogan or acronym. Because it was smacked of the Navy in itself, waves. And she based that on the women accepted for volunteer emergency service. And that proved to be a very catchy one for Republic relations purposes and also in recruiting. Calling all women, calling all women. Join the waves. In Seattle, Washington, newly trained waves, Navy old zilleraries take over the Seattle Air Station. We're proud of our first assignment and we're taking turns in manning the control tower. We're only a few of the 5,000 waves already signed up. But the Navy says we're doing such a good job that they want 30,000 more. Already we've learned how to help instruct pilots with the link trainer. Some of us carry last-minute field orders to the pilot. They'll come on girls and join the waves. And come they did, from all walks of life and all parts of the country. Secretaries, teachers, sales girls, students from Louisiana, Texas, Nebraska, Connecticut, Oregon, Georgia. Whatever their background, they shared a common desire to help their country in time of need. Mildred Helen McAfee was appointed first director of the waves. She had been the president of Wellesley College. In August, 1942, she was sworn in by the secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox. Practically overnight, two major training centers were established for women. One for officers at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The other for enlisted waves at Hunter College, New York City. This training facility was nicknamed the SS Hunter. By the end of the first year, 27,000 women were in Navy uniforms, and more were coming every day. The first birthday for America's waves, and a very healthy one-year-old. All across the nation, the women's sailors celebrate the anniversary. When the candle goes out, the wave's second year begins. One year old and already 30,000 officers and enlisted women. In Philadelphia, they had a 10-foot 500-pound battleship cake to celebrate with. Helping cut it is Lieutenant Francis Rich, daughter of Irene. And Enson Moore, whose birthday is the same day, eats the first piece. Coming down to the waves, Lieutenant Commander McAfee speaks for the Navy to the women of America. We hope that many thousands more will join the Navy. To volunteer their services as this second year goes by, encouraged by their parents, their husbands, their fiancés, their friends, to do their part to help the Navy help the nation to win the war and prepare for peace. And the mighty fleet of the United States Navy sails on, proud and staunch in victory in the war against freedom's oppressors. A bigger and better fleet because of America's women marching on as waves. The work women did released men for service with the fleet. They performed jobs ranging from storekeeper to hospital corpsman, from project engineers to linguists, from communications technicians to aviation specialists. They worked diligently and they worked effectively. They did so well, in fact, that they won the praise of even those officers who had initially opposed their entry into the service. Said one of them, lead Admiral Chester Nimitz. Not only are women equally efficient in many of the duties previously performed by men, but in certain types of work, they proved to be more efficient and psychologically better fitted. By the end of the war, more than 86,000 Navy women had served with pride. 1950, the Korean War demands the recall of reservists, both male and female, and a Navy expansion program gets underway. The number of Navy women jumps from a pre-war low of 2,000 to almost 15,000. Schools are opened in San Diego, California and Bainbridge, Maryland to train women. The incentive of helping the war effort once again prompts thousands of women to join the Navy. When the war ends, many women return to civilian life. The Navy is limited in what it can offer women who wish to stay on. Housing, promotions, retirement benefits all have legal restrictions attached to them. Nevertheless, a nucleus of career-minded women remain in service during the 50s and early 60s. It is not until 1967 that conditions begin changing for the better. In November of that year, President Johnson signs legislation removing ranked restrictions for women in all the armed forces, including the Navy. 1971, the new Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, convenes a study group on the problems and aspirations of Navy women. He wants to know what it will take to encourage more women to make the Navy a career. One result of these meetings is the issuance of Z-Gram 116, which has been described as the Navy's own Equal Rights Amendment. Of the better than 50 recommendations made by the Wave Retention Study Group, well over half are approved and affected. The goal of today's Navy is the full integration of men and women permitted by law. Any separate identity that had once existed is rapidly disappearing as women enter more and more fields that at one time had been the exclusive preserve of men. Women are now involved in construction, meteorology, space surveillance, aerial photography. They are instructors at the Naval Academy and students with NROTC units. They run computers, edit newspapers, handle logistics, and fill prescriptions. They have become commanding officers in our leadership positions throughout the Navy. The early 1970s have been significant because of their firsts. Judith Ann Newfer became the first woman admitted to the Naval Flight Training Program. Florence Pullman was sworn in as the first female chaplain in the Navy. Sherry Robinson became the first woman to complete Air Traffic Control Officers School. Aileen Derrick was named the Navy's first woman admiral. Admiral Derrick's promotion ceremony contained another first. And for the first time, women were assigned with men to the crew of a ship. We're going to start out with the test on the sanctuary, which is, as you know, a hospital ship being refurbished to be able to serve a broader mission of dependent support. This particular ship is well configured from the standpoint of facilities to do that. My view is that if there are women who want to go to sea and undergo the hardships of going to sea and to serve their country in that capacity, then we can find a way to make it possible for them to do so. We would start out, I think, on the larger ships where the facilities problems are easier to handle, carriers and so forth. And the last ships to which they would be assigned, if ever, would be submarines. If a pilot study, the commanding officer of this ship is very enthusiastic about these people. And this sort of thing, I hope, will gain a lot of publicity. And I hope that, sure, he knows he's going to have problems. There are going to be some problems, just like there would be in a general society. You're going to have a few problems. But overall, he's very confident that this is going to be a most successful and a very happy crew. I think that the crew in this ship would like it to work. I have a feeling that they're very positive about it. I also have the feeling that they think it's a good idea and that it has a lot of merit. They're going to be surrounded by men all the time. There's going to be like 60 women and 300 or 400 men. You have to know how to get along with them. I think that that is one of the main problems where there's just so many guys around and they're looking at you to see if you can do the job. There's quite a few that don't like it. There's quite a few that do, you know, and quite a few that might try it out. People more or less like me, you know, they want to see if it works out or not. I don't know, you can't tell a woman to work the way you can tell a man to. Because actually they can't work as hard as a man. I've got two or three of them in my division that so far have outworked any man that I have in my division. As long as you do what you're told and do it right, I can't do what I should complain. I'm proud to be in the Navy and I don't care who's working beside me, a woman or a man. This is as long as the job gets done and everybody knows what they're doing. That's fantastic. Women in today's Navy perform many valuable and necessary functions. There is no area of Navy life they cannot participate in if qualified. And they are qualified. Women in today's Navy come into the service better educated than ever before and they adjust to Navy life more easily as a result. More enlisted women in Doctrine Nation takes place at the Recruit Training Command, Orlando, Florida, boot camp. It's eight weeks of hard work, classes, physical education, and of course that one staple of a good military education, drilling. Maybe with anchors away. Everybody love the youth. From the 50 states, together we're going to make it great. And we'll keep truckin' left-right, right-left, 7-2, 0-7-2, 3-0, 7-2. The hours are long. Reveley sounds at 5 a.m., taps well past 9 p.m. And the training is hard. There are no two ways about it. Why do they do it? Well, strangely enough, women's liberation has little appeal to these young ladies. Most Navy women feel liberated before they join. If anything, what they seek is the structuring Navy discipline gives to their lives. And then there's graduation, the day when a young recruit becomes a full-fledged member of the fleet. The last pass and review when her friends and family can share in her achievement. From Orlando, most will go on to further schooling and then the first duty station. Wherever assigned, they are secure in the knowledge that the jobs they do are an important, integral part of the Navy. They are needed. And that first assignment could take them anywhere in the world where the Navy has a base. From Yakuska in Japan to Athens, Greece. From Holy Lock, Scotland to Washington, D.C. Sue Kogan is a Navy lawyer. She entered the Navy right after law school. Why did I join the Navy? Well, mainly because I wanted to do something different. I didn't want to join a law firm. I looked around for any job that would be a little different. And the Navy was my first choice and I was lucky enough to get accepted. Well, in our office, we mainly do research and write opinions in the form of letters, memorandum, to the secretary, to CNO's office. And we answer inquiries from retirees, Navy people, congressmen. I think the Navy has fulfilled most of my expectations. It's interesting. It's exciting. There's a camaraderie in the Navy that you wouldn't have on the outside, except in maybe a smaller law firm. And that I like. I heard he sang a good song. I heard he had a style. And so I... Evangeline Bailey is assigned to the U.S. Navy Band. She is the first female musician in Navy history. In college, I was a voice major and a piano minor. I participated in the college opera workshop and things like that. And my family had a religious singing group. I've been singing all the time. It's nothing new to me. There seem to be certain fears that men have about women coming into any field that they've had along. I think they feel their masculinity is threatened. In the band, I think the guys realized that I was there just to do my job the best that I could. And they took me for what I was. The band teaches you the discipline you need for just about anything in life. I can't think of any experience you could have in life that you won't have in the band. Diane Colgan is a plastic surgeon at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. She joined because she liked what the Navy had to offer. She felt the Navy would give her some good, practical experience. I do a fair amount of reconstructive surgery. Probably an equal amount of cosmetic surgery. Some facial fractures. A lot of congenital anomalies. We're still working on some of the Vietnam casualties. And this is, of course, a long-term procedure as far as they're concerned. Many of them have been here for a year in and out of the hospital in between the time to their reconstructive procedures. I think that the people here are something that I don't think you'll find any place else that they're grand to work with. The five years that I've been here have been most enjoyable. Mary Ann Gardner is one of more than 2,600 Navy nurses who serve worldwide. She works in an intensive care unit. Like most Navy nurses, she appreciates the fact that she can move from one duty station to another without any loss in seniority or pay. The work here is not easy. It takes a special devotion to face the crisis situations these courageous nurses must handle. I joined the Navy while I was still in school for a couple of reasons. I had never been very far away from home. I wanted to do a little bit of traveling, see some other places. And plus they helped put me through school. I enjoy the independence that you're given as far as working pretty much on your own with help, you know, if you wanted it's there. Well, I enjoy being a Navy nurse. I enjoy being part of the Navy nurse corps and working together with people who have come from all over the country. You have a sense of belonging. Without doubt, the Navy's most ambitious plans for women have been in the flight training program. Six young women have been selected to pave the way for future women in naval aviation. They are expected to perform the same as men. They go through the same classes, same drills, same exercises. And they fly the same planes. On May 10, 1973, Lieutenant Judith Ann Newfer became the first woman to solo in a Navy aircraft when she took off in a T-34 from the Naval Air Station, Softly Field, Florida. It was a very good feeling to know that I had actually taken that plane off and brought it back home all on my own. It was definitely a feeling of satisfaction, a feeling of having gotten over one hurdle. And I think it helped to sort of build a little confidence too that we are in the program. We can fly the plane and we are able to cope with the pressures and the rigorous training that we're involved in. Our Navy's strength lies in the fact that individuals are given the chance to show what they can do. Black or white, male or female, the opportunity is there. These women poop. The ladies who wear the Navy blue.