WAVES

(Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service)

1943-1945

During World War II between 1943 and 1945 Georgia State College for Women served as a base for the Naval Training School for WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service). GSCW was one of four colleges and universities in the United States chosen to house the WAVES program. College President Guy Wells considered the WAVES presence on campus an honor. Supporting the Naval Training School on campus was a way the college could be involved in the war effort. The college also received benefits from the Navy including payment for the use of college facilities, repair and up keep of buildings, and building improvements as the Naval Training School saw necessary

WAVES in formation

President Wells stated in an edition of the Alumnae Journal that he was grateful for the Navy’s presence. With falling enrollment, the funds the college received from the Navy allowed all of the college buildings to remain open and all the members of the faculty to be paid. At one point Wells estimated that the WAVES program was occupying one fourth of the college’s campus.

WAVES who were in training under went three months of intensive instruction at the Naval Training School. After three months the women were assigned to jobs in stores or clerical positions at American Naval stations. The first class of WAVES arrived on campus in January of 1943, and had a graduating class of 189 women. By the summer of 1943 GSCW was housing more than 800 women in WAVES training.

Due to the college’s declining enrollment, GSCW was able to house the WAVES with minimal overcrowding. The WAVES occupied Ennis Hall, the Mansion Annex, Mayfair Hall, and Sanford Hall; sleeping six to eight women in a standard dorm room.

WAVES in the Mansion Annex

While the WAVES occupied a large portion of the campus, the women attending Georgia State College for Women did not have a lot of contact with the Navy women. Dr. Well’s described the college and the Naval School as opposites:

“There have necessarily been some conflicts, as there would be in two groups whose program differs so widely. The Navy, of course, is getting ready to kill people, in all its training programs. Our college is trying to help people live more fully. The Navy maintains strict military discipline - the trainees march in formation to classes, they drill regularly, they have to follow a rigid program. Our students go leisurely to class and meals, talking as they go, and they are not disciplined for being late to an appointment or class.” (Alumnae Journal Summer 1943)

Despite these different missions, the students and the WAVES lived together peacefully on campus. During the time the WAVES program was at the college over 15,000 women were trained for Naval service.

The WAVES brought women to Milledgeville from all over the country creating a diverse community. One article describes Milledgeville as a cosmopolitan community with women coming form all over the country to train on the campus. The Naval Training School also brought Bob Hope to campus in 1943. He conducted his weekly NBC radio show from Russell Auditorium.

The WAVES training program left the campus in May of 1945. The Spring 1945 Alumnae Journal proclaimed: “The Georgia State College for Women has made a definite contribution toward the winning of the war by having here the WAVES unit.”

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