The Waves Collection

On October 9, 1942, Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) began participation in a program for the United States Navy and eventually produced 10,000 women for active service.

The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) trained to perform secretarial and clerical functions for the navy in order to free more men to fight during World War II. The first class of WAVES consisted of 644 women and each subsequent class yielded a maximum of 1250 graduates. They came from every state to participate in twelve weeks of intensive training. WAVES spent eight hours each day in the classroom studying secretarial skills such as shorthand, stenography, and typing plus more advanced courses in history and naval correspondence. Each day concluded with one hour of drill or other physical exercise such as volleyball or badminton.

The Navy realized its personnel requirements in December 1944 and decommissioned the school. The final class of WAVES graduated Oklahoma A&M April 16, 1945.

Collection Information

Collection No. : 1995-006

Arrangement : Arranged alphabetically by series; Series 1 -- Correspondence; Series 2 -- WAVES Organizations

Access : Unrestricted

Collection Size : .5 linear feet

Online WAVES photo exhibit

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