Women of humboldt county who served during wwii
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WAAC/WAC
Joyce Abott Helen Apperson Dorothy E. Semple Germaine De Haes Nina Jackson Della Lewis Ethal Noga ARMY NURSE CORP. Agnes Crowley Violet Benneck Mary Francis Crowley Helen French Clarice Johnson Addie Newland Marrgaret A. Peterson Vivian R. Pine WAVES Bonnie Lee Brown MARINES Muriel P. Clarke NAVY Margaret Mary Harris |
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 Mary Vencil Curnutte Mahler, a member of WAVES
WAVES: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
WAVES was the women's branch of US Naval Reserve. It was established on July 30, 1942 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and authorized the Navy Reserve to accept women as commissioned officers and enlisted ranks through the war and 6 months after the war's official end. The idea was to place women into onshore Navy work so men could go to sea to fight in the war. At its peak, WAVES had 86,291 members. |
 Candy Olson, a recruiter for the WAC. She married Galen Russel Olsen, a third generation Humboldter who was born in 1922 to pioneers Oscar and Marie Bush Olsen. He enlisted in the Navy during WWII. They established Olsen's Heating and Sheetmetal in Eureka. Galen was a board member of the North Coast Vintage Aviation Society.
WAAC: Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. WAAC was created by Public Law 554 on May 15, 1942 following closely after the attack on Pearl Harbor. WAAC was established "for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of women of the nation." After being established, WAAC created 400 jobs for women within a year. Jobs included work as bakers, clerics, drivers, and medical professionals. As interest waned due to better paying jobs outside of the Army and Army attitudes towards women, WAAC converted to active duty statuse under the Army as WAC on July 1, 1943. The conversion would allow women to help in the war effort overseas through the Army rather than being an auxiliary unit in the United States military and gain the rights of enlisted men.
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