WWII Veteran Turns 105 As Nation Celebrates 250th Anniv: Ella Darby, WAVES, US Naval Women's Reserve

[appalachiablue]

- ABC 10 News, May 16, 2026. (4 mins).
Ella Darby who comes from a Navy family reflects on her service as she turns 105.
Darby joined more than 350,000 other women who enlisted in the military during WWII under the WAVES program which allowed women to serve in non-combat roles in the military. The Greatest Generation. 🇺🇲
----------
⚓ WAVES (United States Naval Women's Reserve), National Park Service/NPS.

This article is part of a feature on women in the military during World War II. During World War II, the United States Navy created a branch of the Naval Reserve to enlist women, known as the WAVES (an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

Approximately 100,000 women served in the WAVES over the course of the war. They performed a variety of jobs, from clerical work and storekeeping, to weather forecasting and navigation, to hospital work, to engineering.

After the end of the war, the WAVES demobilized. However, the 1948 Women's Armed Services Integration Act permitted women to serve in the Army and Navy on a permanent, regular basis. This page collects information about the parks, historic places, people, and stories connected to the history of the WAVES... More,
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/waves-united-states-naval-women-s-reserve.htm
--------
- Also: Women in the Military During WWII, NPS

More than 350,000 American women joined the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Women had been serving as Army and Navy nurses for decades, but World War II led to new opportunities for women to enlist in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

In 1942, Congress created the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (later renamed the Women's Army Corps, or WAC), the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES, part of the US Navy), and the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. The Coast Guard established a women’s unit known as the SPARS, short for the Marine Corps motto “Semper Paratus, Always Ready.” Women aviators flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) unit beginning in 1943.

Women in uniform performed more than 200 different jobs during their service. They were clerks, mechanics, pilots, drivers, gunnery instructors, air traffic controllers, weather forecasters, postal workers, and translators. They served at home and abroad. Many of them risked their lives and safety. Four hundred and thirty-two servicewomen died. Eighty-eight were taken prisoner.

Many servicewomen received recognition and respect during the war, but they also faced gender discrimination from the public and male colleagues. Women of color confronted a double burden of racism and sexism. After the war, the military discharged most women in uniform and disbanded some of their specialized units. But the demands of a world war had created a future for American women in the armed forces. In 1948, Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which granted women the right to serve as regular members of the military for the first time.

Explore some of the stories of World War II women in uniform...
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/women-in-the-military-during-world-war-ii.htm

[ZDU]

1. Go Navy!

[appalachiablue]

2. For sure! Thanks for posting.