Ladies Wear The Blue (1974)

it was a dramatic first the first time in american naval history that women were assigned to the crew of a ship anasagi 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 aileen dirk gave the commissioning 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 [Music] however women in the navy are not new dating back to world war one navy women have had a long history of proud service back in those days they were known as yeomanettes 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 gentlemen 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 mail into the legislation so mr daniel 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 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 uh various fields the first that was was a very positive objection came from the congress itself and uh i think that was um that was 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 they should 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 there except for the very few older officers no one seemed to remember that women had already served and the experiment had been carried out in world war one uh very early in the program there rose in need for some sort of a catchy thing they tried saying the women's reserve of the naval reserve where the women enroll for this that and the other and finally among the various suggestions that were given was won by lieutenant elizabeth rainer she's given credit for this for this um slogan or acronym because it was it 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 public relations purposes and also in recruiting calling all women calling all women join the wave in seattle washington newly trained waves navy auxiliaries 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 five thousand waves already signed up but the navy says we're doing such a good job that they want thirty thousand more already we've learned how to help instruct pilots with the link trainer [Music] some of us carry last-minute field orders to the pilot so come on girls and join the waves and come they did from all walks of life in 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 [Music] practically overnight two major training centers were established for women one for officers at smith college in northampton massachusetts the other for enlisted ways 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 [Music] 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 waves 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 ritz daughter of irene and in some more whose birthday is the same day eats the first piece commandants of the ways 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 fiances their friends to do their part to help the navy help the nation to win the war and prepare for peace [Music] and the mighty fleet of the united states navy sails on proud and stopped 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 corpsmen 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 two thousand to almost fifteen thousand 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 graham 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 and are in leadership positions throughout the navy the early 1970s have been significant because of their firsts judith ann neufer became the first woman admitted to the naval flight training program lawrence 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 [Music] aileen derek was named the navy's first woman admiral [Music] admiral derek's promotion ceremony contained another first [Music] 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 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 it's a pilot study um the commanding officer of this ship is very enthusiastic about these people and uh 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 they're going to be some problems just like you 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 if 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 it's a good idea that it has a lot of merit they're going to be surrounded by men all the time it'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 uh there's quite a few that don't like it and there's quite a few that do you know and quite a few you know let him try it out or less people more or less like me you know they want to see you know see if it works out or not i don't know you can't tell a woman to work the way you could tell a man to because actually they can't work as hard as a man i've got uh two or three of them in my division that uh so far have outworked any any man that i have in my evening as long as you do what you're told and do it right i can't see why they should complain i'm proud to be in the navy and i don't care who's who's working beside me a woman or a man just 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 for enlisted women indoctrination 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 [Music] maybe with anchors away everybody loves the navy navy navy of the u u states together we become shift mates together we're gonna make it great and we'll keep trucking let's write right left 3 0 7 2 3 0 7 2 3 0 0 2 marching together we're never [Music] where we belong the hours are long reverely sounds at 5 am taps well past 9 pm and the training is high 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 so so [Music] and then there's graduation the day when a young recruit becomes a full-fledged member of the fleet the last pass in review when her friends and family can share in her achievements [Music] [Music] don't [Music] 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 yakuza in japan to athens greece from holy lock scotland to washington d.c sue krogen 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 oh at any job that would be 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 memoranda to the secretary the cno's office and we answer inquiries from retirees navy people uh 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 [Music] i heard a good song i heard he had a song and so i came to see him to listen for a while 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 seemed 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 [Music] [Music] 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 some a lot of congenital anomalies and two are 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 the people here are something that i don't think you'll find anyplace else the uh their grand to work with and the five years that i've been here have been most enjoyable [Music] marianne gardner is one of more than 2600 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 help put me through school i enjoy the independence that you're given as far as as working pretty much on your own with help you know if you wanted it's there well i 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 [Music] 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 neufer 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 [Music] 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 of satisfaction the feeling of having gotten over one hurdle and i i think it helped to sort of build a little confidence too that that we are in the program we we can fly the plane and and we are able to cope with with the the pressures and the the rigorous uh training that 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 pooped the ladies who wear the navy blue [Music] you