WAVES Recruitment poster

Courtesy National Archives

The wartime women's branch of the US Naval Reserves was known as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services). The branch existed from July 1942 until the Women's Armed Services Integration Act was signed in 1948, although most of those serving had been demobilized by 1946. Women serving with the WAVES fulfilled a variety of roles including parachute rigging, aviation mechanics and cryptography.