"My Life as a WAVE" by Aunt Anna

This piece by Aunt Anna Sprick Smith (Oct. 16, 1920-Sept. 16, 2012) appeared in the Memorial Day 2000 issue of Today magazine. An editor's note read: "What a great story Anna wrote. I've heard many good comments, particularly about the role women played in World War II." Anna's WAVE uniform is on display in the military room at the Goodhue County Historical Society Museum in Red Wing, Minn. The military room was established by none other than Uncle Bill Miller and displays his uniform as well. There's some very good information on WAVES at this U.S. Navy history site.

By ANNA SMITH

A young nephew often asks to see my World War II medals. He never asked what I did to receive them. So here's my story.

After the "Day of Infamy" -- the bombing of Pearl Harbor -- war was declared against Japan on Dec. 8. 1941. I heard the news on the radio on Sunday afternoon after returning to my boarding home in Bremen, Minn., where I had my first teaching assignment.

War-related events during two years of teaching there included teaching children how to knit squares for the Red Cross, conducting programs to raise money for the Red Cross and hopefully, preparing children for a world of peace.

In the spring of 1943, a teacher from Winona State Teachers College viisted my school and asked me to consider teaching and supervising new student teachers in the rural lab department at the college. I was 23 then, trying to envision my future and my country's future. I enlisted in the WAVES.

In March 1942, Congress had created the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, giving women temporary military status that was to last as long as the war continued. By the end of July 1942, The Navy began accepting women into the WAVES -- that is, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. The Coast Guard and Marines soon followed suit, and by June 1943, the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps had become the WACS. In 1948, Congress passed a law marking women a permanent part of the military.

On May 29, 1943, I left for boot camp at the Naval Training Center at Hunter College in New York City. I had never before ridden on a train ahd had only been in one other state, Wisconsin. For four weeks, we endured the heat in the Bronx during Navy classes, drills, discipline and bewilderment. Studying "The Bluejacket's Manual" was a far cry from teaching fourth-grade geography. Marching on the streets of the Bronx was totally different from pitching softballs to my students.

After three weeks of study and drilling in New York, we were given a weekend of liberty. We saw the sights in New York City, including the Empire State Building, Staten Island, the Statue of Liberty, Radio City Music Hall, a Toscanini concert, tea dances at the Biltmore and Roosevelt hotels and dining at Longchamps. And we never got lost!

I was assigned to the Hospital Corps, part of the Navy Medical Department. I endured a five-day train trip to San Diego Naval Hospital, arriving there on June 30, 1943. It was on that trip that I discovered how prone I was to motion sickness.

During the first month of school at the hospital, I had classes in basic anatomy, physiology, nursing, medicine, first aid, minor surgery, hygiene and sanitation. After graduating, I was assigned to the men's orthopedic ward, where wounds were dressed, baths were given, beds were changed and medications administered. I recall "specialing" one patient who had lost a leg. Gangrene had set in, and I was assigned to stay with him after he was prescribed penicillin. Eleanor Roosevelt visiting the patients while I was there.

The hospital had a large Dependent Annex with women, children and babies of servicemen. There I did nursing duties for long hours, often working extra shifts when hospital shipts or trains came in with war casualties.

A bout with scarlet fever left me unable to continue ward duty. So next I worked as a clerical technician in the administration building at the survey and navigation offices, where the typing skills I learned at Lake City High School were put to good use.

Later I was transferred to the neuropsychiatric ward, where I typed medical histories from doctors' notes and patient interviews. Doctors don't always have the best handwriting!

WAVES lived in barracks on the hospital base, ate at the mess hall and worked hard, always ready for an extra shift.

Balboa Park, once a lovely international exposition area with a famous botanical garden, theaters and a zoo, was taken over by the Navy and became Balboa Annex. During the war, it housed doctors' offices, patient quarters and rehabilitation facilities.

Eventually I worked for various psychiatrists in their offices at Balboa Annex. The patients were Marines who were being rehabilitated to return to active duty.

Fifty years later, I returned to San Diego to find Balboa Park restored to its status as a great cultural center. I visited the San Diego Zoo and recalled working just beyond the zoo fence.

On Aug. 5, 1945, we learned that the first atomic bomb had fallen on Hiroshima, and soon after that about the one in Nagasaki.

I was working on a Marine patient ward in Balboa Annex when word came that the war was officially over. What a wonderful feeling!

My world became broader during my 29 months as a WAVE. Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima, New Guinea, Corregidor, Midway and Okinawa became familiar names.

In late November 1945, my brother Edward Sprick, an Army sergeant, received his discharge after several years in the infantry in Germany. He fought on Omaha Beach and in the Battle of the Bulge.

Now a Pharmacist Mate 2/c, I was separated from the Navy on Nov. 20, 1945, in Great Lakes, Ill. I returned to Winona State Teachers College to obtain a four-year degree in elementary education. I also earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan. Both times I was able to take advantage of the GI Bill.

Entertainers, musicians and show people flocked to the hospital to entertain the patients and staff. Bob Hope, Frances Langford, Adolph Menjou, Kay Kyser, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Eddie Bracken, Rubinoff, the Andrews Sisters, Jose Iturbi, Harpo Marx, Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney, Hoagie Carmichael, Xavier Cugat, Joan Blondell, Cary Grant, Danny Kaye and Horace Heidt were among some I saw there.

But when young Frank Sinatra came to entertain the WAVES, I declined because I had heard of all the young girls screaming, fainting and idolizing the skinny kid from New Jersey.

Fifty years later I regretted not going to that show.

I never regretted the decision to join the WAVES.

Great friendships were made during the Navy years. Regardless of background, education, wealth, status, sex or color, we were friends, united in purpose and dedication.

Women's place in society greatly changed during this period in history. Women worked in factories and in the armed forces, doing work that previously had been only in men's domain.

I learned to treasure our freedoms in America. I saw all around me what those freedoms had cost. People united in the common goal of fighting for and working for America can accomplish great things.