From Booklist:
In 1944, Wingo left her working-class Irish Catholic family in Detroit to join the Waves. Her 18 months of service didn't quite show her the world, but it showed her a great deal beyond her childhood home and faith, taught her about her fellow humans, and saw her assigned to one of the elite Wave units, which trained naval Armed Guard antiaircraft gunners on the West Coast. High points of her memoir include vivid portraits of her family and friends (not to mention a few enemies), the difficulties of being a woman in a service where not all men were sexist but most had to adjust to the idea of women serving, a delicate handling of a friend's gay orientation, and the memorable two-day VJ Day celebration-cum-riot in San Francisco. Equally at home in World War II, women's studies, or naval history collections and well worth welcoming to all. Roland Green
From Publishers Weekly:
In 1944, Wingo joined the Waves, the special women's branch of the U.S. Navy. Her well-written memoir of her service is in many ways typical of its genre: the shocks of basic training; the fleeting wartime romances; the anxiety as dates for shipping out approached. Wingo was trained as an anti-aircraft gunner, and at Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay she was a gunnery instructor. She and her counterparts not only crossed the military gender line but also taught men the craft of shooting down enemy planes. This work is a valuable addition to the literature on WWII and women's studies.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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