What is Waves: Definition and 1000 Discussions

The United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), better known as the WAVES (for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), was the women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. It was established on July 21, 1942 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 30. This authorized the U.S. Navy to accept women into the Naval Reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments. Mildred H. McAfee, on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. She was commissioned a lieutenant commander on August 3, 1942, and later promoted to commander and then to captain.
The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in the Congress or by the Navy, even though some of the lawmakers and naval personnel did support the need for uniformed women during World War II. Public Law 689, allowing women to serve in the Navy, was due in large measure to the efforts of the Navy's Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States.
To be eligible for officer candidate school, women had to be aged 20 to 49 and possess a college degree or have two years of college and two years of equivalent professional or business experience. Volunteers at the enlisted level had to be aged 20 to 35 and possess a high school or a business diploma, or have equivalent experience. The WAVES were primarily white, but 72 African-American women eventually served. The Navy's training of most WAVE officer candidates took place at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Specialized training for officers was conducted on several college campuses and naval facilities. Most enlisted members received recruit training at Hunter College, in the Bronx, New York City. After recruit training, some women attended specialized training courses on college campuses and at naval facilities.
The WAVES served at 900 stations in the United States. The territory of Hawaii was the only overseas station where their staff was assigned. Many female officers entered fields previously held by men, such as medicine and engineering. Enlisted women served in jobs from clerical to parachute riggers. Many women experienced workplace hostility from their male counterparts. The Navy's lack of clear-cut policies, early on, was the source of many of the difficulties. The WAVES' peak strength was 86,291 members. Upon demobilization of the officer and enlisted members, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz all commended the WAVES for their contributions to the war effort.

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  1. samy4408

    B Question about electromagnetic waves -- Penetration vs. Frequency

    I read in a book that high frequency electromagnetic waves are more able to penetrate than low ones , so why radio waves can penetrate walls when light cannot?
  2. N

    I Curved space and gravitational waves

    Are gravitational waves purely temporal? An object with no spatial velocity experiences gravity due to temporal velocity?
  3. V

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  4. V

    Reflection of sound wave in an open organ pipe

    I know that standing waves form in an open organ pipe. Since, standing waves can only form from superposition of original wave and reflected wave, so there must be a reflected wave in an open organ pipe. But I fail to understand how sound wave can reflect at the open end of organ pipe.
  5. A

    Facts about waves - UK BMAT exam question

    To me, they all look incorrect. Oh hang on. Ultrasonic waves. I misread that. It's no 6 then.
  6. V

    Direction of motion of points on a rope as a wave travels

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  7. Dinarchik

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  8. Remixex

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  9. jaumzaum

    I Radio waves and height gain in fading zones

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  10. Ray McDavis

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  11. Grinkle

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  12. G

    I Information content in electromagnetic or gravitational waves

    Electromagnetic or gravitational wave carries energy and momentum from place to place as,I understand.Does it imply that such waves only can carry information and if their energy gets dissipated as heat, the information contained is lost. Is this information content is to be decoded by human...
  13. D

    I Frequency of EM waves in classical and quantum physics

    in classical physics, when a charged particle oscillates, it emits an electromagnetic wave, and the frequency of the wave depends on the frequency with which the particle oscillates. But in quantum physics, when an excited atom emits a photon, the energy of the photon depends on the magnitude of...
  14. warhammer

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  15. physicslover2012

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  16. LarryS

    I Check out this YouTube video on EM waves in free space

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  17. ergospherical

    I How do submarines communicate with radio waves?

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  18. H

    A Surface waves and vorticity in 2D

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  19. U

    Help with a calculation about gravitational waves

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  20. jtbell

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  21. Twigg

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  22. S

    I Does the double slit experiment show waves collapse when observed?

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  23. B

    I Why aren't Gravitational waves factored in to inflation formulas?

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  24. L

    I Micro Sound Waves: Can 1 Hear What Only Another Can?

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  25. C

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  26. T

    Why Does Rain Create Waves on My Street? - Investigating Fluid Mechanics

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  27. Z

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  28. Andreea007

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  29. B

    I A Question About Shock Waves From an Airplane

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  30. LCSphysicist

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  31. A

    I How do gravitational waves differ from the expansion of the Universe?

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  32. M

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  33. cianfa72

    I Detecting Gravitational Waves w/ Interferometers: Explained

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  34. B

    Interference pattern of a fan of plane waves

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  35. A

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  36. S

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  37. Dom Tesilbirth

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  38. A

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  39. S

    Classical Waves books -- Looking for better textbooks to augment my class materials

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  40. P

    B Cryogenic storage dewars and EM waves

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  41. MichaelTam

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  42. person123

    I Water Waves Over Obstacles: Higher Frequencies Grow, Not Decay

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  43. Poetria

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  44. P

    B Question re photons/EM waves and the double slit experiment

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  45. O

    I Momentum in electromagnetic waves

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  46. S

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  47. M

    Standing waves between two speakers in phase

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  48. Barblorrane

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