MOTHER WAS A GUNNER'S MATE - World War II in the Waves by Wingo, Jesette Dermody

Annapolis 1994, USNI press, 1st US edition, hard bound w/dj, 6x9, Fine/Fine condition, viii, 234 pages, illustrations. ------------------------------------------ This is the engaging story of an all-American girl who leaves her patriotic kith and kin behind in Detroit to cope with the home front while she joins the navy as an enlisted Wave in World War II. Her book takes an I-was-there look at the real world of women in a man's navy during a time of national emergency. With skill and warmth, Josette Wingo recalls her basic training at Hunter College in the Bronx, gunnery school at the Great Lakes Naval Station, and her subsequent posting as a gunnery instructor at Treasure Island in California. Readers soon learn that the key to her success was the good-natured determination she used to counter entrenched attitudes about women teaching men about armaments. The Waves of World War II broke through stereotypes about women in that generation, getting the same pay and benefits that the men earned and demonstrating that women could shine in nontraditional jobs. Hailed for its great wit, style, and verve, this jaunty memoir will continue to enthrall generations to come. Josette Wingo joined the Waves in 1944 for the duration of the war and attended the University of Chicago on the GI bill. Now a grandmother, she lives, writes, and occasionally teaches in Santa Monica, California.