While the WAACs drilled and paraded in Fort DesMoines, President Roosevelt signed into existence their sisters under the uniform: the Women's Naval Reserve, to be conveniently known as WAVES.*
When Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels was hard pressed for clerical workers just before the U.S. entered World War I, he gave his legal advisers a knowing look: forthwith they decided that a yeoman need not be male. This led to 11,275 yeomanettes in the U.S., France,
Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, Guam and Hawaii by the time of the Armistice. There were also 300 marinettes or Marine Corps girls....
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