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Elizabeth Reynard, Dean Gildersleeve and the advisory council spearheaded a campus blitzkrieg. For their key officers they were frankly looking for the best products of the colleges. "We had to," Miss Reynard explains. "We had to have the best to set the tone." That selectivity, they are convinced, was another factor in the success of the WAVES.
No Glamor Girls. They profited by earlier mistakes made by the WACs. The WACs had used a publicity man's appeal to get results. Many a glamor girl got in a WAC recruiting line just for the gag. The WAVES hewed to a line that was dignified and stern. On one occasion a Brooklyn reporter heckled Miss Mac for a story on WAVE underwear. What was going to be regulation lingerie? Miss Mac set her teeth; the Navy did not care what the WAVES wore under their uniform. The reporter finally gave up. There was no story on WAVE underwear.
She took the transition into a world where "men are men" in her stride. At first the Navy's odd terminology baffled her. She was taken aback when a male officer, discussing uniforms for WAVES. said he thought they should be designed so that blouses could be removed in the office. When another officer talked about "procuring" 10,000 women, Miss Mac's eyebrows climbed. But she quickly caught on.
She quickly caught on to everything.
Beyond genial Vice Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of Naval Personnel, the idea of women in the Navy had few champions. The harumphs of the admirals on Constitution Avenue could be heard all the way to Arlington.
Certain Niceties. Unruffled Miss Mac adapted herself to Navy ways and used her wit to tactical advantage. At a Navy Day dinner in Manhattan the star of the speakers was Captain Mildred McAfee. With some misgivings, she salted her speech with a story of a British poster which WACs in England had hung in their barracks. The poster, she explained, was designed to make Britons appreciate the sacrifices of their soldiers. It showed a figure in bed under warm blankets while a British Tommy looked on from a muddy foxhole. The caption was: "This man would like to be in your bed tonight." The Admirals roared.
WAVES were given more comfortable quarters than Navy men are used to. "There are certain niceties it would be lovely for men to have too," Miss Mac said. "But if women don't have them their efficiency is jeopardized." One of those niceties was stall compartments for bunks, giving an effect of privacy. This was not pampering. Dr. Overholser, who has the job of caring for psychoneurotics among WAVES, thought that lack of privacy might be one factor in mental crackups among girls in uniform.
Miss Mac also insisted on lounges for WAVE barracks. Men are permitted in these recreation rooms because, as Miss Mac says, "it usually takes two to achieve recreation."
Life in the Navy. As for Miss Mac, she lives alone—in a studio apartment in Washington. She does only what cooking is necessary. "It was a major event in my life when I learned to make a tossed salad." She reads herself to sleep. Her social life is moderately paced.