LTJG Rosa Miller Joyce Oral History Side B

title:

LTJG Rosa Miller Joyce Oral History Side B

creator:

Joyce, Rosa Miller (Hobbs) (1919 August 2 - )

subject:

Navy WAVES

description:

Side 2 of 2. Rosa M. Joyce (formerly Hobbs) was born on August 2, 1919 in Selma, Alabama. After graduating from high school, she attended Randolph-Macon Women’s College and was enrolled in Columbia University as a graduate student when the United States enter World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she and everyone else she knew tried to get involved in the war effort one way or another, and she initially did so by learning typing and shorthand to do war work. She took the civil service exam and worked as a routing clerk for the War Production Board. She was there for only two months when her father told her about the Navy WAVES opening soon, and she signed up for it as soon as applications could be submitted in August 1942. She was accepted and went to the first-ever WAVES officer’s training at Smith College in Massachusetts. She remembers this training included Dorothy Stratton and Winnifred Quick, who went on to head the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve and Coast Guard SPARS respectively. After finishing her training, she was assigned to the Office of Naval Officer Procurement to assist in the publication of WAVES recruitment material and participate in live recruitment efforts at shows, talks, civic clubs, and more in the DMV area. These efforts were aimed at the women themselves, but also often at parents to convince them their daughters would be safe in the service. Her next station was in New Orleans, Louisiana at the 8th Naval District headquarters in the Investigative Division. Here, she would search through Navy records and intelligence files for relevant information on men who applied for commissions into the Navy. Her husband was also stationed in New Orleans at the time, so she was dismayed when ordered to Dallas, Texas to open a WAVES recruiting office while her husband remained in New Orleans. She and her husband married in April 1943 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and got some national press coverage because they were the first Navy couple given permission to marry after the ban on intra-branch marriage was lifted. Life Magazine didn’t end up covering it, however, because she was getting married in a wedding dress rather than in uniform. She resigned honorably before the war ended to have she and her husband’s first child. When she left the service Joyce had reached the rank of lieutenant junior grade, and for her service she was awarded and American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Ames, Josephine

date:

1991-04-11

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

51.030

source:

NSCD |

language:

English

relation:

441240

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945)

rights:

Unrestricted