Like
Anne J. Wells Oral History
Publication date: 20 August 2024
File metadata
Dublin Core Metadata
title:
Anne J. Wells Oral History
creator:
Wells, Anne Nancy Jessup (Edgar) (1923 June 2 - )
subject:
Navy WAVES
description:
Anne Nancy Wells (formerly Edgar, born Jessup) was born on June 2, 1923 in Wilmington, Delaware. She graduated from Friends School before attending Mills College in California, reaching the end of her first semester when Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941. Although her parents didn’t pull her out of school like others did, she returned to Wilmington herself with the hope of contributing anything she could to the war effort. When she came back home, her father told her that she could learn to fly like she wanted if she completed a secretarial course first, so she completed the course at Goldey College and went to Embry-Riddle School of Aviation in Florida. Unfortunately, she completed that program when WASPs stopped accepting new recruits and was disbanded in 1944. Instead, she enlisted in the Navy WAVES in November 1944 and went to boot camp at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York. After completing basic training, she was sent to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland for advanced training as a flight orderly. Her first assignment was out of that station, flying on a route going from Miami, to Gardner, to Newfoundland. After some time there, she was assigned to the Oakland Naval Air Station in California and flew between Oakland and Honolulu, which she enjoyed much more. Towards the end of her service, she remembers transporting home POWs who had been released from Japanese prison camps. She remained at this station until her discharge in May 1946, after which she returned to Wilmington on a nonstop, two-and-a-half-day road trip with another discharged WAVE. When she left the service Wells had reached the rank of seaman 1st class, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.
publisher:
Military Women's Memorial Foundation
contributor:
Grotz, Dorothy
date:
1988-01-29
type:
Audio
format:
Cassette
identifier:
982; 1988.982
source:
NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk
language:
English
relation:
159928
coverage:
World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46
rights:
Unrestricted