When the free world was tearing at the seams, Betty O’Connell did her part to patch it up.
In 1945, World War II raged across the Pacific, leaving countless wounded soldiers in dire need of treatment.
It was at that time that O’Connell, a Reading native, joined the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — the women’s branch of the Navy.
“One of my best girlfriends joined the WAVES. I looked up to her,” said the 99-year-old O’Connell, sharing her story as part of Women’s History Month in March. “And a lot of girls were joining.”
O’Connell left Albright College to attend basic training at Hunter College in New York City, where she learned to be a nurse’s aide.
From there, the newly minted pharmacist’s mate 2nd class shipped out to a naval hospital in Long Beach, Calif.
“We took temperatures, pulses, made beds, helped them (wounded soldiers) eat,” O’Connell said.
Her time there included ward duty at night, when O’Connell would keep watch over wounded soldiers.
“If things got bad, we would call a (head) nurse,” O’Connell said.
The WAVES
The WAVES came about during a rising tide of acceptance for women in the military, when many in the Navy and in Congress still opposed the idea of women in the service.
The proposal to establish the WAVES as an integrated branch of the Navy was hotly debated, according to the National World War II Museum.
Some military and government officials feared service in the WAVES would deprive women of their femininity. They argued women didn’t want to perform military jobs or couldn’t do them.
WAVES recruitment figures proved those suppositions wrong. In 1945, the WAVES had 73,816 enlisted women, 8,745 officers and nearly 4,000 in training, far exceeding the Navy’s projections for recruitment, the National World War II Museum said.
For O’Connell, the gender biases of some policymakers didn’t bleed into the field — she said her reception as a woman in uniform was overwhelmingly positive.
“You would think they wouldn’t like it (a woman in uniform), but it wasn’t like that,” O’Connell said. “It was all positive.”
O’Connell’s longtime friend Pat Gernert, 92, said O’Connell’s acceptance likely had to do with the nature of her work.
“I think because she was with a hospital where people were wounded, and they were glad (to be treated),” Gernert said. “I think if she was with another division, where it was competitive, I think it could’ve been a different story. But as long as I’ve known her she’s said, ‘I loved it.’”
O’Connell said she loved the people, and what she was representing.
“I think it felt like you were helping a little bit, like when the men went, we stepped in,” O’Connell said.
Although she enjoyed her 14 months in Long Beach, it wasn’t always easy for O’Connell because being on the ward meant seeing the realities of war firsthand.
“These were kids, 18, 19, younger (than me),” O’Connell said. “That was the first time I saw someone die.”
Life after service
Following the end of the war, O’Connell returned to Berks County and attended Albright College on the GI Bill.
She married Rolfe Hastings, who also left Albright during the war to serve as a Navy pilot.
They moved to Wisconsin for his work and had two sons. Hastings died of polio at age 29.
“I came home (to Berks County) with two babies, 1 and 3 (years old),” O’Connell said. “My father had a plumbing business. They made room (for us).”
She eventually married her second husband and had two more children while working clerical jobs, including for Talbot’s Knitting Mills and Wanamaker’s department store.
“As a trainer at Wanamaker’s, she touched many lives,” Gernert said. “The (military) training she went through, losing her husband, it made her disciplined. She wants the best for people.”
O’Connell said she likely would have stayed in the military if not for the educational opportunities provided by the GI Bill.
She remains strongly patriotic and believes everyone would benefit from serving in the military.
O’Connell’s stories even inspired her great-granddaughter Kalli Howarth to sign up for the Navy.
“She saw it (a picture of me in uniform) and used to ask me about it all the time,” O’Connell said.
Howarth, 20, now serves on a cruiser with the Navy at the same age as O’Connell was when she joined.
“She was just promoted to petty officer,” O’Connell said. “I hope she stays in.”
The idea of service is deeply important to O’Connell, who spent decades volunteering with organizations such as Meals on Wheels and March of Dimes.
Now living in the Highlands at Wyomissing, O’Connell still does her part to support people, visiting other residents and taking part in community activities when she can.
“She has so much kindness in her heart,” Gernert said of O’Connell. “She lifts people up.”
Source: Berkshire mont