Mother Was a Gunner's Mate: World War II in the Waves (Bluejacket Books)

Rating:
Summary: Salty WAVE's wartime memoir
Review: Full of gung-ho patriotic fervor and a spirit of adventure, Josette Dermody joined the Navy Women's Reserve (WAVES) during World War ll. She spent the War on Treasure Island, California, training sailors of the Naval Armed Guard to use the ring gunsights of Orlikons. This is a rolicking, fast-reading journal, written in a delightfully salty first-person. The description of her training and duties is interesting, but most entertaining are the accounts of her off-duty misadventures. She and her feisty girlfriends have fun! She befriends German POW's, drinks vodka with Russian seamen, and carrouses in "Frisco" with rowdy American sailors. "You dames is nuts!" says her main admirer, a rakish and handsome bosun's mate. Through it all, her dignity remains intact and her pride in her patriotic service evident. A grand book about the "lighter side" of the War, in the tradition of "Mister Roberts" -- I reccommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Salty WAVE's wartime memoir
Review: Full of gung-ho patriotic fervor and a spirit of adventure, Josette Dermody joined the Navy Women's Reserve (WAVES) during World War ll. She spent the War on Treasure Island, California, training sailors of the Naval Armed Guard to use the ring gunsights of Orlikons. This is a rolicking, fast-reading journal, written in a delightfully salty first-person. The description of her training and duties is interesting, but most entertaining are the accounts of her off-duty misadventures. She and her feisty girlfriends have fun! She befriends German POW's, drinks vodka with Russian seamen, and carrouses in "Frisco" with rowdy American sailors. "You dames is nuts!" says her main admirer, a rakish and handsome bosun's mate. Through it all, her dignity remains intact and her pride in her patriotic service evident. A grand book about the "lighter side" of the War, in the tradition of "Mister Roberts" -- I reccommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Rave for a Wave
Review: In "Mother Was a Gunner's Mate," Josette Wingo opens the door on a fascinating chapter of World War II Navy life that few of us know much about -- even those of us who served with her in that little-known branch of the Navy, the Armed Guard. She deserves a resounding well-done!

Rating:
Summary: Rave for a Wave
Review: In "Mother Was a Gunner's Mate," Josette Wingo opens the door on a fascinating chapter of World War II Navy life that few of us know much about -- even those of us who served with her in that little-known branch of the Navy, the Armed Guard. She deserves a resounding well-done!

Rating:
Summary: Hey, Gunny!
Review: In my long and checkered career in the Navy I came to think of Gunner's Mates as large, often hulking male persons, strong of arm and often weak of hearing. I had no idea there were women who had proudly worn the Gunny rating, and who had been responsible for training many of those sea-going lads during WWII. Josette Dermody Wingo was one of them, making waves throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as she taught sailors to man the big guns from Treasure Island.

A Good Irish Catholic Girl in the best traditions, Wingo nonetheless managed to have one helluva good time on liberty "on the beach", as we Old Salts say. Lively, pretty and ready for anything that offered the promise of fun, she ran riot through a world that was at once caught in the grip of war, yet far more innocent in the ways of men and women than it is now.

In addition to the interest the professional description of her training and job embues, and it is interesting, this book is funny and endearing. It is, in short, a great read that might just educate a little about military women and the range of capabilities they've displayed while it entertains.

Rating:
Summary: Hey, Gunny!
Review: In my long and checkered career in the Navy I came to think of Gunner's Mates as large, often hulking male persons, strong of arm and often weak of hearing. I had no idea there were women who had proudly worn the Gunny rating, and who had been responsible for training many of those sea-going lads during WWII. Josette Dermody Wingo was one of them, making waves throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as she taught sailors to man the big guns from Treasure Island.

A Good Irish Catholic Girl in the best traditions, Wingo nonetheless managed to have one helluva good time on liberty "on the beach", as we Old Salts say. Lively, pretty and ready for anything that offered the promise of fun, she ran riot through a world that was at once caught in the grip of war, yet far more innocent in the ways of men and women than it is now.

In addition to the interest the professional description of her training and job embues, and it is interesting, this book is funny and endearing. It is, in short, a great read that might just educate a little about military women and the range of capabilities they've displayed while it entertains.