MOUNT VERNON — Sixty years ago, Mount Vernon native Kay Bell Phillips was one of thousands of women who joined the military to help during the Second World War. At that time, women were not trained for combat, nor permitted in combat areas, but performed vital supporting roles for the combat troops.
Phillips had two years of college after graduating from Mount Vernon High School, but decided that the general arts course that most young women were supposed to complete in those days wasn’t for her.
“All the boys were going into the service,” she said, “and I asked my father if I could join. After we talked about it and discussed the different branches of the service, I decided that I really wanted to join the WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. The WAVES were set up by the government at tat time as a special service. With the agreement of my family, I went to Newark, [Ohio], and was recruited.
“I went to New York City on Aug. 8, 1945, and reported to Hunter College in New York City. The government had taken that whole campus over, and a lot of the apartment buildings in the area, called flats in those days. We were barracked in one of those flats which was very close to the campus. There were 16 of us in the bunk. Because I was really a greenhorn from Ohio, it took me a little while to feel comfortable there. Some of the other girls were also a little intimidated by the big city. When we got our first leave in New York City, we thought we were hot stuff. But just in case, I got a long hat pin I could use for self defense, and one of the other girls bought a big jar of cold cream to put in her purse and use it to whack someone. We never ever had to use it, though.”
During boot camp at Hunter College, Phillips did a lot of marching. She also learned, she said, how to act, what to say, how to identify military vehicles.
“We had a class in identifying military aircraft, and got a general education of what you do in the military and how you behave,” said Phillips. “We had six weeks of that. We women got no weapons training. Women did not use weapons of any kind at that time. The WAVES never went out of the United States.”
While in boot camp, Phillips was in a choral group, and actually got to perform in Radio City Music Hall. She thought that was pretty exciting, she said. She has pursued her singing hobby and has been a member of the Sweet Adelines Dogwood Blossom Chorus for many years.
After basic training, Phillips, now a first class seaman, went on to more advanced training.
“I had thought what I wanted to do when I joined the WAVES was to be a parachute rigger,” she said. “But at that time in the war, parachute riggers were not needed, but there was a desperate need for hospital people. So we had our hospital training right there at Hunter College, too. There were probably four platoons of us. Each platoon was 60 to 80 women.
“When I was in hospital training, Admiral Nimitz was honored with a parade in New York and part of our platoon was asked to march the parade. We marched 82 blocks. That was one of the highlights of my so-called hospital training. We were exhausted by the time we got through, but we had trained for it.”
Phillips has a photograph of her platoon marching in that parade.
Following nine weeks of nurse’s aide type training, Phillips was scheduled to travel to a military hospital in Bethesda, Md., for more advanced hospital floor training. Her plans were once again altered by the needs of the service.
“I was packed and had my duffle bag and everything ready to go to the hospital in Bethesda,” she explained, “and they had a call out they needed emergency people and wanted people to go to Camp Pendleton in Ocean Side, Calif. They would take us even without floor training, they were so in need of people. By that time I was a third class pharmacist mate, and I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this,’ and ended up in Camp Pendleton, which is still there.”
Getting to Camp Pendleton from New York required a four- or five-day trip on a slow-moving train, which Phillips described as one small step up from a freight train. She said she did enjoy meeting the other military “boys and girls” on the train, and talking to people from other parts of the country.
Phillips arrived in Camp Pendleton and the hospital there two days before Christmas, 1945, a little homesick because she had never before been away from home at Christmas time.
“I reported in at a peculiar-looking clapboard covered, great big sprawling building. It was called a very romantic name, ‘Santa Margarita Ranch.’ The name sounded good on the way out on the train, but in reality ... I spent all my time in the service at that one hospital.”
Women’s uniforms in those days had no slacks option. The WAVES wore all skirts and blouses. Phillips said the issued clothing, while perhaps not very stylish, were made of the very best of fabrics. In addition to two dress blues ensembles, the women had three work uniforms of a two-piece gray-and-white-striped outfit with a baby blue collar and hat. At Pendleton, Phillips’ locker was very small, so her wardrobe was limited: Seven changes of underwear and cotton stockings; two sets of dress blues, a raincoat, three sets of work clothes and that was it except for shoes.
“The shoes were awful [as far as style goes,]” Phillips said, “but they were comfortable. ... We couldn’t have civilian clothes on base and we weren’t supposed to wear civilian clothes on weekends. I never did in New York, but in California, one of the girls in our group kept a hotel room, so we bought a couple of civilian skirts and blouses that we would keep in her room for when we got a pass. She obviously had more money than the rest of us.”
Hairstyles were also restricted. Women’s hair could not touch the collar, and that was strictly enforced.
“We had one girl with gorgeous long blonde hair,” Phillips said. “She tried to wear it up, and didn’t cut her hair when she was told to. So one day, the platoon sergeant came along undid her braids and cut her hair, snip, snip, snip.”
The food at the hospital wasn’t bad, Phillips reminisced.
“I never really complained about the food. What I remember most is the way it was served. It was served in divided metal plates. I was used to much different surroundings than the cafeteria-style. When you got up from the table, you’d go over to a corner and you’d slap it down on top of a garbage can and dump out all of the food scraps and put it on the shelf. The food was abundant, but I didn’t gain any weight. The food tasted all right, and was pretty good, probably because we were a hospital.”
Phillips’ first assignment in the hospital was the orthopedic ward, staffed by two registered nurses and four corpsmen.
“There were rows and rows of beds down this long room,” Phillips said. “I would say 24 beds on each side. Because we didn’t have much nursing training, we were told mainly just talk to the boys. Some were older than I, some were younger than I, many with broken bones due to gunshots and shrapnel wounds. We would go up to the boys and introduce ourselves and ask them about themselves. Pretty soon, they would be talking to us and holding our hand and feeling better. ... I learned by the seat of my pants how to do the [patient care] work that I did. Remember we didn’t have a lot of advanced training. I did everything from mopping floors — I promised myself I would never mop a floor again in my life — empting bedpans and things like that.”
After spending some time on the orthopedic ward, Phillips was rotated to the contagious ward.
“They explained and taught us sterile procedures,” she said. “Each man was in his cubicle and we learned how to use the gowns, mask and gloves. My first case was meningitis. They had no gamma globulin in those days. I had no protection at all, [except the sanitary procedures.] I also had patients with scarlet fever and malaria. ... I learned a lot on that floor.”
Phillips’ next rotation was to the outpatient side of the hospital, which cared for military family members.
“They put me in the baby nursery,” Phillips said, “only 24 hours after being on the contagious ward. I questioned the officer that asked me to go there because I was worried about infecting the babies. He said, ‘That’s the reason you got a 24-hour pass.’ Well, I didn’t know much, so I went ahead and worked with babies, on the night shift in the nursery. I enjoyed working with the babies.
“Then they put me on the women’s ward, which I really liked. There were a lot of Marine ladies there. A lot of them had venereal disease which we had to take care of. Most of the patients in the women’s ward were ambulatory so the work was not as demanding. ... The two nurses that were on the floors that I was on did so much clerical work. They were always at the desk, and they had the key to the narcotics cabinet. It didn’t take me long at all to learn the routines, and the nurses would say, ‘Give this patient certain medications,’ and I learned to give shots. My experience at the hospital was very educational for me, but not very exciting. But I felt that I was really doing something useful.
“I met some very nice people when I was in the service,” Phillips said. “I never had a bad experience with advances from the fellows. They were all appreciated of what we were doing, and of course, it was an entirely different age than what we have today. ... I never once felt that I was in jeopardy.”
For entertainment, Phillips took advantage of the PX and recreational facilities on the base.
“They built us a swimming pool,” she said. “And we had the same movies as the men. We had a softball team. We went to the USO. We had a lot of good USO people come and entertain. My favorite entertainer was Dean Martin. I think he came once and he was real funny. I think the Ink Spots came once, too. ... We also went into Ocean City if we had a weekend pass. We were allowed to date, and I dated some, then I met my future husband in the PX — “Bill” George William Phillips, from California. And we started going to some of the shows and movies and out for walks. He was a patient in the hospital, but not on my caseload.”
By that time, July 1947, Kay Phillips was a first class pharmacist mate, and was scheduled to be transferred to another base.
“I had signed up for the duration and six months,” she said. “Back then there was no set amount of [enlistment] time. The war was over by then, and an officer come to me and said, ‘I understand you want to get married, and now is the time to ask for a discharge, before you’re transferred, and so I was able to get an honorable discharge. ... Bill and I came back to Mount Vernon and were together for 58 years. We raised four children. I have eight grandchildren, too. I have to say I really enjoyed my Navy experience, especially because that’s where I met my husband.
“Today things are entirely different in the military,” Phillips said. “Now, women are training with regular platoons, and they go overseas and handle ammunition and weapons. It’s a whole other situation. ... I admire the women who do that today. It can’t be easy for them at all. In my day the women of the service were under a protective umbrella that very few of us ever strayed from. The atmosphere in the country was entirely different, too. Then, everybody in the country was wanting to help [with the war effort] and wanting to get on the bandwagon. We were willing to do anything we could to help. It’s entirely different today.”