Mother Was a Gunner's Mate

In 1944 the U.S. Navy, fighting on two fronts and needing all the hands it could get, said "Welcome Aboard" to Josette Dermody and sent her to boot camp at Hunter College. Full of naivete and patriotic military brio, the Waves brought their own outlook to the man's world of the Navy. Dermody and her roommates learned to shoot antiaircraft guns at Great Lakes and spent the rest of the war teaching sailors of the Armed Guard Center on Treasure Island, California, to use. The ring gunsights on antiquated Oerlikons. She digested the Navy "Rocks and Shoals" and kept out of trouble (mostly). She watched German prisoners-of-war learn English from the sailors ("hubba, hubba, what a tomato, whatcha doin' tonight, sweetheart?"). She taught Russian sailors en route to Murmansk how to lead with American ringsights. She watched the United Nations Conference prepare for the peace. She celebrated V-J Day on Market Street, protected from the rioting. By her handsome, rakehell boatswain's mate. Best of all, she and her shipmates marched in the victory parades with all the others who had fought the good fight and helped win the war.