. . Julia Parsons volunteered for the Navy WAVES—“Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service”—in 1942 after graduating from Carnegie Tech. She studied cryptology at Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School at Smith College, and then she was ordered to Washington, D.C. for top secret duty. She joined section SHARK, whose job it was
. . When would-be aviator Mort Parker went off to join the Army Air Corps in 1940, he was so excited to have passed the vision test that his blood pressure surged, and he failed his physical. Months later, he squeaked into the Navy Air Corps with nifty paperwork that showed
. . Henry Parham served with the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only all-black unit to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Henry served in a segregated army, where African Americans were treated as second-class citizens. But to this native of Greenville, Virginia, segregation in the military
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. . ohn Opeka enlisted in the Army Air Corps in February 1942, two weeks before turning 24 years old. If he’d have waited two weeks, he would have been rejected for exceeding the age limit. “I did not want to be a foot soldier,” he says. “I made up my
. . Bob Olsen was a marine engineer in the US Merchant Marine Service during World War II. Following the war, he served in the US Naval Reserve from 1945 until 1959
