She remembers working on the second floor of a two-story building that was surrounded by guards 24/7. where she spent more than two years as a "Specialist Q" cryptographer, transcribing codes and ciphers used in secret war communications, and became a petty officer first class. Guthrie went to Hunter College in the Bronx for indoctrination, then attended yeoman school for several months at Oklahoma University, where she graduated in the top 40 of 400 students. The program invited women to temporarily fill some wartimes needs, in order to shift existing servicemen into different roles. So she did, leaving home for the first time to join a second round of women recruited to a new division known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), which was a result of the signing of the Navy Women's Reserve Act. "And I said, 'you know, I feel patriotic tonight, I think I'll just go ahead and join.'" "They started talking to me about the Navy and how wonderful it was and everything," Guthrie said.
Guthrie was sitting on the front steps of her family's home one evening in 1943 when two Navy recruiters approached her with a pitch to enlist and serve the country's World War II efforts. Watch Video: 'I enjoyed every minute': WWII veteran Hellen Guthrie reflects on serviceĪnother summer day had gone by in Spencer, Indiana, and Hellen Guthrie was bored.
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