The First WAVES Graduate Radio School

However, a new problem, this time focusing on the female Radio School students, soon appeared. In January 1943, the Bureau of Naval Personnel forwarded a convening and graduation schedule which indicated that the first WAVES class would graduate shortly and, beginning in February, would be replaced by successive monthly increments of 120 until, in May, an onboard count of 480 would again exist. This caused comptroller Peterson an active case of accountant's indigestion because contracts as written assumed both full and consistent loading of the WAVES classes—another strike against the Radio School in the eyes of the university.

On 28 January 1943, the first WAVES graduated in ceremonies at the Union Theater. Of 292 graduates, 112 received their third-class “crows” (promoted to petty officer third class), almost 40 percent (approximately double the rate of men's classes to date). Thirty-nine members of the class transferred into the Coast Guard Spars (women Marines would be among future graduates from the school as well). The day was a significant media event that CBS radio broadcast and newsreel cameramen covered. The list of rated honor graduates included socialites Edith Gould and Emily Saltonstall. The remainder of the class not graduating that day would continue their studies toward the required code speed of 18 words per minute. J.L. Mi1ler had his doubts about the “emotiona1 stability” of the WAVES but hoped to graduate 50-60 of the 107 held for further training. Final results for the WAVES class recorded approximately 76 percent graduates (compared to about 69 percent for men) and an overall 24.5 percent honor graduate rate (compared to 13 percent for men).

February 1943

On 17 February 1943, the Navy, after evaluation of data contained in Wisconsin’s response to the December 1942 questionnaire, advised Dykstra of its interest in exploring the possibility of the university’s participation in V-12. Dykstra was elated, and he immediately and characteristically committed the university by stating, “The University of Wisconsin is prepared to undertake these curricula as set up.” In addition, he was also actively seeking a reduction in the size of the radio school to accommodate Army and Navy College students. The Army quickly committed to sending ASTP students to the university, but the Navy moved slowly. Hearing no word from the Navy by March, Dykstra again stirred the pot, writing to Rear Admiral Jacobs of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (formerly Bureau of Navigation) and to chairman E.C. Elliott of the Joint Committee for the Selection of Non-Federal Educational Institutions. Dykstra was more interested in the Navy program because of its use of the semester system versus the Army’s quarter plan, and he particularly emphasized the interest of his engineering faculty in the Navy’s engineering curricular plan.

Dykstra’s insistence may have paid dividends because the Joint Committee did select Wisconsin for a Navy V-12 Engineering Unit, but it did not select the University for a V-l2 Basic Unit (first two terms of college). Thus, the size of the fall 1943 freshman class was threatened because V-l was to terminate on 1 July. Again, the president tried to come to the aid of his faculty, and, in evident frustration, he wrote again to Rear Admiral Jacobs:

"The University is anxious to serve the Navy but we honestly believe that with the record we have made for the Navy the University of Wisconsin is entitled to have a contingent of basic V-12 men assigned to us at the earliest possible moment. We have held our staff assuming that we would have such an assignment. If serving the Navy to date means that we cannot serve it on the collegiate level then we feel rather considerably frustrated and disappointed. Would it be possible for you to recommend to the assigning committee that the University of Wisconsin be allowed a V-12 basic program and that we be notified at the earliest possible moment in order that we may tell members of the staff what they should be thinking about for the coming semester?”

RADM Jacobs responded, "In addition to the Navy programs already in force at the University we should like to use the medical school for training medical officer candidates, and probably shall wish to use some of the engineering facilities.” Additionally, he noted that the Navy would not assign programs that were similar to those of the ASTP already assigned to the campus. No V-12 basic! Unwilling to surrender, Dykstra shifted his campaign to a new front.

During one of his frequent trips to Washington, Dykstra personally called on Admiral William D. Leahy, Wisconsin resident as a youth, former Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, former Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff to FDR, and prospective recipient of an honorary degree from the UW at its May 1943 commencement. Leahy, a friend of the state and the university, contacted Rear Admiral Louis E. Denfield, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and asked him to look over the possibilities. Denfield replied that the Army did not desire both Army and Navy basic training in the same school and specifically objected to the Navy establishing a V-12 basic unit on the Madison campus. Leahy told Dykstra of the dim possibilities but noted that Denfield promised to "keep after it."

April - May 1943

On 30 April, RADM Denfield informed Dykstra that the Navy planned to send to the university 450 V-12 engineering students on 1 July 1943.  Dykstra's reply committed the university to accept the 450, raised questions about the unaddressed matter of the possible assignment of V-12 medical students, and, significantly, shifted his Radio School attack to proposing only the removal of the women's classes (Dykstra feared the Navy might remove the entire Radio School without increasing the number of V-12 students, thus leaving some 1200 dormitory spaces unused).  The president continued to press for the assignment of a V-12 basic unit. Although he frequently mentioned his concern that students already enrolled under Navy V programs on the campus be allowed to continue their studies at the university, his real concern was generating work for the regular faculty.

In late May, Rear Admiral Denfield informed Dykstra that the Navy absolutely would not assign a V-12 basic unit to the university. He suggested, however, that the Navy might consider moving a portion of the Radio School (i.e. the women) elsewhere if this would make possible a corresponding increase in Army basic students. Similarly, a letter from the Joint Committee confirmed that the power play for a V-12 basic unit had also failed to move that body. In the meantime, ADM Leahy proudly accepted his honorary degree. The university would later use again the Leahy-Denfield connection, rather more successfully, in its continuing search for an NROTC unit.

Radio School at Capacity - But A Change is Needed

Despite the presence of lingering frictions between civilian and military groups and the temporary dip in the number of WAVES assigned, by May the Radio School was again operating at capacity (1200 men, 480 women). The school was permanently using space in the Blackhawk "Building,” the stadium, and the Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Soils, and Extension buildings. Space used part-time included rooms in Agriculture, Sterling, and Bascom Halls, and in the Biochemistry, Horticulture, Agronomy, and Agriculture Engineering buildings, among others. By this time, however, Dykstra was actively in pursuit of Army and Navy college programs that would better employ regular faculty.

Faced with probable commitments of assignments by both services in excess of room and board assets, he began to lobby for the reduction or removal of the Radio School. "Is it not of greater value to the Navy to use the University of Wisconsin for higher educational training where the regular faculty could be employed, rather than to have dormitory space occupied by radio students necessitating a different faculty particularly in view of the fact that such radio training could be supplied efficiently at smaller colleges."

The Push for NROTC at Wisconsin

The possibility of obtaining an NROTC unit had remained a concern for the University, and eventual success can in part be attributed to the decision to solicit the active help and support of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt’s White House Chief of Staff. The son of an early graduate of the University, Leahy had spent his boyhood in Wausau and Ashland, Wisconsin, and won an appointment to the Naval Academy from the state. Leahy enjoyed an extremely successful career in the Navy, rising to the rank of admiral and eventually becoming the Chief of Naval Operations. After retirement in 1939, he served as governor of Puerto Rico and as U.S. ambassador to Vichy France. In July of 1942, President Roosevelt recalled Leahy to active duty as “Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief.” A post he held for nearly seven years. Shortly after Leahy's recall to Washington, Joseph W. Jackson wrote to President Dykstra proposing an honorary degree for the Admiral. Dykstra supportively replied (even affirming that he had independently thought about doing this) and promised to present the idea to the chair of the faculty Honorary Degrees Committee, William H. Kiekhefer. Leahy's name went before the committee in December, and the faculty approved the degree in March of 1943. Leahy was pleased and honored, and in his reply noted that Wisconsin "should have been my alma mater as it was my father's had not the spirit of adventure lured me away to the sea at the exact time when my father had planned that I should enter the University.” At the 29 May Commencement Leahy received his LL. D, escorted by no less than Dean Emeritus George Clarke Sellery. A formal military review followed in the stadium, conducted by the personnel of the University's Naval Training Schoo1, including the WAVE contingent.

Leahy's remarks on receiving his degree indicated both his pleasure and the fact that the university had gained a friend at the highest levels of government. “Today I am again with my own people. ...I am certain there is now, no better place in the world than the University of Wisconsin for a youth to obtain that personal self-reliance, the love of liberty, and that superior understanding with his fellow citizens in all walks of life, with which my father was indoctrinated here, which makes a true American in whatever far part of the world he may be encountered." To an extent, the honor given to the Admiral was recognition of his support of the university's earlier attempt to gain the assignment of a V-12 basic program. By the end of May, the V-12 basic cause was lost, but in two years Leahy would provide important and effective service in securing the award of the long-sought-for NROTC unit.

Commander Leslie Pollard, the commander of the UW Naval Training Schools kept the NROTC cause visible during the interim period. In a 1943 Navy Day address on radio station WHA, he stated, “We hope the people of this state will become such strong friends of the navy they will continue after the war to maintain at the University of Wisconsin a naval training unit as one of Wisconsin’s contributions to our national security.” On 1 November, the Wisconsin State Journal echoed Pollard's plea when it editorialized, “Many universities have been able to offer their students naval ROTC training. There appears no sound reason why Wisconsin should not join them. The campus is ideally situated, and it is quite likely that after this war, neither army nor navy will be forced to bear the political carping and kicking around to which the ROTC was subjected by LaFollette politicians for so many years.”

July 1943 V-12 Arrives

After negotiating the necessary contracts with the university, on 1 July the Navy formally initiated the university's V-12 program, under the command of Commander Pollard, and authorized the 450-man engineering unit. However, it was the Army that finally came to the rescue in the problem of further expanding military college program instruction on the campus. In July, the Army asked the university to take some 800 trainees, divided among area and language studies (basic phase) and advanced engineers, for college instruction beginning in September. Dykstra, no doubt with a sense of relief, at once took up Denfield's Radio School reduction offer. He formally asked the Navy to reduce the Radio School by 450-500 students, thus permitting the expansion of the Army student contingent. He was meeting his objectives for increased faculty load and the women’s Radio School was the inevitable casualty. Ironically, the Radio School later expanded to fill the void left by the May 1944 termination of ASTP instruction on the campus. At that time, the campus men's halls were all Navy.

The university also received the promised V-12 Medical Unit of approximately 100. The Navy treated students in this program differently than those in the line officer curricula. Medical V-12 students could marry, did not participate in compulsory physical training, and, as Reserve Midshipmen of the medical corps, wore officer-candidate uniforms rather than sailor garb. Additionally, they received allowances for quarters and messing. The university also provided instruction to Army medical trainees in a similar program.

Registrar records for the V-12 years provide general summary data about the size of V-12 programs on the campus:

Academic Year 43-44

• 656 V-12 undergraduates (including attrition and replacement)

• 87 V-12 medical students

Academic Year 44-45

• 423 V-12 undergraduates

• 91 V-12 medical students

Academic Year 45-46

• 418 V-12 undergraduates

• 96 V-12 medical students

Once established, the Wisconsin V-12 program operated very smoothly. For example, the inspecting officer for the third V-12 term stated, “The University’s long record of cooperation with the Navy remains unimpeachable. There appear to be gathered together on this campus all factors essential to a successful V-12 Unit: excellent housing and messing, compact and well centered; good administration, University and Navy; and close cooperation between Navy and University."

Wisconsin's V-12 engineers served on active duty as enlisted apprentice seamen. They lived on the shores of Lake Mendota and subsisted in the Kronshage dormitory complex.

Summer 1943 Change Afoot for the Radio School

In ensuing discussions involving the university, the Navy, and the Army, the WAVES Radio School became the focus of attention. By July agreement was all but reached that the assignments of WAVES could cease, and through graduation and attrition, sufficient dormitory space would become available to permit the university to accept the projected Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) loading and the 450 Navy V-12 engineering students tentatively slated.

In August, the change became official. The Navy intended to reduce the size of the radio school to 1,000, removing the WAVES and reducing the male quota to 250 per month. Writing in thanks to the training division director in the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Dykstra said, “Sentimentally, we all hate to see the WAVES go, because we have enjoyed their presence here. Practically, however, this is a very good solution of our problem.” Dykstra clearly felt more relief than sentiment.  The WAVES would be gone by December.

December 1943 WAVES Attending Radio School Ends

The first WAVES radio school on a college campus expired officially on 14 December 1943 as 54 WAVES and women Marines moved out of Chadbourne Hall and departed the campus. In its 14 months, the women's school had enrolled 1,179 WAVES, Spars, and women Marines. Of these, 929 graduated (750 WAVES, 96 Spars, 83 Marines). A total of 410 of the graduates received ratings.  Army ASTP students moved into Chadbourne (Barnard Hall was already home to civil affairs training program officers, ROTC men, and ASTP trainees). For many on the campus and in the community, the emphasis on that day was sentiment, including not a few tears. Women's naval radio school training continued at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.