A Yankee Doodle Dandy's Daughter

Book excerpt: As a teenager growing up on a farm near Healdsburg, California, MargeÕs head was filled with thoughts of proms, pranks and other school activities when the U.S. abruptly entered World War II. It was a time of great curiosity in equal measure with fear and a longing for things to return to normal. Her generation was forced to grow up fast, into a world that was never the same as it had been. Marge tells of the war years at San Jose State College, virtually an all-girls school, and her decision to join the Navy WAVES while still in college. She went off to boot camp at HunterÕs College in New York City and served on active duty at North Island Naval Air Base in San Diego, where she updated aeronautical charts for pilots and witnessed the amazing evolution from piston to jet-powered fighter aircraft. The book, sprinkled with correspondence between two WAVES, both working with airplanes, contains many original fighter plane photos taken by Marge and fellow WAVE, Jean Broadbent.