Photo By Staff Sgt. Emily Simonson | Peggy Lutz sits for a photo following an interview, March 31, 2025, in McMinnville,...... read more read more
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MCMINNVILLE, Ore. - Peggy Lutz was a first year teacher at Myrtle Point, Oregon, in 1944 when a Navy recruiter said to her, you should join the Navy.
If a recruiter had said this three years earlier, it would have been a joke. But in the face of World War II, the U.S. military began accepting women service members for the first time in its history. The Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program filled the roles left vacant in the states as more and more men deployed overseas. The women would be allowed to serve for the duration of the war, plus six months.
“The only reason that I went in the Navy was I liked their uniforms better,” Peggy said. “The Army’s [uniform] was just horrible.”
Her uniform, a dark blue jacket and shirt, hangs proudly in her home to this day.
WAVES accepted both enlisted and officers, but Peggy said she wanted to serve her country in whatever capacity they needed.
“I said, just put my name in. I'll go wherever you need.”
So, at the age of 22, Peggy Lutz enlisted in the Navy.
With 1,600 other women Peggy reported to Hunter College in New York, New York, for two days of testing to determine what roles the women would fill. Enlisted WAVES took on jobs like clerical work, health care, radio operators, yeomen, or statisticians. Peggy was assigned to air traffic control.
“And I said ‘I’ve never even been close to an airplane’,” Peggy recalled. “I have never, ever had anything to do with an airplane. How can I be suited for that?”
After completing specialized training in Atlanta, Georgia, Peggy then reported back to her home state for her first duty station at Klamath Falls Naval Air Station in southern Oregon. She served there six weeks before transferring to Naval Air Station Tongue Point in Astoria, Oregon.
Many of the men Peggy encountered during her time in the Navy were not excited to be working with women. Chief among the naysayers was the Tower First Class, who Peggy reported to. He would belittle and embarrass the women who served under him, using any misstep to justify his disdain for women in uniform.
“He just was mad that he had been given a bunch of women,” Peggy said.
The men she served alongside believed women could not do the same work as men. The pilots the tower serviced, however, did not share this belief.
“Pilots welcomed us because they liked our voice,” Peggy said. “We were easier to understand than the men, and the men got sloppy.”
“Somebody started the rumor that I had the sexiest voice in the tower,” Peggy said, laughing.
Peggy and the four other women who worked in the tower at Tongue Point built a camaraderie in the face of disparity.
“We just laughed about the fact that our work was [deemed] not as acceptable as man's work, and yet we were doing better. Actually our statistics were better.”
Petty Officer Third Class Peggy Lutz worked at Tongue Point until January 1946, six months after World War II ended and the WAVES program was disbanded. She received her separation paperwork at Sandpoint, Idaho, where she was given a $300 government check for her service, which paid for a taxi, a coat, and a phone call to tell her family she was coming home.
Peggy, like many service members throughout history, felt lost after leaving the military. While she would have liked to have continued serving, society expected women service members to go back to housekeeping and child bearing, she said. No one would hire her as a civilian in air traffic control, subject to the same prejudices as the Navy. So she took up where she left off before the war, and worked as a teacher for the next 20 years.
It has been 80 years since Peggy fulfilled her service to her country. She takes every opportunity to put her uniform on and represent the women who served in World War II. She’s walked in parades, spoken to high school students, and written numerous articles, sharing how much her service to her country means to her.
“I still, to this day, have an immense pride in my uniform, my flag,” she said.
Happy 103rd birthday, Peggy. And thank you for your service.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2025 18:47 |
| Story ID: | 494794 |
| Location: | OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 79 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, With immense pride: 103 year old Navy WAVES Veteran remembers her service to America, by SSG Emily Simonson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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