Nell Smith Lutz Collection
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Nell Smith Lutz and female navy service member
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Nell Smith Lutz (left, in civilian clothing) and a fellow member of the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) walk side by side. The servicewomen is dressed in a blue WAVES officer's service dress "b" uniform and service cap.
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Nell Smith Lutz at desk
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Nell Smith Lutz is seated at a desk, where she is filling out a daily balance sheet as a part of her disbursing duties for the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Lutz is wearing the seersucker working uniform with ensign insignia on her collar.
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Oral history interview with Nell Smith Lutz
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Primarily discusses Nell Smith Lutz's service in the supply corps of the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II. Lutz briefly discusses her childhood in Florida and education at Florida State College for Women. She then describes her desire to join the WAVES, including the influence of WAVES recruiters and her parents' reactions. Lutz discusses her feelings on freeing a man to fight; servicemen's reactions to WAVES; basic training and supply school, include arriving at Northampton, Massachusetts; physical tests; training with gas masks; taking liberty to Boston and New York City; a humorous story about inspection; details about supply school at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts; and a story about being caught out of uniform in the kitchen at Radcliffe College." Topics from her time at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, include working with servicemen; hiking with fiancé Frank Lutz in the Great Dismal Swamp; and stories about Captain R. H. Johnson and Admiral Felix Gygax. Topics from her time at Glynco, Georgia, include employing German prisoners of war; accidentally flooding a men's quarter; visiting friend Laura Anderton at Northampton; and waiting for a replacement to be found so she could be discharged. Other topics include music she recalls from her time in the service; VE and V-J Days; and her opinions on Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt." Post-war and personal topics include Lutz's adjustment to civilian life; the birth of her children; what she gained from her time in the service; and her feelings on women in combat positions.
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Two WAVES and a civilian man on a bench
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Nell Smith Lutz (right, in service dress blue uniform) and fellow WAVE Anne Cox Worth sit on a outdoor bench in Raleigh, N.C. John S. Cox, father of Anne Cox, sits in between then with one arm around each. Anne Cox Worth is dressed in a white rayon dress shirt and blue skirt.
