Grace B. Taylor

On December 7, 1941, Grace Taylor was living in a new home that she and her husband had just built in the New Jersey beach town of Sea Girt when she heard the news about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She recalled that, “It was appalling. The mood of the country was that we were very surprised that anyone would attack us, although today it isn’t so. Today we expect it every minute. We didn’t talk much about the war until it happened, and when my husband came home one night and said he would like to go into the service, I said if you do, then I would too.” Soon after that conversation, her husband and his brother drove her to the navy enlistment office in New York City. And on November 8,1942 thirty-two-year-old Grace Taylor enlisted in the United States Navy.

The Navy was appealing to Taylor. She liked what they offered, and explained how she became an officer. As a civilian, Taylor was teaching United States History, American Democracy and Mathematics at Manasquan High School in New Jersey. She had acquired several postgraduate degrees during her teaching career. When a Navy recruiter asked her how she had obtained them, Taylor answered “I worked for them.” She was asked if she could come back the next day for another interview, to which she responded, “Sure.”

Taylor recalled that: “Everything was new and exciting, and I went in thinking I would go into the enlisted ranks”; but, during her second interview, she was told that she was selected to be an Ensign — a commissioned officer. She finished her teaching obligation at the high school; and, in the late fall of 1942, she was sent to a United States Navy women’s boot camp in New Hampshire.

Taylor remembered that,” Boot camp was about three months long and well organized.” She described a typical day: “It was cold, very cold up there. We were up at 5:30 each morning; and, the first thing was physical training and then breakfast and then classes. After the indoctrination phase the classes were mainly on administration and Naval History. Although we were not allowed to go to a lot of places, we were treated very special. It was new for the services, including the Navy, to have so many women. They had women before, but not in these numbers.” Taylor was the only officer candidate in the entire class.

After boot camp in New Hampshire, Taylor was sent to a navy base in Jacksonville Florida. She said, “I was the last one to receive duty orders. I was frantic, as I thought they had forgotten me.” At Jacksonville, the women had classes in the morning, then were assigned clerical duties in the afternoon. The barracks were long wooden structures with two women to a room, and a bathroom at the end of the hall. Taylor remembered the quarters, “As feminine as you could get with barracks. It was very pleasant; we enjoyed them. The Navy surprised me.” After completing training at Jacksonville, the women were sent to other stations for their assigned military duties.

Taylor was assigned to Naval Air Station Daytona Beach as Administrative Officer in charge of more than 100 Navy WAVES. She was responsible for assigning duties of all the WAVES on base. Some were in clerical positions, some in the medical dispensary and others had duties near the planes on the landing field. Taylor recalled an accident when a woman was killed by a plane’s spinning propeller as “a very sad incident.” 

Taylor’s desk was outside the office of the Commanding Officer. She recalled: “If any girl got in trouble, like the boys did, I had to be there. The barracks were like any other barracks, but the officers had their own rooms, while the enlisted women bunked together, and they had problems.” She remembered that “some girls had to be released from the navy because they did not fit, some couldn’t conform, and some couldn’t live with others.”

Taylor liked her uniforms, remembering “the blue suit and-seersucker uniforms looked very neat. We had inspection every Saturday morning. We wore white. The girls would line up in front of the administration building, and I walked alongside the Company Commander. I was his right-hand man!” The inspection included the barracks and even the latrines.

There were no navy ships at Daytona Beach, as it was strictly a Naval Air Base. Taylor recalled flying on the planes many times; once she lost her hat: “My hat flew out the window, so the first thing I did upon landing was to go get a hat, because I was out of uniform. The Commander had to stay with me until I got another hat.” Another military rule forbade an officer from walking alone with an enlisted person. The rule became a problem for Taylor whenever her husband came to visit her. He was not yet an officer, and she had to get an enlisted woman to walk with her and her husband until he graduated from Officer Candidate School!

Taylor recalled buying a horse from an officer who had been transferred to another base. “The horse was fed and corralled by the station. I just rode him around the base. I did not know the horse was a jumper; so, one time he jumped with me on him, and I rolled off and fractured my sacrum.” She said that: “The medical care was wonderful.” While she was recovering from her injury at the dispensary, ” … they would bring the horse to my window, so I could see him. When I was transferred to Miami, I sold the horse to another officer.”

Taylor was an aide to the Company Commander at the Miami Navy Base when the war in Europe and Japan ended. She stayed in the Navy, recalling: ” My husband got out of the service, but I didn’t want to leave the navy, so I requested an assignment to the naval air base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.” At Lakehurst, Taylor was once again in charge of all the Navy WAVES at the base. She served at Lakehurst for three years until 1949, and had reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander when she received her Honorable Discharge from active duty in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Taylor remembered riding in a Navy blimp at Lakehurst, and recalled an incident while she was up in a blimp that was attached to its mooring, when all the crew members had to leave because of an emergency on the field, while she was left to float in the blimp by herself, although the blimp was still attached to the mooring. After her discharge, she served in the Navy Reserves for six years, then retired.

After leaving active duty from the Navy, Taylor returned to teaching in New Jersey, then went on to become school principal at two schools in Wall Township. She used her GI Bill Benefits by going to an Interior Decorating School in New York City. Taylor believed that young women of today would benefit from the service experience, particularly in the Navy, fondly saying “I have a soft spot for the blue uniform.”

Grace B. Taylor passed away in Wall Township New Jersey on February 19, 2006. She was ninety-five years old. Her Asbury Park Press obituary noted that: “Until her illness in late 2004, she remained in contact with many former Navy personnel… she recounted her World War II-era military experiences in a recorded interview with the National Guard Museum of New Jersey, located in Sea Girt…. Aunt Grace, as she was affectionately known to most, always had a smile for those she met and was a lady, never speaking ill of anyone… She will be greatly missed, for she was a truly unique individual, greatly loved and respected.”