104-year-old Carmel Veteran reflects on being one of the first women in U.S. Navy

By Ricardo Tovar

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    CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, California (KSBW) — A 104-year-old Veteran reflects on her time in the Navy during World War II, a period she documented through photos and newspaper clippings.

“That was a long time ago, almost 100 years ago haha,” Anne Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen is one of the few living women recruited to fight in World War II.

“At that time, everybody in the neighborhood was getting going and everything. We all followed each other,” she recalls.

Her opportunity to leave her small town in Illinois came in 1942 with the creation of WAVES, a controversial program in Congress at the time.

“The enlistment marks the intense national drive to swell the ranks of the auxiliary,” a soundbite from the era states.

The purpose of WAVES was to relieve men from their desk-bound jobs to go out to sea, meaning many women performed clerical and health care roles.

However, training was rigorous.

“This wasn’t some lightweight. You’re just girls, just show up and be a secretary,” Mary Anne Rasmussen, Anne’s daughter, said. “They had to go through this fitness regime so that they were ready to do whatever needed to be done,” Rasmussen explains, showing a photo from her personal collection.

Ultimately, 100,000 women joined the Navy through WAVES.

“Everybody in it were good people working hard,” Anne said.

After the war, the influx of women in the Navy continued.

Rasmussen went on to have five children, two of whom also joined the Navy.

Now, her children are spread out, and she lives at Carmel Cottages, a small assisted-living community on the Central Coast.

“The Navy…I loved the Navy,” she says, her love of service is still strong.

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