Despite public relation challenges, the navy continued to depict female service members as serious, noble, feminine and patriotic. Other controversies followed when WAVE enlistees were pasted with the stereotype that they were too masculine - or the worst calumny, government-sanctioned prostitutes. Civilian women did not want their husbands, brothers, sons or fathers to go off to war. Men with stateside assignments did not automatically want to go into combat overseas. While women filled in where needed, which released men into combat, that reality was not favorable to some. At least one third of the WAVES were assigned to naval aviation duties during World War II. Thereafter a WAVE parachute rigger could jump, but was not required to do so. While the navy required the men to test the parachutes, Kathleen impressed them when she successfully and happily executed a jump. While attending parachute school at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, Kathleen Robertson influenced navy policy when she went beyond her normal duties of inspecting, repairing and packing parachutes. WAVES were not eligible for combat duty, so as more men went off to war, positions in other fields became available. Recognizing their natural talents and the ability to perform as well or better than men, the Bureau of Aeronautics restricted aviator operator positions to the WAVES in the fall of 1942.
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