In recognition of Women’s History Month in March, NAS Public Affairs recognizes Lt.j.g. Kathleen L. Hentz, USNR, as the first WAVES officer to report for permanent duty at the air station as publicized in the Aug. 18, 1945 “Prop Wash” newspaper . WAVES were Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

She came from the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), Navy Department, Washington, D.C., following a yearlong tour of duty there. Hentz was assigned to the Air Navigation Training Unit at Ault Field, NAS Whidbey Island.

Hentz, whose parents Dr. and Mrs. Roger P. Hentz, lived at the Veterans Administration Facility, Ft. Custer, Battle Creek., Mich., at the time, and had been in the Navy for 22 months. Before joining the Navy, she was a high school teacher employed by the Board of Public Education, West Orange, New Jersey. Hentz was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.