Biography of Dorothy Riehle Call
Y2/C, Bureau of Aeronautics, Washington DC, U.S. Waves, USN, WWII
My principal duty station was the Navy Department Bureau of Aeronautics, Design and Development Section of the Engineering Department in Washington D.C. My most memorable experience was being assigned to the Experimental Section as a confidential secretary to a U.S. Navy Captain and a U.S. Marine Corps Colonel who alternated tours of duty to do field testing and to evaluate the performance of naval aircraft. I transcribed that information and, because I was cleared for security, the physical transportation of sensitive documents.
During WWII, my two brothers and I enlisted in the Navy from the state of Iowa. As a coincidence, all three of us were assigned to naval aviation. My older brother, Fred Riehle, earned to rate of Aviation Machinist's Mate; my younger brother, Bob Riehle, earned the rank of Ensign and was an aircraft carrier pilot; and I earned the rate of Yeoman 2/c assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics.
I enlisted as an Apprentice Seaman V-10 USNR and completed my basic training at the U.S. Naval Training Station, Hunter College, Bronx, New York. During the "normal" indoctrination into Navy ways, each candidate was screened through aptitude and interest tests. I was assigned to the Naval Training Station(Yeoman) at Stillwater, Oklahoma for six weeks and was then assigned to the U.S. Naval Barracks in Washington D.C. My work was very interesting and challenging. The naval personnel with whom I served were of high quality and character. I consider it a distinct privilege and honor to have been a member of the U.S. Navy Waves in World War II.
One event occurred during the war that I have not been able to get out of my mind for 49 years. I met my husband. Bob, in Washington D.C.. He was introduced to me as an old (twenty minutes) buddy of the Marine my Wave companion had known before the war.
----- Dorothy Call
Robert and Dorothy Call
Robert L. Call, Sergeant, Third Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, WWII, USMC
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