"WAVES was a unique acronym that came out of a task given Elizabeth Reynard, one of the professors at Wellesley University.  The Navy was having a time getting women to join the service.  So they told her they needed some kind of recruiting snappy name.  So she worked on it, and she thought, well, being in the Navy had to do with water, but since it was an all-volunteer service (women were not drafted in WWII, and they still are not drafted; they still volunteer for every service toady), she came up with this slogan called: WAVES-- W-A-V-E-S--Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.  She said she thought by the 'emergency' and the 'volunteer' being in the name, it would appeal to the old admirals because the admirals would then realize that the women were not to be a permanent part of their world.  So that is how the WAVES acronym came about."