The ship's sponsor, Lieutenant Joy Bright Hancock, USNR, prepares for the christening, during launching ceremonies at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. The ship was named in honor of Lieutenant Hancock's late husband, Lieutenant Commander Lewis Hancock, USN, who was killed in the crash of USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) in 1925.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
Captain Joy Bright Hancock, USN, Director of the WAVES, comes ashore from a motor launch, circa the late 1940s or early 1950s.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
"The Navy's top WAVE, Captain Joy Bright Hancock, W, USN, Assistant to the Chief of Naval Personnel, inspects Seaman Recruits at the new WAVE recruit training school, Great Lakes, Illinois." (Quoted from the caption released with the original print by 9th Naval District PIO.)
Probably photographed circa late 1948, as the Recruit Training School (W) was processing its first classes.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
Lieutenant Commander Joy Bright Hancock, USNR (left), and Lieutenant Eunice Whyte, USNR. Both had served in World War I as yeoman (F) and were the only World War II WAVES eligible to wear the World War I Victory Medal ribbon.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
Joy Bright Hancock, a veteran of both the First and Second World Wars, was one of the first women officers of the United States Navy. She was among thousands of women allowed to serve in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
Background
Joy Bright Hancock was born in Wildwood, New Jersey on 4 May 1898. It was soon obvious that Joy was a natural-born leader after being born into a large family of six children in 1898. She was confident and persuasive, having worked in her father’s real estate business at just 14 years of age.
Her father, Wiliam Bright, held many jobs- city clerk, commissioner, sheriff and mayor of Wildwood, New Jersey. Under his watchful eye, these roles influenced her greatly.
Education
Joy Bright Hancock received degrees from the George Washington University and the Crawford School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC. She also studied at the Pierce School of Business Administration in Philadelphia and at the Paris Branch of the New York School of Fine Arts. Joy was also a licensed pilot.
Joy Bright Hancock first enlisted as a naval yeoman (F) in the Women's Naval Reserve during the First World War. After the war, she served as a civilian employee in the Bureau of Aeronautics, Department of the Navy. She wrote her first book, Airplanes in Action, in 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War, she successfully lobbied for the reestablishment of the Women's Naval Reserve. She was commissioned as a lieutenant, USN(R), in October 1942.
The highest-ranking woman at the Bureau of Aeronautics, she was the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) representative to both that bureau and to the deputy chief of naval operations (air), as well as the liaison between the bureau and Lieutenant Commander Mildred McAfee, the Women's Reserve director. McAfee and her advisors at the Bureau of Personnel had come from the educational and professional worlds; Hancock's naval expertise proved invaluable to them. Hancock has been described as "the only WAVE leader with a clear idea of how the navy operated." Hancock advocated gender-integrated specialist training at aviation schools for WAVES members and the opening of jobs in aviation mechanics to women. The decision that permitted 3,000 women to serve as aviation machinist's mates was a major breakthrough for women in the armed services. She was also instrumental in opening up overseas service to WAVES members After the Second World War Hancock remained on active duty, taking over as director of the Women's Reserve in 1947 and leading the effort to maintain the Women's Reserve as a peacetime organization. The Women's Armed Services Integration Act passed on 12 June 1948, codified the WNR in law. Hancock left active duty in May 1953 upon reaching the statutory retirement age.
In 1971 Hancock moved to a United States Navy retirement home in McLean, Virginia, where she maintained an active interest in women in the navy until her death in 1986. She continually advocated integrated training and service for navy women. Hancock's memoirs, published by the Naval Institute Press in 1972, are one of the most useful sources to date on the history of the WAVES.
Quotations:
"I admit to great pride in having had the privilege of being one of the leaders of an outstanding group of women, the WAVES. To them I shall always owe a debt of gratitude for they, by their performance, loyalty, and dedication and their pride in service, made our accomplishments possible."
Personality
Joy Hancock’s energetic, innovative, diligent, enthusiastic, and disciplined personality served her well. She reserved time to meet with enlisted personnel during her many command visits. Her naval career suggests that leaders should be energetic, visionary, and critical thinkers.
Connections
In 1924 Joy Bright married Lieutenant Commander Lewis Hancock, a naval aviator who died in the crash of the dirigible Shenandoah the following year.
She married Vice-Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie and accompanied him on his 1955–56 tour as Commander, Sixth Fleet. Following her husband's death in late 1956, she lived in the Washington, D.C., area and in the Virgin Islands.