Week 28 - Ocean Waves

My Dad informed us this week that Dana is engaged. The block might have prompted another wedding-related post - but since I don't know when Dana is getting married, or if maybe she's having a destination wedding someplace (she's traveled a lot already!) I decided the history of Barbara Brackman's friend's service with the WAVES during WWII better related to my own history.  With the war in the Pacific as the focus, I chose a couple of Asian prints (the one in the lower corner was in a package of fat quarters from my sister-in-law Joanna) and a pack of green hand dyes I bought probably ten years ago to give the block a little motion.

This is not quite the William and Mary green.  I bought it to go with the decor in my Reston house, which is the one Dana will remember from some of the family gatherings - Thanksgiving and her father's 50th birthday to name two.

So back to a little about the quiltmaker and writer of this family history: when I finished college, the best opportunity for me with my language major was as an analyst with the Defense Department.  I worked there for a couple of years, quit and worked as a contractor on a joint military installation in Germany, then moved to Hawaii where I worked for the Navy.  About the only proof that I was a direct Navy employee is a letter that came with a check for a special service I performed, sent to me after my last day there. (this is just the letterhead and first line.)

Then I went back to my previous job in the DC area - here are a couple of photos taken at awards ceremonies in the 1990's - I cropped out the other people in the photos.  The first one is a folder with a check inside for my support to a cutting-edge research project.  Flags always show up in these photos.

And finally here's a photo I cropped so we could see the U.S. Navy's flag.  The occasion was a medal ceremony - I earned it for support to the Balkans war in the mid-1990's.

I never served in the military, but worked as a civilian employee or contractor in the Defense industry my entire career.  Thanks to the women of the previous generations, I did not suffer discrimination for being a women in that world.  By the time I was hired in 1979, the language specialist field I was in was just starting to include a lot of women, and became female-dominated by the end of the next decade.  But the environment in general was mostly male and women in upper management certainly were the exception in the early years.  I witnessed many changes, however, as women moved up ahead of me.  In particular, by the late 1980's/early 1990's, new rules were instituted that allowed management to punish my co-workers for sexual harassment.  What we women suffered was not usually blatant - the common issues were disrespectful remarks, to include catcalls and whistles, that were stomped out, permitting us to perform our jobs without having to put up defenses of our own.