Review: The Navy’s First Enlisted Women: Patriotic Pioneers

That women served in every military conflict in the history of the United States is common knowledge—but that women performed duties other than nursing during the First World War may come as a surprise to some. Regina Akers, a historian with the Naval History and Heritage Command, describes the service of the more than eleven thousand women that enlisted in the Naval Costal Defense Reserve during the Great War in The Navy’s First Enlisted Women: Patriotic Pioneers. She also details the meaning of their contributions to the war effort both at home and overseas. By working as clerks, typists, stenographers, translators, cryptologists, messengers, and even designers of camouflage for ships, these women volunteers freed up men for sea duty and combat.

Increasing Response Rates to a Smoking Survey for U.S. Navy Enlisted Women

This study examined the effectiveness of several persistent strategies to increase the response to a smoking survey among newly enlisted U.S. Navy women. The stepped approach, which included the use of incentives, repeated mailings, alternative survey administration modes, and reminders, was evaluated in terms of effects on response rates and response bias. Demographic and baseline smoking-related characteristics were compared for those responding on time to the initial mailed follow-up survey, reluctant respondents who did not respond initially but eventually completed a survey after further prompting, and nonrespondents. Results showed that incentives and persistent efforts were effective in substantially increasing the response among 2,231 eligible participants, more than doubling the response rate (from 24.9% to 52.7%). The characteristics of ontime, reluctant, and nonrespondents did not differ significantly in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. On the other hand, on-time respondents were different from both reluctant respondents and nonrespondents in terms of smoking-related behaviors.