DID YOU KNOW? for January 28 – February 10, 2025
Julia Parsons (b. March 2, 1924) World War II Code Breaker and Navy WAVE
"After working a few months in the summer of 1942 in an army ordnance lab checking gauges on shells made in Pittsburgh’s steel mills, Julie Parsons read a newspaper article about the Navy accepting women into service as commissioned officers for the first time. College graduates could earn commissions by going through an officer candidate program. She signed up right away and became a Navy WAVE Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. During training someone came in and asked, “Does anyone here speak German?” she raised her hand because she’d taken two years of it in high school. They shot her off to the Enigma section immediately, where she began learning how to decode German Uboat message traffic on the job, day one."
Learn more about her fascinating wartime story here, as told by Todd DePastino.
