Caroline wrote this letter to her paternal grandfather, Ferdinand Wenz, who had outlived both his wife (Caroline's grandmother) and his elder son (Caroline's father, Edward). She mailed this letter to Grandpa to her mother, presumably for her to share with him. The handwriting is much clearer and neater than her letters to her mother.
March 4, 1943
South Hadley
Dear Grandpa,
Now that our first examinations are over there is a little more time for writing letters. We have been expected to learn so much material, most of it entirely new, that studying and classes have been our main occupations. We are very closely supervised with almost no free time. All of our instructors have gone to great lengths to impress us with doing exactly what we are told. Rank counts for everything in the Navy, and you may be sure that no member of the Women's Reserve will forget her place.
Perhaps our two most interesting courses are naval history and ships and aircraft. Learning history with the emphasis on the naval rather than the land battles is a new experience. In ships and aircraft we learn -or try to learn - the chief characteristics of the ships and planes of the navy. Don't ask what good it will do us for we are not told that.
Luckily for me we do not spend too much time marching and drilling. We rather like it because it means being out in the open and most of our day is spent inside. We are wearing our uniforms for the first time Saturday - we may look better then.
There is nothing definite about the kind of work we will do. Many will be trained as teachers for other WAVE schools, and part of the class will do specialized work. Another group will be taught communications - coding and decoding. Since my experience has been with the younger children I may go into communications.
Mother writes that you have been having more cold weather again. I hope that you have been able to get outdoors despite the weather.
Has mother been getting Time [magazine] to you? We hear very little news here.
Caroline
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