87-year-old Penny Mirigian joined the US Navy WAVES service just in time for WWII. She worked intercepting Japanese Morse Code, which she transcribed and delivered to her superiors, who broke down the coded messages to gather vital intelligence. Penny never knew what the messages she copied said, and was warned that if she disclosed her job responsibilities to anyone it could result in her court-martial and execution for disclosing national secrets.
She lives in Fresno now, and has kept both her WAVE uniform and her figure, and can actually still fit into the old uniform:
The US Navy was still doing this during the time that I served, the ratings that did Morse intercept were known as CTR's and CTT's. The Navy tested me for Morse skill when I first signed up, but my score wasn't particularly distinguished. I became a CTO, which was basically a Radioman with a higher clearance who dealt with the transmission and receipt of messages dealing with intelligence intercept.
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