[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17] [Senate] [Pages 23848-23849] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]HONORING ALVINA ELIZABETH SCHWAB PETTIGREW Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, today, out of a sense of pride and gratitude, I wish to recognize the remarkable yet unheralded work of a group of women who quite literally saved innumerable lives and made a notable contribution to the Allied victory during World War II. One might wonder what has taken us so long to honor a group of women whose efforts date back over 65 years. The reason is that the nature of their work was so secret, the women were warned that they could be shot for treason if they ever revealed their activities. And so they didn't. As a result, they never received the recognition they deserved. I am speaking of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), who played an instrumental role in cracking the complex codes that the Germans used to radio instructions from German headquarters to the submarines that were sinking Allied ships. And when I said I was speaking out of a sense of pride, it is because Alvina Elizabeth Schwab [[Page 23849]] Pettigrew from my home State of South Dakota was among this determined group of heroes. Alvina was born in 1919 on a farm near Mina, SD. She completed grades 1-8 in a one-room schoolhouse and graduated from Mina High School. She received a scholarship to Grand Island Business College in Nebraska in 1936. But in 1942, this everyday American embarked on a journey that would call her to do extraordinary things in the service of our Nation. Alvina enlisted in the WAVES in October 1942 and was sent to Stillwater, OK, for 3 months of training. Following graduation, orders arrived for her to report to the Naval Communications Annex in Washington, DC. In nondescript buildings now housing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 600 WAVES labored secretly in support of the war effort. German U-boats had been sinking Allied ships at alarming rates. Between January and March 1942, the Germans sank 216 ships off the east coast alone. But the Americans, improving on cryptological breakthroughs by the Poles and the British, finally cracked the German codes. The WAVES were the ones who actually operated the machines that deciphered the codes. They had the German U-boat fleet fighting for its life. The WAVES ran the machines around the clock. The noise was head-splitting, the summer heat sweltering. But they forged ahead, knowing that American lives were at stake. Although one could argue that the honor does not begin to match the magnitude of the achievement, Alvina and the other WAVES are being recognized through a public arts project in the Cathedral Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. A turn-of-the-century ``call box'' that once housed fire emergency equipment will contain a portrait of Alvina Schwab Pettigrew and a description of what the WAVES did in the Navy Annex just 200 yards away. It is a lasting tribute to the women who turned the tide on the Germans and helped the Allied forces win the war. I am proud that a South Dakotan is being honored in this way and that I am able to convey to Alvina and the WAVES a belated thank-you from a most grateful Nation. ____________________