Betty Hyatt Caccavale Collection
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Betty and Phillip Caccavale
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Betty Hyatt and Phillip Caccavale dine at a restaurant Washington, DC, where she was stationed at the Naval Intelligence Office, in 1945.
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Betty and Phillip Caccavale on wedding day
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Betty Hyatt Caccvale and Phillip Caccavale stand outside a brick building on their wedding day, Feb 2, 1945. Both are in uniform, and Hyatt wears an overcoat and garrison cap, holding her white gloves.
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Oral history interview with Betty Hyatt Caccavale
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Primarily documents Caccavale's childhood in rural South Carolina and her service in the U.S. Navy WAVES as a cryptographer in Washington, D.C., during World War II. Caccavale discusses her family background and awareness of current events in 1940, and then comments on World War II, including her decision to join the military after hearing about Pearl Harbor and going to dances at Camp Croft in nearby Spartanburg, South Carolina. Service related topics include her reasons for choosing the WAVES; homesickness during basic training in Iowa; failing a swim test; corresponding with and dating soldiers; social life in the WAVES; train travel; meeting her future husband at Camp Croft and learning that he had been wounded. " Topics specific to Caccavale's work in the WAVES include being warned not to talk about her job in the communications department of the Office of Naval Intelligence; working a swing shift; decoding methods; the security system; and working forty-eight straight hours to decode a Japanese code book. " Caccavale also comments on her opinion of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt; her and her husband's military medals; telling her son about her WAVES experiences; her opinion of women in combat positions; and "parenting" Japanese students at a local college.
