Naval Security Group WAVES During WWII (Part 3 of 3)

In 1943, a large contingent of WAVES was sent to Dayton, Ohio where they attended Sugar Camp. Some went directly there from Boot Camp, others were sent there from Naval Communications Annex (OP-20-G), on Nebraska Avenue in Washington D.C. Sugar Camp was named for a grove of maple trees tapped for maple sugar sap.

The National Cash Register Company (NCR) had used Sugar Camp as the location for a training school for salesmen and opened it to the Navy in 1943. Sugar Camp encompassed 31 acres containing 60 residential cottages, a dining hall, classrooms, a recreation building, a social center, a large auditorium and an administration building. The Camp was on a raised area of land above the main NCR factory. Part of the daily routine of the 200 WAVES assigned there was to march from the Camp down the hill to the NCR factory where they pursued work and studies relating to the BOMBES machines that were being constructed at the NCR factory. After completing their studies, the WAVES were sent to the Naval Communications Annex (OP-20-G), on Nebraska Avenue in Washington D.C. to operate and provide minor maintenance on the BOMBES machines. By the end of the war there were over 500 WAVES stationed at Nebraska Avenue operating and maintaining the BOMBES machines.