During World War Two,some 350,000
women served in the United States armed
forces with over 86,000, or roughly
25%, serving in the Navy. While all of
these women deserve to be remembered
today,we are highlighting the
remarkable story of Susan Ahn Cuddy, who
was the first Asian American female
officer in the U.S. Navy and the
first female gunnery officer. Susan
Ahn was born in 1915 to Ahn Chang Ho
And Helen Ahn who had arrived in
California in 19 oh two as some of the
first Korean immigrants to the United
States. Ahn’s parents were active in the
Korean Independence movement, as Korea
was occupied by Japan from 1910 through
1945, with her father,one of the most
famous leaders, commonly known as Dosan.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Ahn
remembered her father telling her and
her siblings to be very good American
citizens and to never, never forget
our Korean heritage, After graduating
high school, Ahn went to Los Angeles City
College and then San Diego State
College. In 1938 her father,
Dosan,died while in Japanese custody.
After Pearl Harbor, it was only
logical that Ahn continue her father's
struggle against the Japanese by
joining the military. As she put it ,
it was one way to serve your family's
country and your own. After the WAVES,
or Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service was established in
July 1942, Ahn went to join, but she
was turned away for being Asian . As
she later told an interviewer: We were
unusual in those days, and we looked
like the enemy. Undeterred, she
reapplied and was accepted to the Navy
in December 1942 as an enlisted WAVE.
At that time, the Navy had just set up
a centralized recruit training center
in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for enlisted
WAVES. Ahn was part of the first group
of women to go through the five week
training course there. Next, she went
to link training and Atlanta, Georgia,
to learn how to work with those early
flight simulators. She graduated the
training as a petty officer, third
class specialist-T, or navy
instructor, in March 1943.
After being assigned to Naval Air
Station, Miami, Ahn worked as a link
operator training pilots, But while
there she was temporarily reassigned to
be an aerial gunnery instructor,
helping the aircrews aim correctly at
the moving targets , During this time,
an officer also recommended Ahn for
officer training. So by the late
summer of 1943 she headed to the U.S.
Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at
Smith College in Northampton,
Massachusetts, for a 90-day officers
training course. Once she finished
this training, Ahn was commissioned as an
officer in theWAVES in the fall of
1943. Due to her prior experience as an
air gunnery instructor the Navy used Ahn
as the first test case for women
gunnery officers. By November 1943 she
was going through the full gunnery
school at Pensacola, getting trained
on a variety of weapons. When she
graduated the course, she became the
first female gunnery officer in the
Navy. Ensign Ahn was featured in
newspapers for this feat. Ahn remembered.
I'm very proud of the fact that I am
able to say that I am Korean, I'm an
American and I'm fighting for the
country. In January 1944, Ahn was sent
to Naval Air Station, Atlantic City,
to train naval air crews. As the first
female gunnery officer in the Navy,
she had to establish her authority from
time to time. Once, as she recalled,
there was a tall, good looking three
stripe commander, and he said to me,
I'm not shooting until I see the whites
of those Japs eyes. And I said, I don't
care what you do up there. Here you do
what I tell you. Late in the war Ahn was
sent to Naval Intelligence in
Washington, D.C. for her ability to
speak Korean. However, for the first
six months, she was not given any
meaningful task, due to racial fears and
mistrust. Eventually, she received
more important intelligence task and
proved what she was able to offer.
Sometime later, she became the liaison
between Naval Intelligence and the
Library of Congress until she left the
Navy in 1946. After Ahn left the Navy ,
she worked as a civilian at what would
later be called the National Security
Agency. In April 1947 she married
Chief Petty Officer Frank Cuddy, who
also worked in the Naval cryptological
field. The couple married at the
Navy Chapel in Washington, D.C. Due
to Jim Crow era anti-miscegenation laws
in Virginia and Maryland, they were not
able to marry anywhere else. Their
marriage was unusual for the time
period, and both families frowned upon
the marriage at the beginning. Susan Ahn
Cuddy worked with the NSA through
the 19 fifties, running a think tank
involved in top secret work related to
the Soviet Union in Vietnam before she
left the government in 1959. Active in
the Korean American community for many
decades, she passed away in 2015.
Susan Ahn Cuddy was a Trailblazer for
both women and Asian Americans. She
was proud of her World War Two service
in the WAVES. As she said later, I
was American. I was very American,
raised to honor and love America.
There was actually no choice. I mean,
that was it. The WAVES program showed
the world what women were able to do
outside of their housekeeping home.
Undoubtedly, Susan Ahn Cuddy showed
the Navy and the world what she could
do and helped open future opportunities
for both women and Asian Americans in
the Navy.