She spent 16 weeks in x-ray technical training.But by the time her course work was finished,there was no need for x-ray technicians.

"They saw that I had been a chemistry major, sothey sent me to the Chemical Warfare ProvingGround at Dugway in Utah where they devisedincendiary bombs and napalm," she says.

Calese worked as a photo lab technician and anassistant in the meteorology section.

"I don't regret it. It was an interestingexperience," she says. "It was the first time I'dbeen away from home. I saw a lot of the country. Isuppose in that sense it was good."

Keenan remembered another classmate who leftschool to join the armed services.

"[She] had two brothers in the Pacific," Keenansays. "She felt she had to do something. I've hadtremendous respect for her ever since.'

According to Wolf's paper, almost 10 percent ofRadcliffe's class of 1943 joined the armedservices after graduation.

Many women took advantage of an acceleratedtrack of year-round courses that allowed them tograduate in three or fewer years.

According to the Fiftieth Reunion book, about30 of the 240 members of the entering class of1945 chose to accelerate their first year.

Keenan joined the Women Approved for VolunteerEmergency Service (WAVES), the female branch ofthe Navy, during her senior year at Radcliffe.

"I was one of probably 25 Radcliffe people whotook a special course that prepared us for work inthe WAVES," she says. "It was a secret course. Weweren't supposed to talk about it. That peakedcuriosity."

For security reasons, Keenan says she willcan't discuss what she learned in the course, butshe and her classmates were all sent to theNational Security Agency in Washington, D.C..

"I know I would be going to Washington as aresult," she remembers. "That was a prettyexciting place to be in the middle of the war andthat I would be working with a lot of people Iknew from Radcliffe."

Keenan graduated in October 1944 in order tocomplete her training and join the WAVES.

"Because the last midshipman's class atNorthampton began on October 20 and the HarvardCorporation didn't meet until October 25, they hadto have a special meeting [to award degrees]because we couldn't get into midshipman's schoolwithout our A.B.s," Keenan says.

The WAVES occupied the top floor of Radcliffe'sBridge Hall from January 1943 until July 1945.They studied across the river at Soldiers Fieldwith the Naval Supply School.

Keenan so enjoyed her time in the service thatshe continued in the Naval Reserves for 20 years,working as a personnel and training officersetting up national security training units.

"It gave me the GI Bill..which enabled me to goback graduate school," she says. "that was a realincentive. It made graduate school or collegepossible for many, many people."

Keenan took a 10 month program in businessadministration from Harvard Business Schoolprofessors.

"I made baby rattles for a month on an assemblyline," Keenan says. "It was the most valuableeducational experience I've had in my life. And Iowe it all to the secret course I took atRadcliffe."