Good Conduct Medal for Waves

SIR: Three-year enlistments, under which many women enter the Navy, do not allow sufficient time in service for Waves to qualify for the Good Conduct Medal.
I feel that if one must fulfill the same basic requirements in a threeyear enlistment as others do in a fouryear enlistment that one should be eligible for the same rewards for good service.
Has any change or reversion to threeyear eligibility been considered of late? - S. J. W., YN3 (W), USN.

• There is no plan at present to revert to the three-year service requirement which was changed to four years in 1963.
  Policy advisors inform us that the change was made only after considerable study and review. It's their, opinion that the four-year requirement for eligibility makes the Good Conduct Medal a more meaningful award which is coveted by sailors and Waves alike. - ED.

Tawasa Counterclaim

SIR: uss Tawasa (ATF 92) makes no claim to a record, but cannot let the claim of the precommissioning unit of Flasher (SSN 613) go unchallenged. (August issue, p. 34.)
The results of Tawasa's February 1966 advancement exams indicate that 82.4 per cent of our men taking the exam passed, and that 100 per cent of those passing were rated. Of those who took the special May examination (for E-4), 100 per cent passed, and 83.8 per cent were authorized for advancement.- J. W. Millard, LT, USN.

• Double congratulations to you. First for your outstanding advancement results, and then for your discretion in not claiming a record.-ED.

YARD OILER Casinghead steams out to refuel ships in Yokosuka, Japan.

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