This memoir is incredibly honest and leaves nothing to chance. She says that during her Navy physical, she reported to one room, glad in only a sheet as instructed, and walked in to find the room filled with cigar and cigarette smoking men, where she was ordered onto a table and to drop the sheet. I've never read of another physical in which this happened. The author also discusses her alcoholism and her husband's secret affair.

I don't think there have been many, if any, WWII memoirs written from an enlisted woman's point of view. This one is superb! Gilbert tells of her naval training at University of Wisconsin, Madison, to become a radio operator, and talks about studying Morse code, and her subsequent adventures during postings to Corpus Christi and Pensacola. I was a Morse op for the army during the Cold War, and wrote about it in my own memoir, "Soldier Boy", so I could easily relate. Helen Gilbert, the writer, is a natural if there ever was one. This eighty-something year-old great-grandmother will certainly make you laugh, and you'll also ache for her, as she ably describes first what it was like being a woman in uniform during the war, and then the problems she faced as a wife, mother and a flawed human being in her life after the war. "Okay, Girls ..." is a welcome and necessary addition to the canon of WWII literature. Good job, Helen. Thank you for sharing your story. ( )