There's No Wife Like It

Susanne Day is a retired education specialist whose focus was physically
challenged, blind, and speech-impaired children.

Following in the style of Barry Broadfoot, Dianne Taylor has produced a very entertaining and readable book about the Navy — but with a switch! The Navy she chronicles is the Navy of the seamen’s wives. Whether their husbands were ordinary seamen on admirals, shorebound or seagoing, these women all have stories, frustrations, and joys in common. The wives didn’t sign any enlistment papers, but they are very much serving personnel. Their lives are structured and ordered just as the lives of their men are. Some knew what to expect when they married into the Navy, others found the reality of being a Navy wife difficult to accept. Whether their husbands faced the dangers of wartime service or the excitement and routine of peacetime sea duty, their wives faced all the day-to-day frustrations, worries, and responsibilities of looking after home and family all on their own. The interesting thing that comes through is the pride and love for the Navy that, for the most part, is a recurring sentiment in these stories. There are some disillusioned wives and some bitter ones, but most of the women seem to agree with the author, a Navy wife herself, that the Navy and their husbands have provided a good life down the years. The Navy and their husbands would agree that there are “no wives like them.”