Navy veteran Walt Disney World Resort 20th anniversary commemorative pins and a 1991 newspaper clipping featuring Pat’s work during her service in the war effort in the 1940s. Navy veteran Dorothy “Pat” Rudd pictured while stationed in Hawai’i during World War II Pat at a local community event, Pat with one of her crochet pieces Pat’s husband, Gerald Rudd, also a U.S. Photos from left to right, World War II and U.S.

There, she served as an educator helping service members learn how to read and write, and she also helped over at the hospital helping those wounded. for a year before becoming one of the first 200 WAVES to be deployed overseas – in her case, to what was then the Territory of Hawai’i. Pat, a Specialist S, 3rd Class, was stationed in Washington, D.C. Pat jumped on this opportunity and joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program to perform shore-based duties for the U.S. Roosevelt signed Public Law 689 establishing the Women’s Reserve as a branch of the Naval Reserve authorizing women to serve in the Navy for the duration of the war, plus six months. The Flag Retreat ceremony honoring those with military service has been a tradition since the resort first opened October 1, 1971.

Navy veteran, Dorothy “Pat” Rudd, participates in the daily Flag Retreat ceremony as Veteran-of-the-Day in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

Pictures of navy groups of world war 2