3-5-0 Girls

3-5-0 Girls founder Mel Bloom will be speaking in Chatham on August 31 at 5:00 pm! Join us to learn about the hidden stories of the Coast Guard SPARS and Navy WAVES, the American Theater, and how their service played a major role in Allied Victory.

Chatham Marconi Speaker Series | Chatham Marconi Chatham Marconi offers monthly guest speakers in person and via Zoom

In honor of we are excited to announce that we are going to the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware, September 26-27. We will be bringing our Air Force timeline, representing women's entry into military aviation from the Air WAC of World War II, to the Women's Air Force, and the integration into the Air Force in 1977. We are looking forward to sharing the stories of the women who served in aviation alongside so many other incredible historians, and we hope to see you in Delaware!

📸 Richard Tucker from the Reading Air Show, June 7, 2026

Got to see a neat piece of at the Intrepid Museum this weekend.

Lt. (J.G.) Harriet Ida Pickens was one of the first two African American officers to join the WAVES in 1944. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Smith College and took classes at Columbia University. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only about 2% of African American women held a bachelor’s degree during the 1940s, making her accomplishments all the more remarkable.

Her papers, held at the The New York Public Library, document her work in the WAVES. After the war, she was demobilized and returned to New York, where she worked as a public health official. She passed away in 1969.

It was really neat to see her military service remembered and made visible. ❤️

📸 Photo Information:
1: Lt (J.G.) Harriet Ida Pickens, US Navy, Public Domain
2: Harriet Ida Pickens being sworn in as an Apprentice Seaman by Lieutenant Rosamond D. Selle, USNR, in New York City, 1944. US Navy, Public Domain.

Had a great day at the Intrepid yesterday with Gabby from The Donut Dollies Podcast!

It’s always so special getting together with the people we’ve met through this work (and even better when there’s a museum involved), and yesterday was no exception. ❤️

If you haven’t checked out their podcast yet, go give it a listen! They do a fantastic job bringing history to life, and we’re always excited for a new episode.

P.S. We may have found the only military museum gift shop without a single Rosie the Riveter item. 😆💪

VJ day, August 15 1945. Even though Truman insisted it wasn't actually VJ Day until the Japanese signed the surrender documents, it didn't stop Americans from celebrating the end of the war. Most of the photos we commonly associate as end of war photos are often mistakenly identified as V-E day photos, but when V-E Day happened in May, most Americans were not yet ready to celebrate. The focus shifted towards the Pacific Theater and what many anticipated would be a full scale invasion of mainland Japan. So it's no surprise that when the news of the Japanese surrender was announced, Americans were not willing to wait any longer to celebrate.

The surrender documents were signed on September 2. But despite Truman's insistence that VJ Day would not be celebrated until the signing, August 14 and 15 tend to have stuck around as the days we celebrate VJ Day and the end of the war.

We were in Times Square this morning, and even though it bears little resemblance to how it looked in 1945, it was still fun to stand where many Americans celebrated complete and total Allied Victory.

We're off on an adventure next week. Any guesses where?? 🍎🏙⚓️

In 1970, renowned American costume designer Edith Head created a new uniform for the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard had brought women back into active service in 1965, nearly 20 years after the SPARS were completely demobilized in 1946.

The 1970 uniform was unique in that it was the first Coast Guard women’s uniform to incorporate trousers as an issued item. Head called the assignment the highlight of her career and was awarded the Meritorious Public Service Award for her work.

We’re incredibly excited to share that, thanks to a generous donation from Ron Janard, one of these historic uniforms is now part of the 3-5-0 Girls collection!

We’ve been slowly expanding our Coast Guard timeline, and we’re looking forward to getting this uniform and a WWII SPARS uniform, also donated by Ron, on display soon.

Interested in having 3-5-0 Girls bring a Coast Guard program to your museum, organization, or event? We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at [email protected] and we'd love to connect about your event 📩

New to the 3-5-0 collection thanks to Black Dog Military Antiques 😊 even though not one of the official military phrase books, we've seen this one and other similar booklets used by the UCMWR when they served in Hawaii.

It's going to be a great piece of "pocket trash" to help illustrate the stories of the WR at MCAS Ewa and Pearl Harbor ☀️🌴

(There needs to be a jeep emoji)