Captain Viola B. Sanders, born 21 February 1921 in
Sidon, Mississippi, is the daughter of John S. and Viola Brown Sanders. She graduated from Greenwood High School and went on to attend Sunflower Junior College (now
Mississippi Delta Community College) in
Moorhead, Mississippi, for two years. In 1941, she received a BS in education from Delta State Teachers College (now
Delta State University) in
Cleveland, Mississippi, and was later chosen as the college's first outstanding alumna. She then taught grades seven to twelve in
Glen Allan, Mississippi. Sanders enlisted in the
WAVES in March 1943. She attended
Officer Candidate School at
Smith College in Massachusetts, and completed communications training at nearby
Mount Holyoke College. On October 19, 1943, she was assigned as communications officer at Naval Air Station in
New Orleans, Louisiana, where she remained throughout the remainder of the war. She was transferred to
Naval Station Great Lakes, where she worked in recruit training. When women's recruit training was transferred to
United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Maryland, in late 1951, Sanders was assigned to set up the facilities for the women's regiment. After completing the move, she became the regimental commander in Bainbridge, a position she held for a year. In 1953, Sanders was sent abroad to Naval Supply Depot,
Yokosuka, Japan, where she served as a naval intelligence officer. She returned to the U.S. in 1955 as administrative officer for U.S. Antarctic Programs, and aided in the office of Rear Admiral
Richard Evelyn Byrd in Washington, D.C. In 1958, she was asked to be deputy director for
Winifred Quick Collins, the Director of Women in the Navy. She later worked with the Naval Reserve at
Norfolk, Virginia, for a year. She was called back to Washington to serve as Director of Women in the Navy in 1962. Sanders retired from the Navy on August 31, 1966. == Retirement ==