Gloria Harnett Kerzner was just weeks shy of her 18th birthday when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Like most other Americans, she wanted to help the war effort. The U.S. Navy created the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, in 1942 replace the tens of thousands of Navy personnel who were deployed to Europe and the Pacific. Gloria was eager to enlist. But she had to wait until she was 20 years old to join.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Kerzner shares memories of how she learned about Pearl Harbor and also the Hindenburg disaster in her home state of New Jersey. She describes her WAVES training in New York and Iowa and the work she did during the war at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station to help the war effort on the home front.