Mary Cummings was born in Dunkirk, New York in April 1921. It was the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] years, but they were not under privileged. People had gardens and shared the produce. She had a job as an usher in a movie theater. She graduated from school and went to college. She had one brother and two sisters. Her father was a bookkeeper for the New York Central Railroad. He had an eye problem that forced his retirement. Her mother took playground duty at schools and did some sewing to get by. The siblings all had jobs. She worked through college. She studied education and graduated in 1942. She went to work for Bell Aircraft [Annotator's Note: Bell Aircraft Corporation, now Bell Textron] in Buffalo, New York. Cummings had been out with friends and when she came home, her father was listening to the radio. That is how she learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. She wanted to work for the war effort instead of becoming a teacher. After two years at Bell, she applied for a commission in the WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve)]. The uniform had a lot to do with it. She got her commission and went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts for training. She loved it.

Because Mary Cummings [Annotator's Note: in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve) (WAVES)] worked for an aircraft company [Annotator's Note: before enlisting] and had a friend in personnel in Washington [Annotator's Note: Navy personnel in Washington, D.C.], she got sent to Saint Simons Island, Georgia for training in radar. She did not even know what it was then. She then went to a night fighter base at Vero Beach, Florida. There were mostly Marine pilots who had seen a lot of the war in the Pacific there. There were two senior officers at the desks and two WAVE officers. She had a crew of 35 enlisted women. They transmitted directions by radio. There were many young pilots sent there. They lost quite a few being right on the Atlantic. They would get disoriented and be lost over the ocean. It was very sad, especially if she knew them. There were eight English [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force] pilots who came over to learn to use the radar. They disappeared while flying eight fighter planes. She has always wondered if they defected. They trained in fighter planes that she thinks were Hellcats [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft]. Cummings was overseeing that training. They worked around the clock. They had lovely accommodations at a former hotel right on the beach. There were young Marine women officers there too.

Mary Cummings [Annotator's Note: in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve) (WAVES)] was always treated with respect by the male officers. They did not live on the base with the men until near the end. Cummings did not keep up with the war as well as she did when she was a civilian. It was just part of Navy life there. The training they were giving the pilots, was good. At Christmas [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944] she rode back to New York in a car with four young pilots. They drove nonstop. They stopped in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and she got off. She was treated hospitably by one pilot's family. They had dinner and spent the night. She took a train home after that. Not long after that, that pilot was lost over the ocean. He was just a kid and she felt so bad for his family. It happened day after day there [Annotator's Note: at the pilot training facility in Vero Beach, Florida where she was stationed]. Someone you knew was lost. That one really affected her though. She never had any conflict with her officers. Some of the subordinates were let go for not being suited for the military. Two from her team were discharged. The rest enjoyed each other. Their ages ranged from 50-year-olds to recent high school graduates.

Mary Cummings was on duty on the night shift when she got news that an atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945] had been dropped. No one knew what an atomic bomb was. They were all anxious to get back to civilian life. She was discharged in 1946 on the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Until then, people were departing all the time, but they were still teaching pilots how to use the radar. She returned to Buffalo, New York where she used to work at Bell Aircraft [Annotator's Note: Bell Aircraft Corporation, now Bell Textron]. She worked for an airline briefly before being let go. She went to Dunkirk [Annotator's Note: Dunkirk, New York] and worked for the gas company. Her former high school boyfriend had come home from the Pacific. They were married that September [Annotator's Note: September 1945]. Her parents were supportive of her joining the service. They were very proud of her. Cummings had no trouble becoming a civilian again. She did not really miss the WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; United States Naval Women's Reserve]. She used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment], as did her husband, and bought two homes. Her husband was accepted at Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] but did not go. It did not make much difference later. He had already gone to Michigan State [Annotator's Note: Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan] and had a degree. He went to work for Firestone [Annotator's Note: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company], and they lived in Akron, Ohio. Cummings was going to take courses in school there, but her husband changed positions and she dropped out. For a long time, Cummings did not feel the United States appropriately respected the World War 2 veterans' service. She took an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials] recently [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview], and there were crowds thanking the veterans for their service. It was quite an honor. In the beginning, everyone was a veteran. She enjoyed her time in the Navy so much. She was very lucky.