Born: 4 May 1898, United States
Died: 20 August 1986
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Joy Bright
The following is republished from the US Naval History and Heritage Command. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Joy Bright Hancock returned to the Bureau after attending Foreign Service School and obtaining a private pilot’s license. For more than a decade before World War II and into the first year of that conflict, she was responsible for the Bureau’s public affairs activities. In October 1942, she was commissioned a Lieutenant in the new Women’s Reserve (WAVES). She initially served as WAVES representative in the Bureau of Aeronautics and later in a similar position for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), rising to the rank of Commander by the end of the War.
In February 1946, Commander Hancock became the Assistant Director (Plans) of the Women’s Reserve and was promoted to WAVES’ Director, with the rank of Captain, in July of that year. She guided the WAVES through the difficult years of Naval contraction in the later 1940s and the expansion of the early 1950s, a period that also saw the Navy’s women achieve status as part of the Regular Navy. Captain Hancock retired from active duty in June 1953. The next year, she married Vice Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie and accompanied him on his 1955-56 tour as Commander, Sixth Fleet. Following her husband’s death in late 1956, she lived in the Washington, D.C., area and in the Virgin Islands. She died on 20 August 1986.