i rise today to celebrate the life after truly great american, mary phillips white gettis. who will turn 99 on august 6 of this year. she was born in chester california in 1920 which was the same year women gained voting rights. she graduated from chester high school where she was valedictorian of her senior class. she enrolled in erskine college and graduated in 1941 with a degree in music. her first job was teaching high school in anderson, south carolina, and later joined waves, which stands for women accepted for volunteer emergency service in 1943. she began her training at mount holyoke college in massachusetts where she specialized in communications. while studying at smith college in north hampton, massachusetts . she was assigned to the communications office in the norfolk navy yard in portsmouth, virginia. after achieving the rank of lieutenant, she was tasked with the complicated task of coding and decoding communications received and sent by the naval command. her duties included delivering urgent nt top secret -- top secret messages. in 1946, she left the navy