Bomber Plant School

Iíd come over to Kansas and went to school for 5 hours a night for six nights a week. The women didnít know things like the men did, and I guess they taught us differently. But we had to be able to recognize the different kinds of metal--the ways to test them. We had to learn rivets and bolts and nuts. And we had to learn how to work together. One of us would rivet and the other would buck it on the back. We had to build little projects we had to do. And when we finished them, we had to polish them and have them just perfect.

North American Aviation

I got a red card from NAA to come down there to work. I went down there and the same doctor that gave Harry (husband) his physical gave me mine. He was more interested in us getting married than how well I was. I went down there after I had learned all this blue prints and all the rest. They put me in as an inspector. I inspected small parts and small assemblies. They had to be made specifically to the blueprint. The size, the dimensions, there was holes supposed to be in it-- they had to be a certain distance form the edge. And if they were bent they had to be no cracks in them. I had an inspector stamp. It was metal, and you hammered it on to make the number on, a little circle. My number was 457. I stamped it, it was either rejected or it passed. And if that wasnít stamped, then the part wasnít supposed to be used.

Bomber Contribution

Oh I thought they did a big thing, because those planes, the B-25 was a medium bomber, and they could use it in so many places. It was adapted for Navy, Army or wherever they wanted to put it--with the cannon or the machine guns. Some of them had radar. They were so versatile, you know, to put wherever they wanted.

Security

They didnít let anyone in the plant, unless you had an identification card and your badge. And you didnítí take anything in, unless it was your lunch or something for the job. And same way with coming out. And you didnít talk to people about the job. Like, "What is the name of that, the bomber, or the sight for the bomb release?" That was a secret and no one was supposed to know. In fact, I never, had saw the whole thing. I checked one part...

What About the Plant?

I donít remember that much about that plant, it was so big. When Iíd walk up to where the planes were, in different stages of assembly, and when you got up to where some of them were the hole it the cell or maybe thereís a wing on, they really looked big. But you look at the size of them, compared to the B-29 and different ones, they are definitely medium sized plane. They were fighter planes. The P-80 were smaller, because that the reason they were small, they could maneuver better. But during that time we all knew, we could identify all these planes very easily.