Event to honor women in defense jobs during WWII

Elizabeth "Liz" Minton of Pine Mountain Valley plans to strap on her coveralls Tuesday for the Rosie the Riveter Social at the Benning Club.

Hosted by the "Baker's Dozen" Chapter of the American Rosie the Riveter Association, the 11:30 a.m. event at Fort Benning will honor and entertain the women who worked in defense jobs during World War II and the veterans as part of the 70th anniversary of the war's end. Rosies from Georgia, Alabama and Florida are expected at the event, said Jonnie Melillo Clasen, president of the "Baker's Dozen" Chapter.

During World War II, millions of American women entered the workforce to work in the defense industry as welders, riveters and other non-

factory positions.

"It was just a job that had to be done or needed to be done and I was willing to do my share," said Minton, 91. "I was a newlywed and I wanted to get the war over and get the guys back home."

Minton was 20 years old and just married when her father decided they needed to leave Caldwell, Idaho, where they worked in a factory dehydrating onions and potatoes for the military.

"He said we needed to go where we can do some real defense work," Minton said. "We were dehydrating potatoes and onions for the military then. He meant real work."

Minton and her father found plenty in Torrance, Calif. Her father worked at a refinery while she worked in an aircraft plant. She helped build bomb bay doors for the Douglas A26 Invader in 1944.

While she was building aircraft parts, Minton said, her husband Raymond was in the Army Air Forces supplying fuel and other materials to the troops. He was at the Battle of Iwo Jima, she said.

June Tinker was a coal miner's daughter in southern Virginia when a man came to Buckley, W.V., looking for young women to train for defense jobs.

It was part of the National Youth Administration in Charleston, S.C. She went through six weeks of training to become an acetylene welder.

Tinker didn't go directly to work after training, so she was trained in office work too.

She was finally sent to Patterson Field in Ohio near Wright Field in Dayton. She worked in a factory that repaired damaged aircraft from the war zone. Some had bullet holes and some were burned.

At the plant in 1943, her duties included welding and riveting sheet metal.

"We would take sheet metal after the old parts were taken off, we would put new parts on," she said.

A riveter was on the outside and a bucker held metal on the inside so the rivet would seal when it came through the metal. "That's what I did," Tinker said. "When I wasn't used in sheet metal and riveting, I did office work."

Tinker, 90, of Columbus said her biggest challenge was staying awake while working on the night shift. "I always was going to bed at 8 at night," she said. "I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open."

At the time, Tinker didn't think the work was that outstanding, but now she realizes it was very important. "Today I see where it was very important and I have met so many other Rosies because they worked for the defense," she said. "It did mean a lot to the nation to keep the home front going and to do the work."

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Event to honor women in defense jobs during WWII ."