Jim Madden
Fort Collins, CO
Category: Home-Front Memories

My Aunt Elsie told me this story in her last days as we were reminiscing about Uncle William and "the old days."

They were childless and were living on the farm in Marshall County, Kansas when the war broke out - Uncle William was the quintessential "jack of all trades", being able to repair any piece of equipment, shoe any horse, weld, raise the fattest pigs, even though he suffered from chronic arthritis. Aunt Elsie adored Uncle William and totally deferred every decision to him and always walked in his shadow. She had never worked outside the home and everyone was amazed when not only Uncle William, but Aunt Elsie both applied for work in an airplane factory in Omaha.

Uncle William was put to work the first day installing belly turret guns on B-17's while Aunt Elsie was sent to school to learn to be a riveter. When Aunt Elsie brought home a sheet of aluminum to show Uncle William her work, he said "By God, Elsie, if they can teach you to do this kind of work, we're going to win this damned war!!!" She told me, "I won many awards and war bonds for my work in Omaha and Kansas City plants and William couldn't have been more proud.

Ane Hanley
Category: Home-Front Memories

I was 13 when the war started. In my childhood, it seemed like the war was going on forever. There was a real difference in that war. Everyone helped. Everybody got a ration book during WWII. Many things were rationed - meat, sugar, coffee, butter, canned goods, gasoline, car tires. My mother used to trade sugar coupons for coffee coupons. Even books were printed in smaller formats - that is when paper covers started. I still have one book from that era, and it has a message suggesting when one is through with it, to donate it to the USO so the soldiers could read it. There was a weekly movie called "The March of Time" that was almost all about the war. There were patriotic songs - one of them was supposedly about a priest in the Navy who was quoted as saying, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Every night we listened to Gabriel Heater - a commentator with a sepulchral voice who would frequently open his program with a line such as, "One of our bombers is missing tonight," or "There's good news tonight." When I went to the U of C in the fall of '45, we still had ration books, which we gave to the dorm management because our dorm served meals. There were women in WWII also, of course. I firmly expected that when I got to be eighteen, I would join either the Army or Navy, but the war ended when I was still 16.

Virginia Lee Cox
Colorado
Category: Home-Front Memories

"Looking Back on It (WWII)"

Times were tough back then
When most of our guys were gone.
Just old men and young boys were here
So we gals put the overalls on.

There was work to be done, so we did it.
It was just as simple as could be.
In dealing with worry - we hid it,
Hoping that no one could see.

Worry was inevitable.
We knew it was always there
For our sons, and brothers,
And husbands and others.
The best way to stop it
Was to melt it into prayer.

We could not condone self pity.
We knew we had to be strong
In mind and body: And we must stay alert,
Or we would not last very long.

We all tried to encourage each other.
We had to keep our spirits high.
We joked and laughed but were always aware
That some of our guys would die.

Most of us were waiting wives,
Working and praying as we waited.
The motto and mantra of our lives
For us was strongly stated.

Paste a smile on your face!
Don't let the world see you cry!
Keep that smile in place!
And keep your powder dry!

In the old wild west the dry powder
In the guns they used found its places.
But the powder we strove to keep dry
Was the powder we wore on our faces.

Carolyn Conarroe
Longmont, CO
Category: Home Front Memories

A group of ladies in my church in New Carlisle, Ohio, provided a meal every so often to crews of young airmen who landed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base during World War II. The call would come to report to the base with meals for a crew and my aunt and the committee would swing into action. Ham loaf was the customary meat and that recipe is legendary. The crews seemed to be there short term and soon a new crew needed the home cooked meal, and the ham loaf, from the church ladies.

Recently, a friend was telling us about his service in WWII as a bombardier. I mentioned Dayton and my work experience at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Our friend said he had spent time there. His last assignment before his plane and crew left for England had been to Wright-Patterson to pick up a secret weapon, the Norden bombsight. After two weeks training, they moved on to their assigned base in England. And a new crew came in.

The precision bombsight turned a bombing mission into targeted bombing, not a near-miss on a factory site. The new weapon was to be protected and in case of a crash landing the bombsight, above all, was to be destroyed and not be allowed to get into enemy hands.

I don't know if the women of the church knew what the crews were up to but they did know they were preparing a taste of home for some of the war's heroes. My friend's crew might have been one of their groups of heroes.