Do you recall how things were as a nursing student and during the war?
“Everybody was doing the same things, so you didn’t think too much about it. I found out about things that were going on at the time, that I didn’t have any idea that were happening. Simply because I didn’t learn how to drive a car until I was twenty-one, because you didn’t have gasoline and didn’t have tires if they wore out. That was it, unless you could find some used ones somewhere. We only had one vehicle in the family at that time. People didn’t make cars until the war was over. You had to put your name on a list to get a car. I was saving my money to get a car. My dad knew somebody who had a dealership, and he moved me up on the list so that I could get a car. It took about three years before I could get a car after the war was over.
Was there rationing of food and supplies?
“There was rationing, like sugar. I barely remember the ration books because I didn’t have to deal with them. People had to stand in line to buy cigarettes, but that wasn’t a problem for me because I didn’t smoke. For instance, you had to stand in line at the movies, and you did. It was not uncommon to come into the movies in the middle of the show and watch the end of the movie, and then stay to watch the beginning. We thought nothing of it!
“The bus back and forth to the hospital was always crowded, often it was easier to walk. That was all the transportation people had to get around. Every six months I would take the bus home from Dayton, Ohio, and then walk about a mile to my house. Many times friends or neighbors would stop and give me a lift part of the way. There was usually one vehicle to a family. Even when I got married, we only had one vehicle for a long time.”
She babysat for one of the doctors at the veterans’ hospital in Dayton. “It paid fifty cents an hour, big money for that job.” Jane recalled, “The doctors hired by the VA had been drafted, so they had to assign army doctors to the VA hospital. The doctor that I worked with at the VA hospital was an obstetrician. To me it was kind of funny that they had taken away a doctor that would have normally been there and assigned somebody who the men didn’t need.”
Mildred Ginger—Female Republic Air Worker
Told by Robert Ginger
“She quit nursing school to build airplanes for the war effort.”
Robert Ginger’s mother, Mildred, worked in the Republic airplane plant building P-47 planes. While he was growing up, Bob never knew his mother had worked in the Evansville Republic plant during the war. Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, has a wonderful P-47 Thunderbolt on display.
Mildred quit nursing school to build airplanes for the war effort. She thought Bob would be disappointed in her if he knew. Bob said, “Quite the opposite was true. I was proud of her.” Some women in Evansville were working in the factories, since many men were drafted into military service.
With the money she made from working at the plant and what his dad made, they bought their home in Lakewood Hill, Evansville, Indiana.
Bob was born on August 6, 1945, the day that the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. The next day he was adopted by his new family—Mildred and Andrew Ginger.
Kew Bee Me Donald—Army Wife and WWII Schoolgirl
“I was in Sunday School. When we came home, we heard it on the radio.”
“There were no tires, silk hoses, makeup, or coffee. The high school band couldn’t travel because there were no tires.” Kew Bee was active in the war effort on the home front, as she sold war bonds. She said, “You got a Stamp and Bond Representative book that cost $18.50 when it was completely full. After a time, you would redeem it for $25. The stamp cost twenty-five cents.” It was a poor man’s saving account. Before the United States was in the war, “we collected chewing gum foil and lard to send to Great Britain.” Kew Bee explained how difficult times were during the war years in Evansville and what the community did to help.
“Workers who made arms came here to work from Illinois and Kentucky, then they stayed,” Kew Bee said. During WWII in Evansville, it was a family effort to support the war. Kew Bee’s brother-in-law, C Ray Minton Sr. was a LST shipbuilding inspector at The Evansville Naval Shipyard; her husband, Charlie McDonald, US Army, served in the Pacific; her brother, Arthur McGregor, was in the Civil Air Patrol and an inspector at Republic Air in Evansville; and her brother, Herman McGregor, US Army Air Corp in China.
What did you think about dropping the atomic bombs on Japan?
“It was terrible what they did at Pearl Harbor. It was terrible what they did to the Japanese children. The Japanese would not have given up without the bomb being dropped on them.”
Arthur McGregor—Civil Air Patrol, Second Lieutenant
“As close as any brother can be.”
By Herman McGregor
Herman McGregor, nicknamed Mac, remembered his brother Art being “as close as any brother can be.” Art was eleven years old when Mac was born. He said, “Art took me to Walsh’s Kew Bee Bakery.” Kew Bee was a brand of bread sold during this time. His sister, Kew Bee, is named after the bread.
Art had many jobs—at Walsh’s Kew Bee Bakery; Ideal Dairy, where he delivered milk by wagon and often took Herman with him; Republic Aviation; and Kraft Foods. Art took over supporting the family when he was sixteen, after his dad couldn’t work any longer. Mac and Art went to the movies after Art’s work was over.
Art always wanted to fly, so he took flying lessons, often taking Mac with him, and received his pilot’s license. When Republic Aviation began making planes for the war effort in 1942, Art got a job there and later became the chief of final inspection at the modifications center. Republic, in Evansville, built the Thunderbolt P-47 aircraft. They were sent to other parts of the country and to the battle sites overseas.
Art was always looking after his younger brother, and he told Mac, “Maybe I could get you transferred to Evansville.” However, during that time, in November 1942, Mac was in the Army Signal Corps Reserve and was at school in Owensboro and then Lexington, Kentucky. This would have been around August 1943.
Art wore the CAP (Civil Air Patrol) uniform and was a second lieutenant. He had an important job to do on the home front to aid the war effort. The CAP was created in 1941 to provide civilian air support to border patrols, military training, and courier services. The CAP was originally part of the army but was moved to the air force after the war.
Anna Johnson—War Materials Worker
“I had my parents, then I had five brothers for parents.”
Anna grew up on a farm in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, during the Depression, and her family did not have any modern conveniences. “We were not the only ones that lived like this. Our neighbors lived the same as we did. No one had electricity. This place was a very primitive area. We canned everything, so we had plenty to eat,” said Anna. “We were richer than most because we had two wells of water on our property.”
Why did you work at Servel?
One of her brothers convinced her to come to Evansville to get a job. Anna got a job at Servel and stayed in Indiana. “Gasoline was rationed, and I lived with my brother who lived between Evansville and Rockport. I was in a carpool to get back and forth to work.” Her brother, Shellie Lloyd, worked on the LSTs [Landing Ship Tank] in Evansville. She learned the basics of riveting at North High School. Her job was to work on the ammunition boxes in the wings of the plane. Later she worked on the gun cover that went around the guns in the wing. She worked on P-47 wings doing the riveting. “People think rivets are rivets, but the big thing that was assembled was called a spar. The rivets that went through a spar are different. They have to be frozen. They were too hard to drive if they weren’t frozen.”
Describe what you did at the factory?
“ If your drill bit became dull, you sent it to the shop, and they sharpened it. You hoped that they got it good and round. If they didn’t, your drill might go scooting across the wing. I was introduced to this little fairing tool and a bottle off oil. You would have to ru
b out the crack you made, so you were very careful with that drill. You didn’t want to stand there with that oil and rub it until it looked shiny.”
Next, “the people who worked on the wings after we did, got inside the wing with a vacuum cleaner and got all the shavings out. Then they would clean it out with rags and wash it down again. They didn’t just say, it’s done! Each part or job would be checked by a Servel inspector. They would use a long stick with an attached mirror to check the work. If an inspector saw a rivet that was crooked, then you had to take it out and repair it. She would look at it again; then she would turn it over to the army inspector who would inspect it. It didn’t just go out of there.” The wing was transferred to the paint shop.
“It gave you a good feeling to finish up that wing. The finished wings were on a dolly, and they were sent to Republic Aviation to be assembled into P-47 airplanes.” Republic Aviation had a government contract to produce planes.
How were the working conditions at the factory?
For our security there weren’t any windows in the factory. The factory owners and the government didn’t want the enemy to see the light from the building, if enemy planes would fly over. I worked from seven p.m. to seven a.m. Also we worked seven days a week.” She didn’t remember how much she was paid, because she didn’t keep any of the pay stubs.
Anna sold war bonds for the war effort at the factory. “They had war bonds that were sold during this time, Series E savings bonds. There were stamps that you bought. When you collected $18.75, you could exchange it for a twenty-five-dollar bond.” She explained, “I didn’t do well talking to people back then. So they decided that I would sell war bonds. I went up to this supervisor, who I was frightened of, and got up the nerve to ask him to buy a bond. He bought a fifty-dollar bond from me, and that was the biggest one sold that night.”
Another security event was when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s train went through Evansville. They wouldn’t let us get within a block of that railroad crossing. They stopped us at least a block away from the railroad tracks. Security was very tight.”
What did the men think of the women working in the factory?
“They were mighty glad for you to help them. Everyone was grateful to do something for the war. Every able-bodied man was drafted, so they had to rely on the women.”
She worked at Servel until the war was over. “I went to work that night [the night the war was over] and they met us at the gate and said ‘you don’t have to work.’ We all went down to Calvary Baptist Church to give thanks the war was over. It was a good memory.”
Do you think they should have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan?
“Yes, I do. Can you imagine a group of people standing in church or sitting in church trying to give prayers to God and them [the Japanese] come over and bomb them and bomb those boys and bury them so deep that they are still down there? I think it’s an eye for an eye. I used to dream that I was in the army for many years.”
The war affected her and her family with the loss of her brother. “My brother, Hugh Lloyd, was in the navy and serving on a light destroyer. I was at home on vacation, when I heard them say ‘missing in action,’ and it was my brother. He was married and had a little girl. It was years before we discovered he was killed when a torpedo hit his ship.” A sailor wrote to Hugh’s wife and explained how Hugh had died. Another family member, Ann’s first husband, Paul Wilson, was a WWII serviceman who received a Bronze Star for capturing an enemy division.
In 2011, Allen Sanderson and Anna met at the Evansville airplane hangar where a local maritime museum meeting was being held. Allen Sanderson, a former WWII P-47 pilot, said to Anna, “I want to thank you for having my back.” It meant a lot to Anna for him to say that to her.
Florence Miller—WWII Worker
“I was too little and too green to go inside the ships.”
Florence was a shy woman who worked at Bristol-Myers and the Evansville naval yard during WWII. Her job was to carry messages. She was not on the ships or inside the ships. “I was too little and too green to go inside the ships,” she said.
The naval yard built LSTs during the war. The plant employed many people in the area; many women were working at the facility since the men were in the military.
Florence was not a woman without loss, as her son was killed in Vietnam.
Florence thought the naval yard was an interesting place to work and remembered when the last ship was made. She saw it, as it was christened.
One funny story: Florence was pregnant, and her plant supervisor asked her to name the child after him. In exchange he would make her child an heir to his estate, since he didn’t have any heirs. Florence declined, as her husband, Bob, still in the military, had already named the unborn child.
Florence said she received a censored letter from Bob about once a week while he was in the service. She recalled the following items being rationed during this team: meat, sugar, shortening, and shoes. After the baby was born, she had a ration book for both herself and the baby, Pamela Elaine. The baby needed more things than she did and had a separate ration book.
Lucy Wahnsiedler—WWII Factory Worker
“It’s the plane that won the war!”
Lucy graduated from Ridgeway High School in Ridgeway, Illinois, at age eighteen and began working in Evansville riveting P-47s. At the time of this interview, she was ninety-one years old. Her sister, Margaret, also worked where Lucy did, as an inspector. Lucy and Dorothy, Lucy’s sister-in-law, live next door to each other in Evansville, Indiana. Her job involved working on the elevator or tail assembly of the P-47 aircraft. She also worked at Shane Manufacturing, which made carbine cases and uniforms for the war.
“Everybody came to Evansville to work, and I lived at my aunt’s house. Some worked at the shipyards, and some were at Mead Johnson.” She worked using an air gun. She worked at Hoosier Cardinal, then the parts were transported over to Republic Aviation, where the airplanes were assembled. She said, “It’s the plane that won the war!”
At work, Lucy recalled, “We had inspectors that looked over our work, then the army inspectors would inspect our work.”
She said, “When I was growing up, my dad wouldn’t let me wear pants; we wore dresses.” Lucy had a book showing a woman wearing pants while using an air gun. “Then, when the war came, everyone wore slacks.”
She had a cousin who was killed in Okinawa and another relative who was injured in New Guinea.
Where did you meet your husband?
“I was working here [in Evansville] when I was in a wedding.” Her future husband, John, also went to the wedding, and they met. She trained at Mechanical Arts School in Evansville. She and John had seven children. They were married for sixty-three years; John died in 2009.
What did you do for entertainment?
“Well, it was big band era. They had dances down there [in Evansville]. Glenn Miller’s band came here too. There were movies, and the soldiers from Camp Breckinridge, Morganfield, Kentucky, south of Evansville, were here too. They had a USO here. I didn’t go to those dances, because I was dating John.”
Dorothy Wahnsiedler—WWII Factory Worker
“There were soldiers everywhere!”
In 1943 Dorothy graduated from Reitz Memorial at age eighteen. She worked for one year at the Evansville naval yard, where LSTs were built for one year. She worked in the welding department and the field hospital insurance department. “Sometimes I would see launchings and such, but that’s about as close as I got,” she said. “The workers would come into the field hospital with flash burns from welding and smashed fingers.
“Sometimes I helped at the field hospital getting people in to see the doctors. We had a first aid station down on the docks. They would launch the ships then would finish the interior to get it ready to ship out. If the secretary was gone, then I would go down and help the nurse. In November 1944 I walked across the street to Mead Johnson and worked there for forty-five years. Some of us went over to
the Red Cross, learned to roll bandages, make beds, and things like that.
“We just got along the best we could. We couldn’t buy things. Your gas, sugar, and meat were rationed. We got two pair of shoes a year or had them resoled. We couldn’t buy hose, so we used leg makeup. It was similar to what we use on our faces now.” Dorothy said she went “to some of the dances at the USO downtown and to Breckinridge one time. There were soldiers everywhere in Evansville!” Dorothy, Lucy’s sister-in-law, did not marry, because she wanted a career; she has continued to live next door to Lucy.
Were there any deaths where you worked?
“Not where I worked, but there were lots of accidents. Of course there were beds in the field hospital. There were many injuries like burns from the welding, falls, and hands and fingers. Deaths from falls on the cranes. They worked twenty-four hours a day at the shipyards. Lights were on at night.”
Dorothy said, “There is one thing that I won’t forget seeing as an eighteen-year-old girl. There was a woman who worked at the factory, had a miscarriage. I can still see that little baby on the table back there.”
Dorothy recalled a supervisor she had at that time: “He just loved to say things that would make me blush. He told me, ‘I just love to see you blush, Dorothy.’ He may have been the reason she moved on to Mead Johnson!
Emma Weber—Evansville Factory Worker
“I heard a girl scream!”
WWII Heroes: We Were Just Doing Our Jobs Page 22