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Show t I 2f mtofb May 24, 2001 'Lest we forget.. v m 1 -- I ,.k .... Actions of those who served in wars affected todays freedom, privileges by Lisa Aschbrenner Environmental Management Directorate "Who was that 'holocaust guy' again?" This was the question my 7th grader's friend asked her. "You mean Hitler?" '"Yeah, that's him." That holocaust guy" I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. It both surprised and saddened me. The significance of World War II and other wars the United States fought in was apparently lost to these kids. But it wasn't just their age group, as I discovered recently in the grocery store checkout line while wearing a "Rosie the Riveter" The cashier, a fellow in T-shi- rt. ger, probably in his mid-teen- s chimed in that he liked it, too. At this point I asked, f v V y - ; I .' r , .... I - " 1 ; 5 mi .Tf fx ! ) 1 everywhere: the circus, movie theaters, grocery stores and elementary schools. Bonds helped to offset the overwhelming expenses generated by the war. Even the entertainment business focused on the war d. j. fi 7 .... 4 i f i Altogether, less than 26,000 wartime veterans from the Persian Gulf, Vietnam and (r IT 00- 1- Government Publication Department Web site. Northwestern University, Evsnston, III. , veterans were honored with a commemorative stamp, s " ) ment-produced posters encouraged conservation, recy- m f ifc ing and doing your part so materials like grease, nylon, oil and rubber could be used f wmmm shortage of trained mechanics in Engine Repair Shops in the earfy 1950s induced the Ogden Air Materiel Area (now to hire and train women workers. Posters like this one, below, helped recruit women for wartime work. . A to produce tanks, the Ogden Air Logistics Center) parachutes and other war supplies. Rosie recruited women While men fought thenar abroad, written supported them by foundries, lumber mills, taking "unfeminine" foBs iri'sCeel t aircraft factories, of fices, hospitals and daycare centers. In'1942a poster of Rosiethe Riveter" was used nationwide to recruit women to join the work force in America. More than 18 million women of all ages went to work in plants, building all types of aircraft, tanks, armaments and anything else necessary for the country's defense. They quickly tools interest in other jobs, such as running the railroad, farming, taxi driving and furnace operas, tors. Women became attorneys, postmen, engineers and took any job necessary to keep the country safe and running. A 1942 song by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb described "Rosie j the Riveter" this way: rs. " . ld - oun LADon aiio oun goods ade Fionntio . 4 "All the day long, ' j Whether rain or shine, She's a part of the assembly line. j She's making history j rii;. A t0 Wit?' i '' LMlS"" ftO ; j Working for victory, Rosie the Htygter j Keeps a shjalomotfbr sabotage, ; a male will littlemorean Rosie s Charlie. 4 That do. n gotwwpd, Charlie, , , ' . , . hine. ptg ivetn8 Rosie is Working Charlie machine." .steel Etched granite pavers begin at the hull and cover the length of the keel walk, including a timeline of events on the home front There's something true about, and individual memories of the period. "Image ladders" display Red, white, and blue about, photographs of the shipyards and memorabilia gathered during Rosie ihe Riveter." ty j?j the course iof the memorial project. Visual artist Susan Schwartzenberg and landscape architect and ,u.'j,u7 Today, Rosie the Riveter is honored with a memorial in Rich n environmental sculptor Cheryl Barton designed the monument mond, Calif., on the site of a former shipyard across San Francisco horA quote on an overlook platform reads, "You must tell your Bay from the Golden Gate Bridge. The" monument includes a sculp- - children, putting modesty aside, that without us, without women, . ture evoking a ship's hull under construction, made of stainless A there would have been no spring in 1945." She was as proud as she could be. anti-aircra- ft code-breakin- DP-M- cling, repairing, shar- i B-2- COII? above, In 1952. Govern- welders, electricians, boil-ermake- Posters from th ':,) - new occupations: "They (women) are in the shipyards, lumber mills, steel mills, foundries. They are mechanics and even tory. These wars are not cov. just historical events They operate ered in history class. They streetcars, buses, cranes and tractors. Women engiare events that involved tremendous sacrifice by neers are working in the aoi m urn immtmm . m m wm&mumBimissiinsti family, friends, and neighdrafting rooms and women bors events that at the physicists and chemists in time redefined the life of every American citizen, both the great industrial laboratories civilian and military. And whether we realize it or not, In Pittsburgh, a chemist, Elisabeth M. the actions of those who fought in these wars affects Ackermann, was in part responsible for developing us all today. Without their supreme sacrifice, we would glue strong enough to handle the weight of a 200-to-n not have the freedom and privileges we now enjoy. locomotive. A press release describing her accomToday, if you can afford it, you can buy almost anyplishment said she was "as much at home at her labthing you want. Just about everything we want or need oratory as a housewife in the kitchen (who) prepares is available. When World War II broke out, even the her favorite 'recipe'." Made a bit of progress, haven't most basic items were in short supply , sugar, rub- we, ladies? Indeed, life on the home front was transber, gasoline, heating oil and coffee. Metals such as formed. But if life on the home front was different, steel, zinc, nickel and tin were used to make tanks life on the battlefront was bizarre. and armaments instead of flashlights, bicycles and With a series of failed military intelligence comThe for reason some was refrigerators. shortages munications, America was launched into war on the that American ships ordinarily used for transporting morning of Dec. 7, 1941. At Fort Shafter, Hawaii, coffee beans from South America, for example, were Army personnel lined up at the mess huts for breakcarrying troops. Imagine doing without your daily fast were hit with machine gun fire from Japanese latte. Americans soon became accustomed to posters Zeros. In Pearl Harbor, as seven of the U.S. Pacific with the phrase, Fleet's eight battleships were attacked, oil spread out "Use it across the water and caught fire, killing most of those who escaped from the battleships. What had started it doas a routine Sunday morning had suddenly and shockor do without. " ingly become a nightmare. But American military They were forced to use their ingenuity and became forces, though initially taken by surprise, rebounded adept at it. Rationing also became a way of life. The immediately. Fighter pilots rushed to the few undamOffice of Price Adrninistration, created by Pres. Franklin aged airplanes while others ran to guns Roosevelt, came up with a list of 20 critical items that and began firing shells skyward. would be rationed. Included were rubber, shoes, butThroughout World War If, American heroism abounded ter, sugar, gasoline and coffee. Ration stamps were in spite of horrors impossible to comprehend. Our traded for specific goods. And it wasn't unusual to military your family, friends and neighbors sufwait in line for the rationed items. fered not only injuries received during battle, but also Americans were requested to save nearly every- imprisonment for some, and insufficient food rations thing it seemed. Our current recycling programs pale that resulted in malnutrition followed by dysentery, in comparison to what was accomplished during World beriberi and malaria. War II. Salvage scrap metal, newspapers, waste fat, The following descriptions of various events and aluminum and tin, rubber, nylon and silk stockings acts of heroism provide a snap shot tour of World War were saved for reuse. II. From one pound of waste fat, such as bacon grease April 18, 1942: U.S. Army Air Force 5 bombers, and other meat drippings, came enough glycerin to led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle, attacked the Japanese produce a pound of black gunpowder. The nylon and cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya. As a silk stockings were transformed into parachutes and result, the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Comtow ropes for glider planes. One old shovel meant bined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, received enough iron to produce four hand grenades, and 12,000 confirmation from his superiors for his plan for a final bomb. Other confrontation with the U.S. Pacific Fleet Unbeknownst razor blades became one 2,000-poun- d were sources for metal recycling nothing short of to Yamamoto, his plan was soon revealed to his eneg ingenious: abandoned trolley tracks, antique fire mies. For many months an American from tin foil and and team stationed chewing Pearl at Harbor gum wrappers engines pursued their goal, to break the Japanese Imperial Navy's main operacigarette packaging. Americans also responded to the government's tional code. The team, code-name- d "Hypo," eventurequest to plant victory gardens. At their peak, almost ally decrypted 85 percent of many messages, enough is World War II women marized several of the ladies' number approximately 6,000. As these veterans pass on, so docs our nation's his- o 0-- iy our unofficial anthem. Still another song had a different and singular impact on the country's workforce: "Rosie the Riveter" was a theme for American indus- Newsweek magazine sum- Korean Wars, and World War II remain. World War II veterans by themselves V' i'. i 0 try, collectively representing the arrival into and the contributions of women in the workforce. More than 6 million women joined industry to support the war effort In the August 1943 issue, Norma Rae?" Again I felt a rush of sadness. 1 ft effort. Movies contained war themes, and songs reflecting daily life became popular: "Get Out and Dig, Dig, Dig (Your Victory Garden)," "Junk Ain't Junk No More (Save and Salvage)," "Get Aboard the Bond Wragon," "When the Air Raid Siren Sounds" and "Remember Pearl Harbor." "God Bless America," written by Irving Berlin and sung by Kate Smith, was "Is it - 1 ry: ated too. They were advertised and sold virtually "Do you guys know who this is?" The cashier wouldn't even take a guess, but the bagger did .Til . if - . 20 million victory gardens produced a third of all the vegetables grown in the nation. War bonds prolifer- VICTORY WAITS ON YOUn FINGGR5 his early 20s, complimented me on my shirt. The bag- ,- . r v, ! 1 : - '. to decipher Japanese intentions with astonishing accu-'- . : Ultimately this gave American troops critical ' advantage in forthcoming battles in the Pacific.! June 6, 1 944: the Allied invasion into Normandy known as Excerpts fromThe Reader's Digest History of Wdrld War II, The Wof Id at "It is 1:15 a.m. U.S. paratrooper John Steele has landed on the church steeple of Normandy, France. He dangles, feigning death, for hours before being cut down and taken prisoner, is lucky. Some of his fellows fall into trees in the square below. He hears screams as the Germans pick them off. Although badly scattered, U.S. paratroop-- 1 ers come together and take at 4:30 : D-Da- y. : a.m.V-- : ; ! : 1 ; Normandy was also where a critical design flaw for Allied tanks became apparent As the tanks tried to crash through the steep, banked hedgerows of the "bocage," their lightly armored undersides were exposed to enemy attack and their own guns faced skyward. "The problem was eventually solved by an American farm boy, Sgt Curtis G.Culin Jr., who welded a set ofpointed steel plates to the front ofhis tank and cut his way through the hedges with guns blazing, By July, three out of every five tanks involved in action in the bocage had been fitted with these 'horns' and were known as 'Rhinos.' Culin was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit medal for his invention." iDonV iyqciO q Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was: estimated later attack on Okinawa Amer- that the ground level temperature directly beneath ican troops dealt with the explosion was approximately 5,000 degrees (Centimachine guns, artillery, grade) - thousands of people were instantly killed. mortar fire and suicidal Looking through his protective goggles, tail gunner attacks by Japanese who Bob Caron described the purple flash as "a peep strapped on quantities of into Hell". Three days later a second atomic bomb explosives and hurled flattened Nagasaki. Within hours of the second bombthemselves at the vehi- ing, Japan's Supreme War Council met with Emperor 1945: the Mid-Apri- l, cles. A land formation the Americans named Needle Rock, was the siteoffuri-racy- ; d combat It was also where an unarmed ous medic, Pvt. Desmond T. Doss, earned his Medal of Honor. "Doss, a Seventh-Da- y Adventist, refused to a fierce a Japanese counter-Illustrate- d weapon. During carry attack, the enemy killed or wounded most of the ; diers on top of Maeda, and Doss stayed behind to tend the injured while his surviving comrades pulled back down the steep cliffs. Under heavy fire, Doss man-tw- o aged to carry 50 wounded men to the edge of the e foot cliff and lower them on ropes." Aug. 6, 1945: Col. Paul W. Tibbets, flying the Enola Gay, a 9 Superfortress named for his mother, dropped the first of two atomic bombs hitting the hand-to-han- sol-Arms- 35-H- -- ; B-2- crumb or drop of it ! ": Hirohito to discuss what to do next Negotiations over the next few weeks ultimately resulted in Japan's surrender to Allied Forces. On Sept. 2, the formal surrender document was signed on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. World War II had officially come to an end and it was time for everyone to ' . go home. ;i Dear family, friends and neighbors please remember those brave veterans and the sacrifices they made. It is our legacy. Sources cited include: The Reader's Digest Illustrated History of World War II: "The World at Arms'; "Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II'; "We're in This War, Too: World War II Letters From American Women in Uniform.' |