World War II started for the United States on 12/7/1941 when the Imperial Japanese Army’s Air Corps bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.
The war effort started long before.
My father was drafted when my brother, Charlie was about 6 months old. He went to boot camp, then shipped out overseas and was in The Philipines and Korea. Daddy spent 219 continuous days in combat. He was a sniper in the infantry, and was never the same afterwards.
Bill Steinmetz was in the Airborne, and during his stay in Germany was able to recover a Nazi Flag from the top of Goebels’ Castle. The flag, which the Steinmetz family still has, can be seen at the Veterans’ Museum in Germantown. For those of you who don’t know, it is located at the Old Masonic Hall on Cherry Street. You should check it out, there are wonderful displays regarding the sacrifices many from the area have made for our Country.
Prior to that, Daddy worked on C Line at the Hercules Powder Plant in Blacksburg, VA.
They, like thousands of other G.I.s left brides at home while they were at war.
We hear of “Rosie the Riveter” often, and we see her picture.
She symbolizes the hard work and dedication of hundreds of thousands of American women who kept the country working while the men were off defending it.
But, we rarely, if ever put a real face with the name.
But, there were real women working. Real women sacrificing, and real women keeping the country going as well as keeping the home-fires burning.
Bill was stationed at Ft. Myers, VA. Louise, a pretty West Virginia girl, was serving cookies at a USO function in Arlington Farms, VA when she met Bill. He was playing volley ball, and asked her to join the game. Three days later, they were married. They stayed married for almost 50 years before Bill passed away.
The pretty bride was a secretary for the State Department in Washington, D.C. As a matter of fact, she worked for Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State under FDR, and was Mr. Hull’s personal secretary. She had graduated from high school at 16, and went to work immediately.
Bill went to Germany, Louise stayed home, worked, and provided exemplary service to the State Department in a time when doing a good job was more than critical.
Louise kept the home-fires burning as well. After her job ended, she moved to Dayton, Ohio, and moved in with her in-laws, whom she had never met! When Bill came home, it was on the QE II, and he got home in six days. He was anxious to see his bride!
Over the years, Bill and Louise would have six children, three boys and three girls.
Like I said, my Dad went to the Pacific Theater. Daddy took his physical the day my brother, Charlie, was born, 09-17-1944. When Daddy was drafted, they were living in Radford, Virginia. Mother was working at the same Hercules Powder Plant in Blacksburg, VA, she stayed there three years.
Mother and Daddy had two kids, Judy and Charlie, when Daddy went off to war. My grandmother Brads came and stayed two weeks with mom and the kids while Mother worked. Grandpa needed Grandma back at home in Glasgow, VA, and Grandma was on the hunt for a capable sitter to watch her grandkids.
Enter Mrs. Sumner. I’ve no idea what her first name was, but she moved in with Mother, cooked, cleaned, took care of the kids, and did every thing except iron.
She did not iron – AT ALL. Mom said, when telling me her war time story that, “…every thing had to be ironed back then.” Apparently, no one was fond of it.
Mom worked in the nitro-cotton lab and weighed, tested, and produced gun-powder. It was a labor of love as she knew that Daddy might be using it shooting “The Japs”. It was ok to say that then, we were at war.
[The dress code for the ladies was a coverall and matching turban. In the lab the employees measured the strength and texture of the powder. They also made the nitro glycerin that tested the powder and they tested the viscosity of the nitro glycerin.]
Having no car, she rode to work in a ‘car-pool’ with others. No one used that term back then.
To get to work each week, she had to give the driver a gas stamp, and on some weeks, $1.00 for gas. Gas, sugar, and other items were rationed, and ration stamps were like gold.
With gas at 21 cents a gallon, a buck was almost five gallons. These days, with a dollar you can smell the hose! Maybe!
Women did with out ‘nylons’, hair-pins, and other niceties. Meat was rationed as well. The boys over seas needed to be fed.
When the war ended, so did Mother’s job. Daddy came home, she quit working, and Mrs. Sumner went back to her family too.
Mother and Louise are just two of thousands of women who made America great. Sacrifice, substance, sincerity: all qualities that last.
Does your Mother or Grandmother have a war time story? Ask, you just might find a whole new woman in the family you didn’t know existed!
And today, as we welcome soldiers home from another war, think of those who are serving now and the ones at home who are keeping home front strong.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the troops!
