Women Kept US Forces In The Air Throughout WWII

During World War II, American aircraft factories recruited some six million women into the work force to help build such aircraft as B-17s and B-24s. Popularized by a 1943 promotional film featuring an actual female riveter named Rose at Michigan's Willow Run bomber plant, "Rosie the Riveter" came to symbolize duty and pride in working for the war effort.

Recently, six real "Rosie the Riveters" had a chance to fly on the aircraft they had a hand in putting in the air so successfully, according to the Associated Press. The group gathered Friday at what is now Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY for rides on the Collings Foundation's B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-24 Liberator.

The event is "a tribute to their war efforts," said Hope Kaplan, a spokesperson for the American Airpower Museum.

This was the first such event in the area for "Rosies."

Anne King turns 85 on Saturday... and said she was "not the least bit nervous" about her flight in a bomber. She was 19 when she went to work at Republic Aviation on Long Island, working on P-47 Thunderbolts and other aircraft as a mechanic and riveter.

"I'd like to ride in the B-24," said Josephine Rachiele, 82. "My friend Bernadette's father was a waist gunner on a B-24 and I would like to tell her what it's like."

Rachiele -- also known as "Josie the Riveter" -- said she was scared when she first went to work assembling planes in 1943. "I didn't know a rivet from a nail, and it was so noisy that I was really frightened. The rivet guns shooting rivets and the drill press stomping on metal -- it was pandemonium," she said.

Georgette Feller, 86, said she was "already one step ahead" when she took a job as a riveter. "My father was an excellent mechanic, and I already knew how to use a rivet gun, and I could tell aluminum from steel," she said.

"It was a great job, but I had trouble with the man who was my first partner -- he said he wasn't happy working with a dizzy broad."

Feller says the flights are a great opportunity. "I'm at the end of my days and I want every good experience I can have," she said.

"That sounds like a good one for me."

FMI: www.americanairpowermuseum.com, www.republicairport.net