WWII, Pearl Harbor Widows, Naval Air Base, 1942

Pearl Harbor widows have gone into war work to carry on the fight with a personal vengeance, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Virginia Young (right) whose husband was one of the first casualties of WWII, is a supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department of the Naval Air Base. Her job is to find convenient and comfortable living quarters for women workers from out of the state, like Ethel Mann, who operates an electric drill. Although the image of Rosie the Riveter reflected the industrial work of welders and riveters, the majority of working women filled non-factory positions in every sector of the economy. What unified the experiences of these women was that they proved to themselves, and the country, that they could do a man's job and could do it well. Photographed by Howard R. Hollem, 1942

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