Real Rosie the Riveter

* “Memorial Gives Rosie the Riveter Her Due” (Oct. 10) brought back memories. While I was at Manual Arts High School during the latter years of WWII, before I enlisted in the Navy in May 1945, my mother bucked rivets at an airplane factory. In fact, her name was Rose--a true Rosie the Riveter.

Melissa Lambert’s article mentioned only shipyard work and how few women were welders at the time. She misses the point of the Rosie icon--riveting and building aircraft. Aluminum fabrication in warplanes required extensive riveting, since aluminum did not lend itself to welding, which the steel hulls and main parts of ships did.

Mom told me that many, many women at her aircraft factory did riveting, helping to turn out the tremendous number of fighters and bombers that helped win the war. They were the real Rosies, and there were lots of them.

KEN KVAMMEN

Newport Beach