by Verna W.
In early spring 1942, at 20 years old, I
became Lockheed Clock Number 028784, working as a “Rosie the Riveter” on swing
shift in Department 10, Plant B1, Burbank, California. I was one of the first
females on the Hudson Bomber final line, bucking rivets at 65 cents hourly. My
next job was installing no. 10 fillets on P-38 center sections and oxygen
plumbing into their booms. I then had a brief stint in P-2 mock-up at $1.35 per
hour before layoffs began in 1946.
In 1951, I returned as a married woman
with a husband in the VA hospital and a little girl to raise. I came back to
the same job, same pay, same supervisor. The P-2 mock-up morphed into a P-3. I
was upgraded to plumbing and hydraulic installer in 1951 at $1.85 hourly, until
upgrading later to parts catalog analyst and, subsequently, to junior
engineering writer in June 1966, leading to a funny story.
My new supervisor was skittish about
having a “girl from the shop” in his more intellectually inclined department.
He made me take the management test, although the men in my same job
classification were not required to do so. When my score of 135 turned out to
be better than his own, there were no more problems!
My final job upgrade was to a salaried aircraft
specifications engineer in October 1968, a nice gift for my 47th
birthday. It paid $182.32 per month. I held that position until having to take
early retirement disability retirement in 1978.
Working for Lockheed was educational,
demanding and an experience for which I remain eternally grateful. Thank you.
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| The Hudson Bomber Takes to the Air |
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| Hudson Bomber Assembly: I Was There in 1942 |
