RICHMOND –– Connie Gomez, 94, still has vivid memories of working in the Kaiser shipyards during World War II.
It was a time of sacrifice, but also a time of unity, she said Wednesday at a gathering marking the second National Rosie the Riveter Day.
“The people were from all over the states, they had so many nationalities, but they were all behind the effort,” said Gomez, now a San Lorenzo resident. “We all worked hard, but we were glad to do it.”
Gomez, her father and siblings commuted in a single car from Pittsburg each day to the Richmond yards, where she worked as a welder.
“Women really came out during the war and I was glad to do it,” she said alongside other “Rosies” at the local observance at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park.
Joining her was her husband of 70 years, Raymond Gomez, 94, a decorated veteran of D-Day.
The couple met before the war and corresponded regularly while he was overseas and she was working at the shipyards. “I still have some letters,” she said.
“I think it’s long overdue,” Gomez said of the national recognition, the result of bipartisan legislation introduced by in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and in Congress by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California with co-sponsorship by U.S. Reps. Mark DeSaulnier and Jackie Speier of California, and U.S. Rep. Brian K. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Women who broke barriers by filling defense industry positions in the service of their country were “sometimes ridiculed, and many were pushed out the door when the war ended,” said Marsha Mather Thrift, executive director of the Rosie the Riveter Trust, the nonprofit partner of the Richmond national park. “We owe these women a great debt of gratitude.”
The experience of each Rosie is unique, and the Richmond park still hopes to hear more from other home front workers who have yet to come forward.
“Please contact us, we want your stories,” said Kelli English, chief of interpretation at the Richmond park (www.nps.gov/rori/).
Margaret Archie, 95, was a member of a family of sharecroppers who came to Richmond from Arkansas during World War II for war work but encountered barriers as an African American woman.
“My father was working here and he had to pay under the table to get her in,” said Archie’s daughter, Malissa White.
She said Archie first worked in the narrow bottom of ships, where the space was too small to stand, then worked on the scaffolding, which was precarious in another way. Then she was trained and worked as a welder until she became pregnant and finally left.
The women who worked on the World War II home front long ago learned the importance of setting and achieving goals and now they have a new one: Seeing that a national day in their honor is made an annual event.
Phyllis Gould of Fairfax in Marin County and Mae Krier of Levittown, Pennsylvania, observed the Wednesday’s event in Washington, D.C., where they were scheduled to lobby Congressional representatives to make the day an annual event.
Gould, 96, was one of the first six women hired as welders at the Kaiser yards, while Krier, 92, worked at the Boeing aircraft factory in Seattle. The pair successfully lobbied for the initial Rosie the Riveter Day in 2017.
Gould, never one to think small, would like to see the observance become a national holiday.
“We’re going to make it happen,” she said in a January interview. “I’m 96 — I don’t have time left for all this stalling and putting off.”