MARGE SWARTFAGER, 89, was final casing inspector at the Des Moines Ordnance Plant in Arkeny, Iowa. In 1941, she was a single mother (her husband was in the Navy) and had never worked outside home, but she needed a job and the ordnance plant needed her.
As inspector, she rolled casings in her hand to check for flaws. "They stressed to us that if we let one shell go with a split in it or a mark on it that wasn't right, it could kill one of our own men. So we took that real seriously."
Most of the men working at the plant were too old or deferred from service because of disability or because of family.
Her husband Sam loaded the box cars for two months before he was drafted into the Navy. He was shipped to Seattle and served on the battleship USS Washington in the powder room area working with the huge 16-inch shells because of his experience loading the railroad cars in Iowa, "They didn't know I didn't know that much."
She remembers the day FDR died: "They brought the whole plant to a sudden halt. ou could have heard a pin drop (and these plants were quite noisy) because everyone stopped and bowed their heads in prayer. At the same time, i remember I wondered how many boys or men were dying that day. And a couple weeks later, we got the report that my brother had died that very same day."
Reuben Hutchins, 27, was killed one month before World War II ended.
More to Come. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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