{"id":11888,"date":"2016-03-23T08:02:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/rosie-the-riveters-honored-with-visit-to-washington\/"},"modified":"2016-03-23T08:02:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:02:48","slug":"rosie-the-riveters-honored-with-visit-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/rosie-the-riveters-honored-with-visit-to-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rosie the Riveters’ honored with visit to Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> Seven decades after their \u201cwe can do it\u201d attitude proved invaluable to the Allied victory in World War II, about 30 \u201cRosie the Riveters\u201d were honored Tuesday with a visit to Washington.<\/p>\n

Wearing honor flight red cardigans, the women \u2014 now in their 80s and 90s \u2014 who had jobs helping the war effort traveled from the Detroit area to the nation\u2019s capital. There, they posed for group photos with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop, had lunch at a Library of Congress building and visited the National World War II Memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have those signs: \u2018We can do it.\u2019 They should say: \u2018We did it,\u2019\u201d said Helen Kushnir of Dearborn, who also said she felt \u201clike queen for the day\u201d after volunteers took a formal photo of her before she boarded the plane.<\/p>\n

As women worked during the war at jobs traditionally done by men, such as churning out bombers at Ford Motor Co.\u2019s Willow Run plant in Michigan, one of them was the inspiration for the Rosie character that came to symbolize female empowerment and the \u201cwe\u2019re-in-this-together\u201d spirit of the American homefront.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou incredible women are such an inspiration,\u201d U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan told the women during the luncheon. \u201cYou opened the doors wider for (women),\u201d Dingell said.<\/p>\n

When the four-bus convoy ferrying the women around town arrived at the WWII Memorial, they were met by throngs of supporters lining their route, drawing cheers and applause.<\/p>\n

Sylvia Tanis of Holland, Michigan, was one of the first ones through, waving to the crowd, grasping people\u2019s hands, posing for snapshots and stopping to embrace a Girl Scout who had come out to greet the women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great. I can\u2019t imagine it being any better,\u201d Virginia Basler of Ypsilanti said while looking out at the memorial.<\/p>\n

The honor flights provide one-day trips for veterans to visit Washington\u2019s monuments and memorials. The Ford Motor Company Fund has sponsored 10 such flights, but Tuesday\u2019s was the first designed specifically for Rosies, said Jim Vella, the fund\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

Mallie Mellon, 96, said she couldn\u2019t sleep Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited thinking about my trip,\u201d said Mellon, who now lives in Belleville, but during the war worked as a riveter making B-29s at a plant in Detroit.<\/p>\n

On the flight, chaperones Lyn Watson and Stephanie Hagaman sat next to each other and realized that Watson\u2019s mother, Beth Fordyce, and Hagaman\u2019s grandmother, Refugio Garza, were sitting next to each other a few rows ahead of them. Fordyce turned 94 on Monday, and Garza turns 97 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

They also learned that each Rosie carries the nickname \u201cCookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both have Cookies in first class,\u201d Hagaman said, laughing.<\/p>\n

When the plane arrived, dozens of flag-waving, sign-toting well-wishers greeted the women. A children\u2019s choir sang patriotic songs and the onlookers cheered as each woman emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is soooo overwhelming!\u201d Tanis exclaimed, while Kushnir cried as she took in the adulation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Seven decades after their \u201cwe can do it\u201d attitude proved invaluable to the Allied victory in World War II, about 30 \u201cRosie the Riveters\u201d were honored Tuesday with a visit to Washington. Wearing honor flight red cardigans, the women \u2014 now in their 80s and 90s \u2014 who had jobs helping the war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":11889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11888"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}