Before we get started, we want to let you know that this episode is historical fiction.

This means many of the events and places in this story are true, but the main character is

fictional or made up, even though there were many people like them at this time in history.

We hope you enjoy learning about history through these more action-packed and personal stories

we plan to release a couple times each month.

I was just a young girl when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States joined World War

II that was raging in Europe.

It felt like everything had changed overnight.

My older brother James had enlisted to serve our country and as a 16 year old I couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness

I desperately wanted to do something to support the war effort but my mother like many, thought it was not a woman's place to be involved in such matters.

One sunny afternoon, I was walking home from school when I saw a big poster plastered on the side of a building.

It was a woman flexing her muscles, wearing a bandana and rolling up her sleeves.

The words below her read,

We can do it. Join the fight. This was Rosie the Rivator, a character reminding me that

women could help win the war too. I couldn't take my eyes off that poster. It was as if Rosie was speaking to me, telling me that I too could make a difference.

I decided to find out more about what Rosie represented and what I could do to contribute.

That poster was the spark that ignited. and what I could do to contribute.

That poster was the spark that ignited my journey into the world of riveting, which means working

on bomber planes, and with it was

wasn't easy convincing my mother to let me join the workforce.

She was worried about me working in a factory,

a job she considered unfeminent.

...