There is a recently published book entitled, "Don't Call Me Rosie,
The Women who Welded the LSTs and the Men who Sailed on Them." A book
order form can be downloaded from the website:
www.thomaswright.com/LSTbookorder.htm The book is also available at
Borders.com and Amazon.com.
In 1941, Winston Churchill realized that if the Allies were to win the
war, a new type of ****p needed to be designed and constructed. A ****p
that could land directly on the beaches of Africa and Europe and
discharge troops and equipment. This ****p became the Landing ****p,
Tank or LST.
But the United States was already at war and there was a shortage of
men in the ****pyards. It was the women that went to the ****pyards and
built the LSTs.
These women were not riveters - they were welders.
These are the stories, remembered 60 years later, of the women welders
who built the LSTs and the men who sailed on them.
The book includes women who worked in the ****pyards in Pittsburgh;
Evansville; Hingham; Jeffersonville; Seneca; Vancouver, WA; and
****tland, OR.
The men's stories include eye witness accounts of Pearl Harbor,
Exercise Tiger, the West Loch tragedy, Leyte, and kamikaze attacks.
There is also a chapter on the Korean War LSTs.
The author, Kathleen Thomas, was inspired to write this book because
her mother and two aunts worked as welders at the Dravo, Neville
Island ****pyard in Pittsburgh.
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