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As America marks the 82nd anniversary of D-Day on Saturday, a group of women whose wartime labor helped sustain the Allied war effort gathered in New Orleans to remember a generation that is rapidly disappearing.
More than 30 surviving “Rosie the Riveters” gathered at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, where they were honored for helping power the wartime industrial effort that supported Allied forces during World War II.
“Every day, memories of World War II — its sights and sounds, its terrors and triumphs — disappear,” according to The National WWII Museum’s site.
The women were recognized during the Museum’s annual Dr. Hal Baumgarten D-Day Commemoration and as recipients of the institution’s 2026 American Spirit Award, the Museum’s highest honor.
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According to the museum, the award recognizes individuals and organizations who “exemplify the outstanding qualities of the American spirit and inspire these values in others.”
This year’s recipients included more than 30 women wartime workers popularly known as “Rosie the Riveters,” acclaimed composer John Williams and former New Orleans Saints player and ALS advocate Steve Gleason.
The gathering came as Americans marked the anniversary of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944.
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According to the Museum, more than 150,000 troops participated in the invasion, one of the largest amphibious military operations in history and a pivotal step toward the liberation of Western Europe.
While the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy are remembered each year, Museum officials said the women on the home front played an essential role in making Allied victory possible.
During World War II, millions of women entered the workforce as labor shortages transformed factories, shipyards and defense industries across the U.S.
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“As men left for military service, labor shortages in defense-related industries created unprecedented opportunities for women, many of whom were entering the workforce for the very first time,” the museum said.
The women learned technical skills including welding, riveting, aircraft assembly and munitions manufacturing while helping produce equipment and supplies needed by Allied forces.
Among those honored was Delphine Klaput, 101, who worked at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft factory in Baltimore during the final years of the war.
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According to NOLA.com, Klaput was entrusted with guarding aircraft blueprints while helping oversee teams building planes destined for the war effort.
The outlet reported that Klaput kept the blueprints close because “there was a war on, after all.”
Klaput told NOLA.com she still remembers walking through the sprawling aircraft factory after growing up in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town and asking herself, “What did I get myself into?”
Francesca Masters, 104, worked on B-24 Liberator bombers at Michigan’s Willow Run plant and told NOLA.com she earned $1 an hour while sending much of her paycheck home to support her family.
Her brother, Salvatore, was later killed in the Battle of the Bulge.
“It was our duty,” Masters told the newspaper.
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Masters said she operated heavy machinery at the bomber plant and felt proud to be doing what had long been considered a man’s job. She recalled the scale of the operation at Willow Run, built by the Ford Motor Company and considered the largest war factory in the world during World War II.
“They truly didn’t think they had done anything special,” Lisa Brown, daughter of Rosie the Riveter Virginia Rusch, told NOLA.com.
Rusch said she always wanted to work and dropped out of school because she wanted to contribute. From 1942 to 1944, she soldered airplane parts on an assembly line, repeating the process day after day as Allied forces battled overseas.
The National WWII Museum said the legacy of the “Rosies” extends far beyond wartime production.
Through their work, the women “reshaped women’s place in American society and continue to inspire women and girls around the world today.”
As the ceremony drew to a close, Klaput reflected on the bond shared by the shrinking number of surviving Rosies.
“No matter where you go, if there’s a ‘Rosie,’ you’re gonna see this,” she said before reaching for the hands of fellow honorees.
Then she repeated the phrase that became synonymous with the women who helped sustain America’s wartime production effort.
“We can do it.”
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