They Called It the War Effort: Oral Histories from World War II Orange, Texas

8. They Got the Job Done: Out in the Yards [Images Included]

8 They Got the Job Done: Out in the Yards “They got it done. They got it done. They really did. Everywhere you looked they was building a ship or building something. Then we got to building those minesweepers, and they were shooting them things out like popcorn. Man, I’m telling you they really built some minesweepers in a hurry. They got the job done. Just stop and think how many ships rolled out of that yard. It really, it really is something .” Raymond Selzer “They got the job done in that shipyard, and they didn’t have to have a lot training because of specialization. . . . They’d build things over and over. Something that would take a week to do it to start with would be done in a couple of days.” Clarence Parkhurst It was a large, swallow-tailed pennant bordered in white. In the center was a white letter “E” set within a yellow wreath of oak and laurel leaves on a vertically divided background of red and blue.“ARMY” was on the red portion and “NAVY” on the blue, both in white letters. To see the American flag flying over war-production factories and plants was not unusual. Patriotism was at its peak and the colors were proudly shown. Not all plants, though, were privileged to fly the Army-Navy E, a flag presented to those select industries that excelled in the production of equipment and materiel for the war effort. It was the gold standard of war production: the “flag of the unflagging.” Overcoming production obstacles, avoiding stoppages, fair labor standards, effective management, and training were criteria of evaluation. Records of accidents, health sanitation, and plant protection were also examined. they called it the war effort 266 In 1943 fewer than 3 percent of all eligible plants had received the award. The “E” had long been a proud military symbol of excellence, and the Army-Navy E became the hallmark award to civilians who performed above reasonable expectation. The banner was presented at ceremonies carefully designed to boost the morale and pride of all involved: employees, management, and community. Bands played, pins were given to individual employees, speeches were made, and everyone watched with satisfaction as the standard was raised. Levingston Shipbuilding Company received the award in August 1942, the first shipyard in Texas to be so recognized. One of the gate guards raised the pennant , “a battle flag awarded for having won an important battle in the war of production.”1 The guard’s daughter, a nurse, had been taken prisoner when the Japanese overran Corregidor earlier in May. Consolidated Steel Corporation was honored a few months later. When destroyer escorts were delivered to Orange from the Northeast for conversion to high-speed transports (APDs) or to be reworked due to faulty workmanship , workers had the opportunity to examine the quality of work being produced by other shipbuilders. This, according to the Office of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, U.S.N., “served to create a pride on the part of Consolidated Steel Corporation’s workers in the work they were turning out.”2 And as far as is known, this office maintained, Consolidated “is the only yard . . . which absolutely completed a destroyer picket ship so that the vessel could be sent immediately to the combatant area without the necessity of going to a Navy Yard.”3 A record was established in May 1944 when Consolidated delivered a ship a day, “thirty-one ships in thirty-one days.”4 For such a small community to have two “E” quality shipyards was, naturally , a source of great pride. After all, in 1941 Levingston had employed only some 250 workers, while the yard for Consolidated was still under construction. In the words of more than one observer, what the shipyards accomplished was rather amazing. Ancient marshland and thousands of unskilled workers were transformed into one of the country’s major shipbuilding centers. “We were good! Honest, we were good.” Vera Hopkins stated it unabashedly, and a majority of workers in all three shipyards would probably have agreed: “If you work here YOU KNOW you’re good.”  267 They Got the Job Done: Out in the Yards tell him about the gambler going to the show boat Theta and Vernon W. Peveto Vernon: I was rice farming, and in ’42 I went to the shipyard. Whenever it got to where you couldn’t hire anybody...