When June Buckley says everybody was together - for the troops and against the enemy, she really means it. Like most Americans, she feared the enemy and the consequences for the Allies should the Axis win World War II. The war, for June Buckley, was also personal. Her husband and her brother were involved in the fighting.
Buckley graduated from high school in Abilene, Texas, where she worked at Camp Barkley as a photographer and receptionist. She remembers dancing with servicemen at USO clubs “because they were all so young, and we wanted to do all we could for the servicemen.” Buckley said, “we also played checkers with the soldiers, and sold war bonds. Not only were we entertaining them, but we were having a good time.”
When her husband Andy went overseas, she moved to Oklahoma to be with her parents. She said it was terrible watching your husband leave. “It was terrible,” she said, “because you didn’t know if they were going to come back. Of course you didn’t think of that, but in the back of your mind it was there.”
She worked at the Air Force Base in Ardmore for a short time, but she heard about a new aircraft assembly plant in Oklahoma City that needed workers, so Buckley went to work at the Douglas Aircraft Plant as a riveter.
“The work was easy,” Buckley said. “You just had to know where to rivet and get those wings on the plane.” The Douglas Aircraft Plant produced thousands of C-47’s and provided maintenance on other aircraft during the war.
Buckley worked in Building 3001, which later became a key part of Tinker Air Force Base. The atmosphere in Oklahoma was good. She remembers many women being pen pals who wrote letters to the servicemen to cheer them up. She says it was an atmosphere of helping each other.
“Everyone pulled together because they cared,” Buckley said. “They were all angry that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and killed our servicemen, so they just wanted to take care of the enemy and our servicemen and win the war as quickly as possible, and bring them home.”
(above) June Buckley, who was chosen in 2002 as “Rosie the Riveter” for the Douglas Aircraft Plant.
(below) After the war, June Buckley earned her private pilot’s license. She wanted to be a commercial pilot, but found that women were not being hired for those positions, so she made her career working at Tinker Air Force Base and for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(June Buckley was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on September 25, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
September 25th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Thanks for the story on Oklahoma’s Rosie the Riveter! I remember the famous poster of Rosie and appreciate her “Can Do” attitude — something Oklahomans are famous for. Thanks OETA for “The War” extras.